![]() ![]() Then he drank a corrosive substance to stop himself screaming. He stripped naked and smeared his body with a flammable parquet polish. That is why one of his followers, Jan Zajic, chose a more sophisticated act to ensure he died instantly. He could talk, he could think, but he could not breathe. Palach lay dying in hospital for several days. All but two did so far completely personal reasons. Another 26 people attempted to kill themselves in the same way in the four months after his death. Now there are plenty of ways we can fight against what we don't like, and what we are not satisfied with." "The current tragic cases do not serve any purpose: they are nonsensical, useless, and maybe a little cowardly. He wanted to shake people up, to wake them up from lethargy, and the method he chose guaranteed that everybody would learn about it," says Jaroslava Moserova, who, as a burns specialist, was the doctor who admitted Palach to hospital and had a chance to talk to him. There was no other way for people to draw attention to something. Media was censored, live television broadcasting did not exist. "In his case it was a rational decision that could not be explained by personal problems. Palach burned himself five months after the Soviet army occupied Czechoslovakia. ![]() His act is frequently described as the most drastic suicide of the 20th century. The only exception is the Czech Republic, which has had a sad tradition of self-immolation ever since it was used as a form of political protest by the philosophy student Jan Palach in January 1969. Mostly they involved people with severe mental illnesses. The number of cases of self-immolation in Europe over the past 50 years can be counted on the fingers of one hand. ![]() Within days they start dying from suffocation as well: the lungs' alveoli fill with water and they stop breathing. Those who survive the beginning are worse off. Most of the victims die from suffocation because the blaze damages the respiratory tract, especially the lungs. After that the burned skin does not hurt. The pain is greatest at the beginning, before the flame burns the nerves. The simple, and undoubtedly simplified explanation, is that they subconsciously longed to be the centre of attention - something they probably lacked their whole lives.ĭeath by burning is the most drastic method of suicide. These are the same feelings of disillusion that another student, 19-year-old Zdenek Adamec, referred to in his suicide note at the beginning of March.Īccording to psychologists, the much-publicised death of Adamec caused a domino effect which led to another four people ending their lives the same way. In his farewell letter, parts of which were made public by the police, he wrote about his desperation about the current state of the world. No one will ever find out what led Masl to a point from which he saw no option other than to pour petrol over himself, set light to it and die in horrible pain. He was the fifth person to do so within a month. On the night of Tuesday April 2, 21-year-old Roman Masl, a trainee teacher, burned himself to death there. I felt sick with the whole world." That is the beginning of a poem that someone placed on the flame-blackened pavement in front of the medical high school in Plzen. My change did not have limits any more. "What does it mean, death by burning? / A warning, a sign to the world. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |