Special Memories of Jan Palach
It was just at this time of year, 37 years ago, that an unknown 20-year-old Czech student overnight became a focus and symbol of the nation. His name was Jan Palach, and at the top of Prague's Wenceslas Square, just below the National Museum, you can find a small memorial to him. On 16th January 1969, Jan Palach dowsed himself in petrol and set himself alight on the square. It was a desperate attempt to reverse the gradual process of demoralization that set in when Soviet-led troops crushed the reforms of the Prague Spring, five months earlier. Three days later Jan Palach died in a Prague burns clinic; tens of thousands attended his funeral and his name became a symbol around the world of the Czechoslovak tragedy.
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