Pictures by:Daniel Campos Putterman(Prague 09)
The memorial of Jan Palach and Jan Zajíc in front of the National Museum. They both died after setting themselves on fire in protest of the Soviet occupation. The Soviet-led invasion of Czechoslovakia in August 1968 was designed to crush the liberalizing reforms of Alexander Dubcek’s government during the Prague Spring. Palach died after setting himself on fire in Wenceslas Square in Prague, Czechoslovakia on 16 January 1969 in protest. He was the first of a group of students to sign a suicide pact, but most of the others did not go through with their part, after the well-publicized pleas Palach made on his deathbed about the degree of pain they faced. The funeral of Palach turned into a major protest against the occupation, and a month later (on February 25, 1969) another student, Jan Zajíc, burned himself to death in the same place, followed in April of the same year by Even Plocek in Jihlava.
