the last book I ever read (Gottland by Mariusz Szczygiel, excerpt six)

from Gottland: Mostly True Stories from Half of Czechoslovakia by Mariusz Szczygiel:

The funeral is a demonstration, and the grave in Prague’s Olšany cemetery is a site of pilgrimage.

A few years later, the authorities forces Palach’s mother and brother to sign an exhumation agreement; then they removed the remains at night, cremate them, and give the urn to the family.

They will keep it at home, because the cemetery in Palach’s native town of Všetaty refuses to accept it for a year.

In 1990, President Václav Havel will ceremonially return the urn from Všetaty to Olšany.