Jan Palach
Jan Palach
The Charles University student who set himself on fire against the Soviet occupation
On his deathbed, Palach told doctors and fellow students: 'My deed has fulfilled its goal.' He urged others never to repeat his act but to fight alive.
On 16 January 1969, five months into the Warsaw Pact occupation, Charles University student Jan Palach set himself on fire on Wenceslas Square to rouse Czechoslovak society from growing resignation. His letter demanded abolition of censorship and a ban on Zprávy, the Soviet occupation newspaper, and he signed it 'Torch Number One'; he died of his burns three days later. His funeral drew 200,000 people, the last mass expression of the reform spirit before normalization, and twenty years later, the protests marking his death helped ignite the Velvet Revolution.
Career timeline
- 1948Born in Prague, raised in Všetaty
- 1963–1966Gymnasium in Mělník
- 1966–1968Prague School of Economics
- 1968.09Transferred to the philosophy faculty, Charles University
- 1968.11Participated in the student strike
- 1969.01.16Self-immolation on Wenceslas Square
- 1969.01.19Died at 20