Jan Palach (11 August 1948, Prague - 19 January 1969, Prague) was a student of history and political economy at the Charles University of Prague, to which Francesco Guccini dedicated one of the most beautiful songs in his repertoire.
The young Czech, on January 16, 69, fifty years ago, set himself on fire in Wenceslas Square, in the Czechoslovakian capital, to protest against the ferocious repression of the Prague Spring by the military of the former Soviet Union. Nothing, say the history books, that the young Czech was inspired by the Buddhist monk Thich Quang Duc who six years earlier had set himself on fire in Saigon.
On 19 January in Verona some neo-fascist groups, during a concert, want to honor the memory of Palach. They mistakenly took it as a symbol of the struggle against communism. The young Czech, however, killed himself to protest against the tyranny and the indifference of the Czech population in front of the occupation of the "red" tanks. The condemnation of the students of Literature and Philosophy of the Charles IV University in Prague, the same one frequented by that boy, stops: "We learned with indignation the news, also reported by the Czech media, concerning the concert scheduled in Verona in which groups music linked to the Italian far right ».
In the Italian city of Verona, the rock concert of the neo-Nazi groups dedicated to the 50 ° anniversary of the death of Jan Palach will take place under the patronage of the provincial authorities.