Palach was born in[1] and attended elementary school inVšetaty, where he was an avid reader ofJules Verne. He was an average student. His father died when Palach was 13 years old and Palach was raised in part by his grandfather. His brother, Jiří, was 7 years older. In 1963, Palach began studies at agymnasium inMělník. He graduated in 1966 and unsuccessfully applied toCharles University. He then attendedPrague School of Economics but in September 1968, he transferred to the philosophy faculty atCharles University, where he studied history and political economics.[1] In the summer of 1967, Palach worked on achicken farm in theSoviet Union. There, he instigated astrike action with other Czech students, the result of which got their working hours reduced from 10 to 8 per day and catering was improved. On November 7, 1968, he participated in a demonstration for Czech independence.[2]
According toJaroslava Moserová, a burns specialist who was the first to provide care to Palach at the Charles University Faculty Hospital, Palach did not set himself on fire to protest against the Soviet occupation, but did so to protest against the "demoralization" of Czechoslovak citizens caused by the occupation.[3]
Palach's self-immolation was the third act of that kind after those ofRyszard Siwiec in Poland andVasyl Makukh in Ukraine, which were successfully suppressed by the authorities and went mostly forgotten until theRevolutions of 1989. Palach was not known to be aware of Siwiec's and Makukh's protests.
The burning at the stake ofJan Hus in 1415 for his beliefs may have been an inspiration for Palach's self-immolation.[4][5][6]
According to a letter he sent to several public figures, an entire clandestine resistance organization had been established with the purpose of practising self-immolation until their demands were met; however, it seems that such a group never existed.[7] The demands declared in the letter were the abolition of censorship and a halt to the distribution ofZprávy, the official newspaper of the Soviet occupying forces. In addition, the letter called for the Czech and the Slovak peoples to go on ageneral strike in support of these demands.[8] An earlier draft of the letter that Palach wrote also called for the resignation of a number of pro-Soviet politicians,[9] but that demand did not make it into the final version, which included the remark that "our demands are not extreme; on the contrary". Palach died from his burns three days after his act, in the hospital. On his deathbed, he was visited by a female acquaintance from his college and by a student leader, to whom he had addressed one of the copies of his letter. It was reported that he had pleaded for others not to do what he had done but instead to continue the struggle by other means, although it has been doubted whether he really said that.[10]
The funeral of Palach turned into a major protest against the occupation. A month later, on 25 February, another student,Jan Zajíc, burned himself to death in the same place. This was followed in April of the same year byEvžen Plocek inJihlava, and by others. People in otherWarsaw Pact countries emulated his example such as Hungarians Sándor Bauer on 20 January 1969 and Márton Moyses on 13 February 1970.
Palach was initially interred inOlšany Cemetery in Prague. As his gravesite was becoming a national shrine, theStB (Czechoslovak secret police) set out to destroy any memory of Palach's deed and exhumed his remains during the night of 25 October 1973. They then cremated his body and sent the ashes to his mother in his home town ofVšetaty; the body of an anonymous old woman from a rest-home was laid in the vacated grave.[11] Palach's mother was not allowed to deposit the urn in the local cemetery until 1974. On 25 October 1990, Palach's ashes were officially returned to his initial gravesite in Prague.
On the 20th anniversary of Palach's death, between 15 and 21 January 1989, protests in Prague ostensibly in memory of Palach (but intended anticommunist demonstrations) escalated into what would be called "Palach Week". They were suppressed by the police, who beat demonstrators and used water cannons, often catching passers-by in the fray. Palach Week is considered one of the catalyst demonstrations which preceded the fall of communism in Czechoslovakia 10 months later.[12]
After theVelvet Revolution, Palach (along with Zajíc) was commemorated in Prague by a bronze cross embedded at the spot where he fell outside theNational Museum, as well as the naming ofJan Palach Square in his honour. Czech astronomerLuboš Kohoutek, who left Czechoslovakia the following year, named anasteroid,1834 Palach, which was discovered on 22 August 1969 after Palach. There are several other memorials to Palach in cities throughout Europe, including a small memorial inside the glacier tunnels beneath theJungfraujoch in Switzerland.
Severalcopycat suicides may have been influenced by the example of Palach and his media popularity. In the spring of 2003, six young Czechs burned themselves to death, including a 19-year-old student fromHumpolec who burned himself on almost the same spot in front of the National Museum where Palach burnt himself, leaving a suicide note explicitly referring to Palach and the others who killed themselves in 1969.[13]
In their 1983 song "Nuuj Helde" the Janse Bagge Bend (from the Netherlands) asks whether people know why Jan Palach burned. This song was meant to make the general public aware of heroes.
Norwegian songwriter and singerÅge Aleksandersen mentioned Palach's name in his 1984 song "Va det du Jesus".
