50 years ago, the Student Jan Palach with gasoline set himself on fire in Prague. It was an Outcry against the indifference to the brutal suppression of the Prague spring. The fact is, to this day.
The 20-year-old Student of Charles University in Prague, Jan Palach self-dubbed “torch number one”. He announced, more comrades-in-arms would light up, should not be satisfied his demands.
“He has not protested against the Invasion of Czechoslovakia and the occupation of his country by the Red army, as he was repeatedly attributed to and still is”, says the Slovak author and Journalist Martin Milan Šimečka in an interview with Deutsche Welle. “Palach protested against the apathy of the people, who adapted themselves rapidly to the new reality.”
Protest against occupation and censorship
Desperate: The Student Jan Palach burned himself
Historian Łukasz Kamiński of the University of Breslau (Wrocław), sees it differently. “His self-immolation was not a Protest,” says Kamiński, explores the history of Central Europe during the communism. “With his cruel death, Palach wanted to encourage the Czechs and the Slovaks, to the crew. He wanted to move,” says Šimečka.
He moved them. Some began a Hunger protest, others went out on the street. As long as he lived, they claimed loudly what he asked for in his farewell letters: the dissolution of the censorship and the closure of the propaganda sheet of the Soviet occupiers “Zprávy”.
Grief and Protest: more Than 200,000 people accompanied Palach on his last way to the Prague cemetery
Three days after his death, they came to the Karolinum, the historical seat of the rector of Charles University -to pay homage to his coffin. 200,000 people led him through the town to the cemetery in the district of Wolschan (Olšany).
The “Palach Week”
Jan Palach’s demands were not fulfilled. The rulers in Prague abolished the censorship, and even the Soviet occupiers did not give up their propaganda sheet. The Czechs and the Slovaks were in a kind of “normalization lethargy”.
Only after 20 years, she woke up. Actually not you, but the next Generation: “Czech children”. As an anarchist, called himself-monarchist Initiative that called for this Protest.
As Palach died, they were still small children. But for 20 years they remembered his political struggle. On Sunday, the 15. In January 1989, they appeared on Wenceslas square in Prague. They came on the eve of the anniversary of his fact, to honor him. Then they came again and again, for a whole week, which became known as “Palach week” in the story.
“Velvet Revolution”: a large demonstration on Wenceslas square on October 27. November 1989
“It showed how strong Palach is in the Czech consciousness of a presence,” says Šimečka. That was the beginning of the end of communism in Czechoslovakia, although it was at that time hardly anyone knew. His violent agony began on 17. November, when Prague’s students showed no fear of the police officers who stood in their peaceful protest March. Before the year came to an end, was broken, the political System and the former number one enemy of the regime, Václav Havel, became the President of the Republic.
“Palach is today one of the most famous personalities of Czech history,” says Łukasz Kamiński. “It also represents a point of reference to today’s reality. It is no coincidence that a large Demonstration on Wenceslas square against the currently Ruling for the 16. January.”