Current Affairs Young Czechs remember Jan Palach
Every year in the middle of January we remember Jan Palach. On 16th January 1969, five months after the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia, he dowsed himself with petrol and set himself alight on Prague's Wenceslas Square. In a letter he wrote that he wanted to awaken his fellow citizens from apathy and resignation following the invasion. Three days later he died, and his funeral was attended by tens of thousands of people, a demonstration for freedom and democracy that the invasion had crushed. The 20-year old from the grey little town of Vsetaty just north of Prague became an international symbol of the tragedy of Czechoslovakia. But does his sacrifice still mean something to today's young Czechs? Pupils and staff from a secondary school named after Jan Palach in Prague were among those attending a commemoration ceremony in Vsetaty on Saturday. David Vaughan's report starts with the headmaster of the Jan Palach School, Michal Musil.
Jan Palach
Back
