Michał Plater-Zyberk (1937-1981). A sketch for a portrait of the patron of Szczecin’s Catholic Club

Michał Plater-Zyberk was born in 1937 in Vilnius in a family of patriotic and independent traditions. He was soon orphaned as a teenage boy and was also the subject of first repression – in 1954 he was prevented from starting his studies due to his origin and lack of affiliation with the Communist Youth Union of Poland. Only in the so-called. Thaw in 1956 was admitted to study at the Szczecin University of Technology. After graduation, he started working in state railroads, with whom he remained involved throughout his professional career. Since the sixties he has co-created an independent environment of secular Catholic intelligentsia, St. Andrzej Bobola at ul. Post Office in Szczecin. At the same time he was active in the Polish Tourist-Touring Society. In the seventies, he co-organized family church counseling and supported various independent initiatives. By signing petitions and making your private apartment available to opposition parties. For social activities and relationships with the Church he was faced with further repressions: in 1967 he was suspended in the rights of the tourist guide, and in 1978 degraded from the occupied position. In 1980 he was a co-founder of the Szczecin Catholic Club and co-organizer of the Independent Self-Governing Trade Union Solidarity in the Pomeranian Regional Railways Board. He became the chairman of the union cell at his workplace and entered the regional authorities of Solidarity. He died suddenly during a holiday trip to Zakopane in February 1981. In 1986 his name was accepted by the Szczecin Catholic Club in recognition of his co-founder