Anniversary of Jan Palach’s Death ****************************************************************************************** * Anniversary of Jan Palach’s Death ****************************************************************************************** January 2017 commemorates the 48th anniversary of Charles University student, Jan Palach, on fire in protest against events in the former Czechoslovakia in 1968. As each year, Char has prepared a few commemoration events for the occasion – placing them on a symbolic site Square, the address of the Faculty of Arts where Palach studied and the place in which his is displayed. Palach, only 20-years-old and with little history of political activism, chose to pay the through the means of self-immolation in Wenceslas Square on 16th January 1969 in response Warsaw Pact tanks arriving to end the Prague Spring of 1968. This radical act, not specifically aimed at the Kremlin but as a response to the beaten-do an enormous reaction throughout Prague and abroad, with Palach’s name being recognised glo sacrifice. The Faculty of Arts student, who referred to himself as “Torch No.1” in his final letters, censorship should be abolished and promoted free speech, something that still flows throug Charles University today. He wrote in his final letters that if his demands were not met, start an ongoing strike, and the street gatherings and remembrance marches following his d how moving his act was. Although Jan Palach’s choice of sacrifice was one of the most prominent in modern history, the first, nor the last person using self-immolation as a form of protest. Palach’s act wa Buddhist monks protesting during the Vietnam war. Thich Quang Duc, demonstrating against t Buddhist flag in 1963, burned himself to death at a busy intersection in Saigon to show th needed to stand up to inequality. In February 1969, another Czechoslovak student Jan Zajíc to himself as “Torch No.2”, set himself on fire in one of the houses on Wenceslas Square. after Jan Palach’s death. The date of his act was carefully selected – it was the day of t anniversary of the Communist takeover in Czechoslovakia, 25th February. Those of you studying in the Faculty of Arts are probably familiar with the memorial plaqu of Arts main building, but there are many other memorials throughout the Czech Republic to Palach. For example, there is a memorial in the upper part of Wenceslas Square where his a (Palach did not die there, however; the place of his death being a close-by hospital), and two torches was created in January 2016 at Staroměstská metro station, just next to the ri towns have also named their streets or squares in memory of Palach. Should you like to learn more about Jan Palach, you may visit the exhibition on history of University in Karolinum. Amongst others, it also contains 20th century exhibits relating t just how important his beliefs and ideals were and remain to the University itself. Anothe the multilingual website Jan Palach (http://www.janpalach.cz/en/). Sincere, selfless and strong; Jan Palach showed all these qualities, and his protest for t former Czechoslovakia will be forever cherished. Jessica Miles attends De Montfort University studying History and Journalism, and particul