Minister of Culture of the Czech Republic Daniel Herman

The exhibition is telling the story about the life and legacy of Jan Palach who was a history student at the Charles University and who set himself on fire as a protest to Soviet invasion on 16th of January in 1969 and died some days later. The main reason for his radical act was really the growing apathy in the society regarding the occupation of Czechoslovakia. His funeral was the last mass manifest in support of the national ideals and only the protests for the occasion of the 20th anniversary of his self-sacrifice gave the society new spark of hope and led the way to the collapse of the totalitarian regime.

The second part of the exhibition shows the projects of the architectural competition announced for the memorial of Jan Palach in his home town Všetaty, the winner MCA atelier s.r.o. and other projects that got mentioned by the jury of the competition.

The exhibition was prepared by the National Museum of the Czech Republic, authors: Petr Blažek, Patrik Eichler, Jakub Jareš, Marek Junek.

The exhibition is open at the Museum of Occupations (Toompea 8, Tallinn) till 3 October 2016.