|
|
 | |
Jan Palach
- was born August 11, 1948. His parents, Josef and Libuse Palach,
worked in their own sweets shop and business; later, when their business was
seized as a result of the Communist takeover in 1948, his father made his
living as an ordinary factory worker while his mother worked in a shop. Jan
was their second son, their first son, Jiri, was born seven years earlier.
The family were declared evangelicals.
Jan Palach spent his childhood and youth in Vsetaty, where he also attended
elementary school. When Jan was thirteen his father died. It was hard on the
boy, as Josef Palach was very much the devoted father to his sons.
In 1963, Palach took the school entrance examinations and was accepted at
the gymnazium (preparatory high school for university) in Melnik. There his
interests began to take shape. His favorite subject became history. He also
tended toward other departments in the humanities - from childhood he'd been
an avid reader.
For this reason, when he graduated secondary school in 1966, he entered the
Faculty of Philosophy at Prague's Charles University. Though he met the demands
of the interviews, he wasn't accepted due to the large number of applicants.
So instead he began his studies at the Prague School of Economics, where he
completed four semesters.
While there he also experienced the social movement of 1968. The process was
enthusiastically supported by a majority of the school's students, and Palach
was doubtless among them. Over his two summer breaks he traveled abroad both
times. With his student work brigade he visited the Soviet Union, and he went
to France to work on his own.
In the dramatic fall of 1968, Jan Palach had a personal reason for happiness:
he managed to transfer into the history-political economics department of
Charles University. There he took part actively in the November strikes against
the occupation.
During his studies in Prague, Palach visited his mother regularly in Vsetaty.
Naturally he came home for the emotional time of Christmas and the New Year. He
returned to Prague during the first days of January. He returned to his normal
daily routine, filled with school responsibilities and consulting on his
seminar work. On January 15 he attended his uncle's funeral in Libis, not far
from Vsetaty.
On January 16 he took the morning train to Prague. At the dormitory he wrote
his last letter, intended for publication. One copy he put in a briefcase, and
three others he addressed to the Writers' Union, Lubos Holecek - an activist
in the student movement, and Ladislav Zizka, a friend from the economics
school, to whom he also included his personal greetings.
At around four o'clock he stood at the ramp of the National Museum, at the top
of Wenceslas Square, poured gasoline over himself and lit himself on fire.
He ran burning across the intersection toward a grocery store, and fell by the
road. A transport worker threw his coat over him. According to witnesses,
Palach was still conscious.
He was taken by ambulance to the department for burn victims on Legerova
Street. Eighty-five percent of his body was covered with serious burns, the
majority of them third-degree. He lived another three days and died on January
19, 1969.
His funeral took place on January 25 in Prague. It was a grave and silently
expressed universal dissent with the occupation of the country.
Back to main
|
|
|
|
