Key Action 2 Nr. 2016-1-CZ01-KA219-023883 This project has been funded with support from the European Commission. “This publication [communication] reflects the views only of the author, and the European Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein."

Jan Palach Klára, Klára, Alex, Bára

Jan Palach was a Czech student of history and political economy at Charles University in Prague. He sacrificed his life as a political protest against the end of the Prague Spring resulting from the 1968 invasion of Czechoslovakia by the Warsaw Pact armies.

He participated in a lot of protests against occupancy, including the Student strike in November 1968. But because he couldn't see any progress he decided for the more radical act of demonstration that would wake up the society from resignation.

On Thursday, January 16, 1969, at about 13:30 on Wenceslas Square in Prague, he poured himself with flammable substance and lit himself on fire. Burning, he ran across the junction from the fountain beneath the museum to Washington Street, where a Trafficker tried to stop the fire with his coat. With extensive burns, he was taken to the Burns Clinic.

His nurse made a tape of the conversation in which Palach was speaking about the cause of his act. In the record he mentions the passivity of the people, he speaks against the dissemination of the "Journal" - a journal issued by the Soviet occupiers and calls for a general strike. The conversation shows that he was under medication and had a lot of pain. He did not call his act suicide but an act.

„To Jan Palach We know, that you protested against our violation „To Jan Palach We know, that you protested against our violation. It is no longer necessary to give ourselves up without any resistence. It is necessary to defend ourselves!“

Memorial Memorial to Jan Palach & Jan Zajíc, men who burned himself to death to protest the Soviet invasion in 1968