Jan Palach

This article is about a person. For the sword, see backsword.

Jan Palach (August 11, 1948 – January 19, 1969) was a Czech student who committed suicide by self-immolation as a political protest.

Contents

Death

The Soviet-led invasion of Czechoslovakia in August 1968 was designed to crush the liberalising reforms of Alexander Dubček's government during the Prague Spring. Palach died after setting himself on fire in Wenceslas Square in Prague, Czechoslovakia on 16 January 1969 in protest. He was the first of a group of students to sign a suicide pact, but most of the others did not go through with their part, after the well-publicised pleas Palach made on his deathbed about the degree of pain they faced.

The memorial to Jan Palach and Jan Zajíc in front of the National Museum

The funeral of Palach turned into a major protest against the occupation, and a month later (on February 25, 1969) another student, Jan Zajíc, burned himself to death in the same place, followed in April of the same year by Evžen Plocek in Jihlava.

Posthumous recognition

Memorial plaque with Jan Palach's death mask taken by Olbram Zoubek

Palach was initially interred in Olšany Cemetery. As his gravesite was growing into a national shrine, the Czechoslovak secret police (StB) set out to destroy any memory of Palach's deed and exhumed his remains on the night of October 25, 1973. His body was then cremated and sent to his mother in Palach's native town of Všetaty while an anonymous old woman from a rest home was laid in the grave.[1] Palach's mother was not allowed to deposit the urn in the local cemetery until 1974. On October 25, 1990 the urn was officially returned to its initial site in Prague.

The so-called "Palach Week" took place on the 20th anniversary of Palach's death. It was a series of anticommunist demonstrations in Prague between 15 and 21 January 1989, suppressed by the police, which preceded the fall of communism in Czechoslovakia 11 months later.

After the Velvet Revolution, Palach (along with Zajíc) was commemorated in Prague by a bronze cross embedded at the spot where he fell outside the National Museum, as well as a square named in his honour. The Czech astronomer Luboš Kohoutek, who left Czechoslovakia the following year, named an asteroid which had been discovered on August 22, 1969, after Jan Palach (1834 Palach). There are several other memorials to Palach in cities throughout Europe, including a small memorial inside the glacier tunnels beneath the Jungfraujoch in Switzerland.

Several later incidents of self-immolation may have been influenced by the example of Palach and his media popularity. In the spring of 2003, a total of six young Czechs burned themselves to death, notably the secondary school student Zdeněk Adamec. He burned himself on 6 March 2003 on almost the same spot in front of the National Museum, leaving a suicide note explicitly referring to Palach and the others who had committed suicide in 1969.

Just walking distance from the site of Palach's self-immolation, a statuary in Prague's Old Town Square honors iconic Bohemian religious thinker Jan Hus, who was burned at the stake for his beliefs in 1415. Himself celebrated as a national hero for many centuries, much commentary has linked Palach's self-immolation to the Roman Catholic Church's burning of Hus.[2][3][4]

References in the arts

The music video for the song "Club Foot" by the band Kasabian is dedicated to Palach.

The composition "The Funeral of Jan Palach" performed by The Zippo Band and composed by Phil Kline is apparently a tribute to the man.

Palach is mentioned in The Stranglers' bassist, Jean-Jacques Burnel's solo album of 1979, Euroman Cometh. In the track "Euromess", a song about the liberalization of Czechoslovakia in the 1960s and then its subsequent normalization, Burnel pleads: "Don't forget young Jan Palach, he burnt a torch against the Warsaw pact".

In their song "Nuuj Helde" the Janse Bagge Bend (from the Netherlands) asks if people know why Jan Palach burned.

Palach was mentioned in the play Wenceslas Square by Larry Shue.

After seeking political asylum in the United States, Polish artist Wiktor Szostalo commemorated Jan Palach in his "Performance for Freedom" proclaiming "I am Jan Palach. I'm a Czech, I'm a Pole, a Lithuanian, a Vietnamese, an Afghani, a betrayed You. After I've burnt myself a thousand times, perhaps we'll win".[5]

On the occasion of the 40th anniversary of the death of Jan Palach, a statue sculpted by Andras Beck as a tribute to the student will be transported from France to the Czech Republic. The statue will be installed in Mělník, the city were Jan Palach did his studies.[6]

Italian songwriter Francesco Guccini wrote song "La Primavera di Praga"" in dedication to Jan Palach, compared to religious scholar Jan Hus: "Once again Jan Hus is burning alive" goes the lyrics [1]

Polish singer Jacek Kaczmarski wrote a song about Palach's suicide, called "Pochodnie" ("Torches").

The Luxembourg-based Welsh composer Dafydd Bullock was commissioned to write "Requiem for Jan Palach" (op 182) to commemorate the fortieth anniversary of Palach's suicide. It includes a setting of words which appeared briefly on a statue in Wenceslas Square after the event, before being erased by the authorities: "Do not be indifferent to the day when the light of the future was carried forward by a burning body". [2]

Place Names

Jan Palach Square in central Prague reflects the continuing relevance of Palach's sacrifice to the Czech national identity.

The oldest rock club in Croatia is named Palach. It's situated in Rijeka since 1969 to this day.

There is a bus station in the town of Curepipe (Mauritius) named after Jan Palach.

A student hall in Venice (Italy) on the Giudecca island has also been given the name of Jan Palach

See also

References

  1. ↑ IForum - Nejvyšší oběť Jana Palacha 7
  2. ↑ The significance of Jan Hus for Czech history
  3. ↑ Interpreting Václav Havel, by Walter H. Capps
  4. ↑ Palach memorial pages
  5. ↑ Wiktor Szostalo - Performance
  6. ↑ Information provided by the French Embassy in Prague and the City of Mělník.

External links