Word: palach
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...anniversary itself began calmly. In peaceful protest, all but a few Czechoslovaks refused to ride the public transport, and boycotted shops and restaurants. In Prague, more than 300 bouquets were piled on the grave of Jan Palach, the 21-year-old student who last January burned himself to death in a protest against the continued Soviet occupation. At noon, to the cacophony of auto horns and factory whistles, traffic braked to a halt and many of the 50,000 people who jammed Wenceslas Square raised their fingers in the victory sign. In a show of defiance, Czechoslovakia stood still...
...Palach reportedly made a deathbed plea to "let no one else do it." His companions in the protest death pact apparently thought better of their vow-or at least about the method. In Prague, a pretty 18-year-old coed named Blanka Nachazelova died with her head in a gas oven. She left behind a note saying that she should have been Torch No. 2 but had chosen to use gas out of fear of the pain. The Czechoslovak Interior Ministry insisted that she had been forced to kill herself by unspecified other parties...
...bizarre and frightful contagion, no fewer than ten other young men, six inside Czechoslovakia and four elsewhere in Europe, set themselves ablaze in eight days following Palach's suicide. They included a 23-year-old Brno locksmith who burned himself in front of a memorial to Palach; a 24-year-old Czechoslovak serving time for robbery; and a 35-year-old Austrian dairy worker who had just been dismissed from his job. None apparently acted from political motives, and several had previous records of suicide attempts. Local authorities could only speculate that they thought they could somehow achieve Palach...
...week's end half a million Czechoslovaks filled the streets of Prague as a huge funeral procession followed Palach's grey oak coffin from a statue of Jan Hus in a courtyard of the university. It was accompanied by four truckloads of flowers; a band sent the mournful strains of funeral dirges across the city, fearing violence at what had turned into a national hero's funeral, the government stage-managed most of the arrangements and issued a volley of pleas for calm. They proved unnecessary; partly out of respect, and partly perhaps because the nation...
Honor Guard. Thousands of mourners waited up to three hours to pass Palach's body as he lay in state at Charles University under a blanket of flowers. Seven university deans and rectors, dressed in their medieval robes, formed an honor guard around the coffin, and sympathizers throughout Prague pinned crape-trimmed miniature flags on their clothes...