Today is the anniversary of the death of Jan Palach. I have written about the young student in the past in this post https://czechproperty.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/jan-palach.html In protest at the Soviet invasion in 1968 Jan Palach set himself on fire in Wenceslas Square and died three days later.
I wasn't going to post about him this year. But as I was going through the boxes of photos hiding under our bed, I came across a set of photos of my first visit to Prague and the Czech Republic and among them was this photograph. It was the Easter following the Velvet Revolution and the grief that had been suppressed during the Communist Era was at last allowed expression. The site of Palach's tragic protest had become a makeshift shrine, the most prominent of many scattered across the city. I was incredibly moved by it and still am.
No comments:
Post a Comment