Rafał Obetkon

The Obetkon Family in the Pszczyna Area
Thanks to having preserved its agricultural-artisanal character the area of Pszczyna has over centuries to a large extent resisted intensive industrial settlement. As a result of this, the above area has been chiefly inhabited by old local families whose histories have been closely bound up with this area which in the course of history has more than once changed its national allegiance.
In the article, the author presents the history of one of such families – namely that of the Obetkon family; specifically the patrilineal line of one of its branches has been subjected to a detailed analysis. The description of eight generations of the family is the result of careful and insightful research studies of source documents to be found in the National Archives, the Archdiocesan Archives in Katowice, the District Court in Pszczyna and the Registry Office in Pszczyna; it contains information concerning spouses, children, occupations, possessed property and the course of military service. The article also presents the specific conditions relating to inheritance and the transfer of the property possessed by the family.
The author also enriches the content of the article with an analysis of the origin of the family name Obetkon and information concerning the people who are currently using this name.

Estates of the Zborowski family of Zborów, Jastrzębiec coat of arms, in the Free State of Pszczyna, from the first half of the 17th to the second half of the 18th century

The Free State of Pszczyna was inhabited by many Polish knightly families. One of the most important was the Zborowski family of Zborów, Jastrzębiec coat of arms. The article discusses their estates from the moment they appeared in Bojszowy in the first half of the 17th century and the change in their holdings until the end of the 18th century, when the last heir of the family in the land of Pszczyna died. Over the course of two centuries, the family owned properties in 10 towns. Bojszowy, Ćwiklice and Rudołtowice, which were the seats of the knights belonging to the Zborowski dynasty, remained in the family’s hands the longest.

Introduction to research on the anti-communist underground in the Pszczyna District in the years 1945–1947
In the years 1945–1947, a few armed groups operated in the Pszczyna district which no doubt made it much more difficult for the communists to create their own state apparatus. The provincial Military Court in Katowice meted out very severe sentences to the arrested members of the armed organization; the goal of this policy was to deter both those who took active part in the struggle with People’s Power, as well as their helpers. Out of the 84 inhabitants of the Pszczyna district presented in the article who took part in activities targeted against the communists as well as their 21 helpers, 17 had been sentenced to capital punishment. 49 others had been sentenced to imprisonment. The remaining ones owned up to conspiring against the communist authorities on the basis of amnesty, or else escaped abroad, in this way avoiding penal proceedings. The not-guilty verdicts were proclaimed in isolated cases. The decreed verdicts were later verified after the introduction of the act of amnesty. The members of the Pszczyna freedom organizations who have been presented in the article by no means make up all the fighters who took part in the struggle with the communists on this territory. According to the data gathered by the communist Citizens’ Militia (MO) and Security Service (SB) for the Katowice province in the years 1944–1975, in the year 1945 there operated as many as 4 underground resistance organizations in the Pszczyna area; their total membership amounted to 195 resistance fighters. In the year 1946, the number of resistance groups remained unchanged, yet the number of members increased to 275. In the year 1947, there were no longer any anti-communist organizations in the Pszczyna district. Thus the issue of anti-communist organizations on the territory of the Pszczyna district is anything but exhausted and requires further studies whose goal is, among others, to establish the total number of their members, the organization of clandestine activity, and the catalog of conducted operations targeted against the contemporary authorities.