Bachowicka parafia w czasie II wojny światowej i „roku pierwszego”

THE BACHOWICE PARISH DURING THE SECOND WORLD WAR AND THE ‘FIRST YEAR’: A CHRONICLE BY PRIEST JAN MARSZAŁEK, WITH A FOREWORD BY PRIEST FRANCISZEK GOŁBA This text concludes a series of articles depicting the life of the local community during the German occupation, as seen through the lens of three parishes – Spytkowice, Ryczów and Bachowice – located within the Spytkowice municipality. The series was published in the “Rocznik Spytkowicki”. The Bachowice parish, which is the subject of these reflections, found itself – like the Spytkowice parish – within the territory incorporated into the Reich, unlike the pastoral station in Ryczów, which was incorporated into the General Government. As a result, Bachowice, together with the western part of the archdiocese, was separated from the ecclesiastical metropolis. The authors of the analysed and edited manuscript are two priests: Franciszek Gołba – the builder of the church and the first parish priest of Bachowice (1929–1935), who, as a retired catechist, settled permanently in his home village, where he carried out extensive pastoral and community work – and Jan Marszałek, who arrived in Bachowice in August 1942 and administered the local parish until 1951. The former described the outbreak of the war. The latter described the atmosphere and occurrences of the subsequent months and years of the war. Priest Marszałek devoted equal attention to pastoral care and religious life as he did to economic matters, a fact reflected in the chronicle records. He kept his records in a chronological and thematic format. He grouped the information into two thematic sections: the religious and social section and the economic section, highlighting within each the most significant occurrences in parish and community life during the war years. Undoubtedly, the customs border was the factor that shaped the lives of the people of Bachowice under occupation. However, the saddest and arguably most emotionally devastating event was the death (in 1944) of Rev. Franciszek Gołba – a fellow countryman, a member of the ‘Organic’ work, and a source of spiritual strength. The dominant and recurring themes in the notes point to the main concerns, problems and hardships of everyday life under occupation.