Norwegian songwriterHans Rotmo mentioned Palach's name among other notable political activists such asVictor Jara andSteve Biko in his 1989 song "Lennon Street".
American metal bandLamb of God wrote a song on their studio albumVII: Sturm und Drang, entitled "Torches", that was inspired by Palach's actions.[14]
Italian songwriterFrancesco Guccini wrote the song "La Primavera di Praga" in dedication to Jan Palach, compared to religious scholarJan Hus: "Once again Jan Hus is burning alive". Polish singerJacek Kaczmarski wrote a song about Palach's suicide, called "Pochodnie" ("Torches"). The Italian far-right folk group "La Compagnia dell'Anello" released a song dedicated to him, titled "Jan Palach".
Luxembourg-based Welsh composer Dafydd Bullock was commissioned to write "Requiem for Jan Palach" (op 182) to commemorate the fortieth anniversary of Palach's suicide. It includes a setting of words which appeared briefly on a statue in Wenceslas Square after the event, before being erased by the authorities: "Do not be indifferent to the day when the light of the future was carried forward by a burning body".[15][16]
Belgian composerFrançois Glorieux wrote "Requiem for Jan Palach" on his "Praha" album.[17]
Spanish composerJorge Grundman wrote his 2018 work "Jan & Jan for Chorus and Symphonic Orchestra (op 68)" as an hommage to Jan Palach andJan Zajic. The work premiered at the SpanishNational Auditorium of Music in 2019 to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of the self-immolation of both students. The chorus sings an adaptation of Palach's letter addressing his family.[18][19]
Israeli musicianArik Einstein sang about the Prague Spring in his 1969 song "Prague", and dedicated a verse to Palach's self-immolation.[20]
In 1969,Slovenian poetEdvard Kocbek published a poem entitled "Rocket", in which he juxtaposed two events from that year: theApollo 11 landing, "a senseless act of technological nihilism", and "a rocket named Palach that launched itself into history, its smoky message was seen even through the darkest glasses".[citation needed]
Jan Palach is named in context in the 1992 poem by Axel Reitel, "Ústí nad Labem" in the bookDas exil und der Sandberg Gedichte 1976–1990 published by Boesche-Verlag Berlin und Haifa, referring a school-holiday near Lake Mácha and entertained about this self-immolation against dictatorship.[21]
Pakistani poet Qazi Zafar Iqbal paid tribute to Jan Palach in the form of a poem in Urdu. The poem is included in his book namedGhurfa-e-Shab (The Window of Night) published in 2006 in the city of Lahore.
A sequence of poems exploring the implications of Palach's death calledOne Match by the poet Sheila Hamilton were published in issue 51 of the Dorset-based poetry serial,Tears in the Fence (ed. David Caddy) in 2010.
Czech poet Miroslav Holub wrote a poem entitled the "Prague of Jan Palach" (1969) in memory of the martyr. A line from the poem translated into English by George Theiner reads, "where Man ends/ the flame begins."[23]
In the Soviet Union, poet Vsevolod Nekrasov dedicated a poem to Palach.
French documentary filmmakerRaymond Depardon directed a 1969 film about Jan Palach.
Palach featured in a monologue radio play entitledTorch No 1 onBBC Radio 4, directed by Martin Jenkins, and written byDavid Pownall. Palach was played by Karl Davies.[24]
The three-part 2013 Czech-Polish television showBurning Bush, directed byAgnieszka Holland, is situated around the events that happened after Jan Palach's self-immolation.[25]
The 2018 filmJan Palach, directed by Robert Sedláček, chronicles Palach's life before his self-immolation. Palach is played by Viktor Zavadil.
After seeking political asylum in the United States, Polish artistWiktor Szostalo commemorated Jan Palach in hisPerformance for Freedom proclaiming "I am Jan Palach. I'm a Czech, I'm a Pole, aLithuanian, aVietnamese, anAfghani, a betrayed You. After I've burnt myself a thousand times, perhaps we'll win".[26]
On January 19, 2009, the 40th anniversary of the death of Jan Palach, a statue sculpted byAndrás Beck was installed inMělník, the city where Jan Palach did his studies.[27]
In the Czech Republic, many towns have streets or squares named after Palach, includingJan Palach Square in central Prague. He also had streets named after him inLuxembourg City (Luxembourg),Angers andParthenay (France),Kraków (Poland),Assen,The Hague andHaarlem (Netherlands),Varna (Bulgaria) andNantwich (United Kingdom). InRome andMilan (Italy), there is a central square named after Palach with a commemorative statue. Even on the remote island of the Republic of Mauritius in the Indian ocean, there is a bus station situated in the central city of Curepipe named after him.
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