Remembering Jan Palach ****************************************************************************************** * ****************************************************************************************** By Jan Velinger This August 11, Jan Palach would have been 70 years old. A student at Charles University in January 1969, 20-year-old Palach doused himself in gaso himself alight at the top of Prague’s Wenceslas Square. He took the drastic decision to la as a form of protest – five months after Soviet tanks had rolled into Czechoslovakia. The reason, he explained in a letter, was to rouse his fellow citizens from apathy and res following the occupation; after the crushing of the Prague Spring, many saw little hope an forward. Petr Blažek, an historian at the country’s Institute for the Study of Totalitarian Regimes country’s foremost experts on Jan Palach’s life and legacy. “It is said that when an historic event is still remembered or marked 50 years on, by a ge didn’t experience it directly, it has become an integral part of society. I think this hap of Jan Palach. “Certainly you have to view his act in the context of what happened: the largest movement WWII, the fate of Czechoslovakia in the invasion, the world headlines, the morass in which left in following the failure of a type of socialism which at least some people here belie socialism which had no counterpart elsewhere: not in Hungary in 1956, not in Poland in the Palach’s self-immolation shook the country to the core and the result was tangible: thousa funeral in a demonstration of opposition to the regime. Through his deed, Palach became a courage in the face of tyranny. In the so-called Normalisation period that followed, the communist regime soon turned to u efforts to try and lessen his impact and to erase memories of his deed. Members of the StB Czechoslovakia’s secret police, infamously exhumed Palach’s remains from Olšany cemetery i night in 1973. But attempts at wiping him from the historical record, as well as the collective memory, f remained a hero for many. Palach considered other forms of protest Interestingly, historian Petr Blažek says many new details have emerged since about Palach convictions, showing how the idea of protesting against the occupation crystalized and mat it is revealing that Palach considered other forms of protest before taking the decision h “We recently completed a new study of his childhood and changes in his political convictio other forms of protest. “Two people he knew at the time remembered he had had a Browning pistol that had belonged father, which he had found in the attic. He brought it to Prague in August 1968 and told a considering shooting a Soviet soldier.” According to the historian, Palach considered such a scenario on at least one other occasi in a second friend about his plans: both times he was dissuaded by his friends from taking grounds it would end badly (with shooting into a crowd). Taking over Czechoslovak Radio Equally fascinating is a single document that the historian uncovered a decade ago which h completely unnoticed, presumably because it was buried among thousands of pages and never corroborated in any other surviving material. The document shows that Jan Palach considered the idea of a takeover of Czechoslovak Radio that if outsiders could get in, then calls for a general strike could have been illegally Blažek: “I have no idea why no one ever really noticed this document. It was written on the same k Palach’s final letters and was addressed to Lubomír Holeček, a well-known student leader. “In it, Palach suggested that the radio building at Vinohrady could be taken over for call This was after Smrkovský was forced from the Federal Assembly, so the mood was dark. Palac Holeček the letter, with a note to disregard it, if the idea seemed too crazy. The documen in the StB archive. “Of course, you couldn’t take over the radio station with your bare hands, which brings us Browning. But in the end, Palach left the gun with his brother. His mum, who was terrified be charged with terrorism, got rid of it.” Even as a child, Palach wanted to "do something" for his country Long overlooked was that Palach, who was well-read and interested in history since childho interested in weaponry and the history of war. And testimony suggests Palach even as a chi destined for something greater. Petr Blažek once more: “One of his childhood classmates said that when they were boys Palach told him he wanted t for his country. It seems much more logical to me now that Palach considered different opt ultimately he was someone who was sensitive, who didn’t want to hurt or commit a wrong aga spread violence. In the end, he chose only to harm only himself. “Everything points to an altruistic young man who decided to act in a very shocking manner shocking decision that can be difficult to understand, not least when viewed outside the c invasion of August 1968.” In recent years, projects such as the HBO hit-series Burning Bush have brought Palach’s st audiences around the world; on the domestic scene, plans for a permanent museum at his hom east of Prague, have been greenlighted, to ensure his legacy and deed are not forgotten. If you would like to learn more, visit www.janpalach.cz; you will find a trove of archive material in eight languages here [ URL "http://www.janpalach.cz/"] .