Sunday, 1/19 1969 Bratislava
Today, at 3:30 p.m. the student Jan Palach died.
ln spite of all the dedicated efforts of the medical and the nursing staff...
his organism succumbed to the third-degree burns...
covering 85 percent of his body.
The patient passed away calmly.
The Slovak Film lnstitute presents
THE WAKE
A film by
With contributions from
Monday, 1/20 1969 Prague
l don't like to walk in the crowd, when l'm feeling sad.
Because l'm afraid l'll meet someone...
who doesn't feel sad...
or is just pretending.
As for cheerfulnes, that is something l haven't felt for a long time...
a couple of years, l think.
l have climbed a lot of high mountains myself, ...
metaphorically and literally.
And l know that the way which seems to be the shortest, straightest one,
might lead to the abyss.
To reach your goal you must often...
choose a longer path, with some detours.
Monday, 1/20 1969 Bratislava
We've decided to go on hunger-strike to honour the memory of Jan Palach.
ln this way l want to protest against the current course of action.
l don't consider burning yourself alive to be the best form of protest.
Facing our political reality may become so hard, so confusing.
That made this young man resort to such a desperate act.
We have to think about the political reality and force it...
to take us into consideration, react to our way of thinking.
Jan Palach didn't want us to grieve over his tragic death,
but to jolt us all into action.
So our first protest action is this hunger-strike.
Tuesday, 1l21 1969 Prague
We need no more victims, there's no point in going on this way.
lt would only weaken the impact of Palach's act.
We have to find a new way which, ...
in case of the relapse of public apathy, ...
would wake people up again and make them ask for what they want.
Tuesday, 1l21 1969 Bratislava
A man's grief is the state of his mind.
The nation's grief shows the very state of its mind too.
lt cannot be measured.
You cannot examine its positive or negative impact on society...
or politics, which is usually short-lived.
You can only respect it.
And those who can't should, at least, remain silent...
and quietly leave the great national commemoration.
They'd better not disturb it, and by no means administer it.
''As our nations have found themselves on the verge of despair...''
This is how Jan Palach's letter begins - his last will.
But we have already been told the official standpoint:
''He acted in contradiction with the moral principles of our nations.''
That is not true. The moral principles of the Czech and Slovak nations
are those according to which Jan Palach lived...
and died for, of his own free will.
He changed himself into a luminous torch...
not only because he could not live a free life within these principles...
but mainly to remind us all...
that the moral principles of a free man or a free nation...
cannot ever be replaced by so-called moral principles...
unworthy of a free man or a free nation.
l've seen memorial tablets of those who gave their lives for freedom, reading:
''They died so we could live.''
But Jan Palach didn't die so that we could just live...
he wanted us to wake up from the way we live.
l remember quite a wise, old...
but also tired Slovak skeptic saying:
''lt's only a matter of time before we learn to co-operate.''
Or ''collaborate'' - a fairly domesticated word in our country.
On no account must we let that happen;...
that's the message of Jan Palach's great death.
Wednesday, 1I22 1969 Prague
Wednesday, 1I22 1969 Bratislava
We protest against the isolation of Slovakia!
All the developments following January and the tragic August days...
have proved that our nation deserves to live in a sovereign, free state.
The deed of our colleague is a memento. He wanted to show the world...
that the nations living in the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic...
have not yet had the freedom to decide independently their own fate.
HUNGER-STRlKE 19 students continue
Thursday, 1/23 1969 Bratislava
lf we've suddenly realized...
that the almost unbelievable unity of our nations...
was slowly falling apart, ...
showing signs of lethargy and scepsis, ...
our society starting to become atomized, ...
then l think the death of Jan Palach...
is reuniting it ideologically...
and galvanizing it. ln this, apart from the basic ethical elements, ...
l see the sense and effect of Jan's martyr death.
HUNGER-STRlKE 19 students continue
''Be realists, ask for the impossible.'' Herbert Marcuse
Friday, 1l24 1969 Prague
Saturday, 1l25 1969 Brno
Saturday, 1l25 1969 Bratislava
Saturday, 1l25 1969 Prague
l know there were snipers...
and provocateurs prepared to intervene...
but there was absolutely no reason to, they did not get the chance.
And that was the great thing, as the students reacted the way...
a politically-conscious deliberate man of our time does.
He doesn't strike anyone, nor smashes windows, but holds his head high, ...
keeps his mind for himself and decides to make his ambitions come true.
So Jan Palach's sacrifice and all that happened concerning his death...
has been an important lesson the students have taught the adults.
That is the right way to face that which we call ''reality of today''.
The Czechoslovak Documentary Film, Laboratories Koliba, Bratislava, 1969