Jan Palach was born on 11 August 1948 in Všetaty near Mělník, and as a student of the Faculty of Arts he set himself on fire in protest on 16 January 1969 in Prague, on Wenceslas Square. [1][2]
Childhood and school
He grew up in Všetaty, a small town about fifty kilometres north of Prague. He was born in a private sanatorium. [1] From the mid-1930s the family ran a confectionery workshop with a shop, but at the beginning of the 1950s it had to close it, like most tradespeople. [1] His father died in 1962, so his mother stayed at home with Jan alone, since his older brother was already an adult. [1]
An assessment by the management of the primary school in Všetaty dated 3 March 1969 states that he was quiet, thoughtful and well read, and that from the lowest grades he was interested in nature, technology and history. [1] According to the recollections of his history teacher, he liked to play chess, read adventure and historical novels, did sport and ran in the surroundings of the town. [1] In September 1963 he entered the grammar school in Mělník, which was then called the general secondary education school. According to the recollections of his teachers he was rather an average pupil, and did best in history, geography, biology and civics. He sat the school-leaving examination in June 1966. [1]
The protest of 16 January 1969
The course of the act can be reconstructed from witness statements preserved in the investigation file of the Veřejná bezpečnost. [2] The surroundings then differed from their present state: the National Museum building was connected with Wenceslas Square and the expressway did not yet separate them. Tram lines ran across the square and one of the stops stood next to the statue of Saint Wenceslas. [2]
At the railing of the fountain Palach took off his coat, poured petrol over himself and set himself alight. He then jumped over the railing and ran between the parked cars to the Saint Wenceslas monument, where a passing tram nearly hit him. He turned towards the Dům potravin, fell onto the roadway, and passers-by who happened to be there smothered the flames with their coats. [2] At his instruction the bystanders opened the briefcase that he had left by the fountain and read the letter in it. After a few minutes an ambulance of the Ministry of the Interior, which was passing by, stopped. [2]
Transport to hospital
Palach was still conscious. The ambulance first took him to the hospital on Charles Square, where he was not admitted, and then to Legerova Street, to the plastic surgery clinic of Fakultní nemocnice na Vinohradech, where a department for the treatment of burns also operated. He was admitted there at 14:45. [2] He stressed to the nurses that he was not a suicide and that his act was a protest, similar to the acts of Buddhists in Vietnam. [2]
Investigation at the scene
A large crowd gathered at the scene, and firefighters and investigators of the Veřejná bezpečnost arrived; the latter questioned the first witnesses and took photographs. At the fountain they found seven shards of a small bottle and a charred plastic container. [2] They also found two A4 sheets of paper with an inscription saying that a twenty-year-old student had set himself on fire here, which probably came from a witness. [2] Members of the Veřejná bezpečnost seized Palach's personal belongings, including the letter in which he explained his act. On the basis of it the investigators decided to open criminal proceedings for participation in a suicide. [2] Only two hours after the act, the Czechoslovak News Agency issued a short report on the self-immolation of a student of the Faculty of Arts, in which Palach was given by initials only. [2]