Current Affairs A small crowd gathers to remember Jan Palach's sacrifice
Last weekend was the 36th anniversary of one of the most tragic events associated with the Soviet occupation of Czechoslovakia in 1968. On 16th January 1969, a twenty-year-old student Jan Palach doused himself with petrol and set himself alight on Prague's Wenceslas Square. It was a desperate protest against the invasion and growing public apathy in the face of the process known as "normalization", as the hardliners gradually regained control. Jan Palach died from his burns three days later, and around the world his sacrifice became one of the most potent symbols of the time. David Vaughan attended a ceremony on Saturday at Jan Palach's grave.
Photo: CTK
A school choir sang as around fifty people of four different generations
gathered round Jan Palach's grave in Prague's Olsany Cemetery. One of the
youngest was Jiri Houslar, who was singing in the choir. I asked him why
he felt Jan Palach's sacrifice should be remembered.
"I think it is very important because it can happen any time that there won't be freedom, and people have to do something with that."
He was a very young person, like yourself. Do you think that kind of sacrifice is an example? Some people would say that it was in vain.
"Maybe it was, but everyone saw that he really meant it, when he did such a thing."
To this day people are divided over the wisdom of suicide in the cause of freedom, but what remains undisputed is that ever since Palach's self-sacrifice, he has been a rallying point in the cause of freedom in this country, not least in 1989, when the twentieth anniversary of his death was one of the catalysts for protests that eventually culminated in the fall of communism.
But over fifteen years later, the memory of Jan Palach is gradually fading.
"I'm a little afraid that the freedom we've won has made us doubt whether or not it's wise to think back again and again to the past. Some say we should let the past lie. But I don't think this is true. We should always look back, as we need to be awake to the danger of history repeating itself."
Jan Palach
That was Milan Kiska, one of those attending the ceremony.
Immediately after his death Jan Palach's grave became a place of remembrance and protest, and was always surrounded by hundreds of candles. This proved too much for the communist authorities, as the main organizer Saturday's event, Jaroslava Cajova remembers,
"For twenty years people would light candles here, even though in 1973, the grave was removed, and Jan Palach's remains were cremated, without the authorities even bothering to consult with his family, and put in his family grave in the town of Vsetaty."
To light a candle at the original site of the grave became an act of political defiance. After the fall of communism, Jan Palach's brother, Jiri, agreed that his ashes should be returned to Prague. To this day there are always candles and flowers by the grave, which is just to the right of the main gate to Olsany Cemetery.
