Education in Poland during World War II
Encyclopedia
This article covers the topic of underground education in Poland ( or ) during World War II
. Secret learning prepared new cadres for the post-war reconstruction of Poland and countered the German and Soviet threat to exterminate the Polish culture
.
After the Polish defeat in the Polish Defensive War
of 1939 and the subsequent German and Soviet occupation
of Polish territory, Poland was divided into the areas directly incorporated into the Reich, areas directly incorporated into the Soviet Union
and the German-controlled General Government
. According to Nazi
racial
theories the Slavs needed no higher education and the whole nation was to be turned into uneducated serf
s for the German race. The only schools that remained opened were trade schools and courses for factory workers. Himmler prescribed:
By 1941, the number of children attending elementary school in the General Government was half of the pre-war number.
On the territories incorporated into the Reich, education in Polish was banned and punished with death. Throughout Polish territory the Germans abolished all university education for non-Germans. All institutions of higher education were closed. Their equipment and most of the laboratories were taken to Germany and divided among the German universities while the buildings were turned into offices and military barracks.
from the times of partition of Poland. Those who survived the A-B Action and were not sent to concentration camps actively started to give lectures to small groups in private apartments. The attendants were constantly risking deportation and death.
Most of the underground education was organized by the Secret Teaching Organization
(Tajna Organizacja Nauczycielska, TON), which took care of the underground primary and secondary level education. Norman Davies
notes that the Organization undertook the education of a million children. By 1942, about 1,500,000 students took part in the Organization underground primary education; in 1944, its secondary school system covered 100,000 people and the university level courses, about 10,000.
The net of underground university faculties spread rapidly and by 1944 there were more than 300 lecturers and 3,500 students at various courses at the Warsaw University alone. Underground Law and Social Sciences faculties, as well as Humanities, Medical, Theological, Mathematical and Biology faculties were kept alive at Stefan Batory University in Wilno (now Vilnius
) from 1939 till 1944 with lectures, seminars and exams.
The main universities included the University of Lwów, Warsaw University, Stefan Batory University in Wilno and Jagiellonian University
in Kraków
. A new University of Western Lands (Uniwersytet Ziem Zachodnich) was created in Warsaw
, with branches in Kielce
, Jędrzejów
, Częstochowa
and Milanówek
. The latter university was composed mostly of the professors of Adam Mickiewicz University of Poznań
and included 17 different units, among them the faculty of medicine and surgery.
Almost 10,000 students received master's degrees at the secret universities and several hundred others received doctorates. Secret printing houses that sprung up across Poland shortly after the war started, provided the facilities of secret learning with handbooks and scripts.
The professors organized a net of secret high school
s, trade schools and special courses of forbidden subjects, such as the Polish language
, history
and geography
. A special case were the secret talmud
ic schools organized in ghetto
s. Until 1944 there were more than a million secret high school students in Poland. At least 18,000 students passed their final school exams and received their certificates. This led to a bizarre situation in which students of formally non-existent colleges entered formally non-existent universities. Most of these certificates were issued on pre-war forms with the dates forged to indicate either 1938 or 1939. These were later accepted by post-war Polish universities.
There was also a net of secret military colleges in most major cities. Until 1944 most of Armia Krajowa
regiments had their military schools for NCOs
while the regional headquarters organized officer courses and special training. The Szare Szeregi
(the underground Polish Scouting
Association) opened its own NCO school in Warsaw nicknamed Agricola.
Religious education and training also took place. Prominently, the Roman Catholic Church
operated underground seminaries
for the education of priests. One well-known seminary was run by the Archbishop of Kraków, Cardinal Sapieha and trained future cardinal and pope, John Paul II (Karol Wojtyla).
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. Secret learning prepared new cadres for the post-war reconstruction of Poland and countered the German and Soviet threat to exterminate the Polish culture
Polish culture during World War II
Polish culture during World War II was suppressed by the occupying powers of Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union, both of whom were hostile to Poland's people and cultural heritage. Policies aimed at cultural genocide resulted in the deaths of thousands of scholars and artists, and the theft and...
.
Background: repressions of Polish education
Invasion of Poland (1939)
The Invasion of Poland, also known as the September Campaign or 1939 Defensive War in Poland and the Poland Campaign in Germany, was an invasion of Poland by Germany, the Soviet Union, and a small Slovak contingent that marked the start of World War II in Europe...
of 1939 and the subsequent German and Soviet occupation
Soviet invasion of Poland
Soviet invasion of Poland can refer to:* the second phase of the Polish-Soviet War of 1920 when Soviet armies marched on Warsaw, Poland* Soviet invasion of Poland of 1939 when Soviet Union allied with Nazi Germany attacked Second Polish Republic...
of Polish territory, Poland was divided into the areas directly incorporated into the Reich, areas directly incorporated into the Soviet Union
Polish areas annexed by the Soviet Union
Immediately after the German invasion of Poland in 1939, which marked the beginning of World War II, the Soviet Union invaded the eastern regions of the Second Polish Republic, which Poles referred to as the "Kresy," and annexed territories totaling 201,015 km² with a population of 13,299,000...
and the German-controlled General Government
General Government
The General Government was an area of Second Republic of Poland under Nazi German rule during World War II; designated as a separate region of the Third Reich between 1939–1945...
. According to Nazi
Nazism
Nazism, the common short form name of National Socialism was the ideology and practice of the Nazi Party and of Nazi Germany...
racial
Racism
Racism is the belief that inherent different traits in human racial groups justify discrimination. In the modern English language, the term "racism" is used predominantly as a pejorative epithet. It is applied especially to the practice or advocacy of racial discrimination of a pernicious nature...
theories the Slavs needed no higher education and the whole nation was to be turned into uneducated serf
SERF
A spin exchange relaxation-free magnetometer is a type of magnetometer developed at Princeton University in the early 2000s. SERF magnetometers measure magnetic fields by using lasers to detect the interaction between alkali metal atoms in a vapor and the magnetic field.The name for the technique...
s for the German race. The only schools that remained opened were trade schools and courses for factory workers. Himmler prescribed:
By 1941, the number of children attending elementary school in the General Government was half of the pre-war number.
On the territories incorporated into the Reich, education in Polish was banned and punished with death. Throughout Polish territory the Germans abolished all university education for non-Germans. All institutions of higher education were closed. Their equipment and most of the laboratories were taken to Germany and divided among the German universities while the buildings were turned into offices and military barracks.
Resistance: the underground education
However, many teachers, professors and educational activists organized underground courses all around the country, reviving the tradition of Flying UniversityFlying University
Flying University was the name of an underground educational enterprise that operated from 1885 to 1905 in Warsaw, the historic Polish capital, then under the control of the Russian Empire, and that was revived between 1977 and 1981 in the People's Republic of Poland...
from the times of partition of Poland. Those who survived the A-B Action and were not sent to concentration camps actively started to give lectures to small groups in private apartments. The attendants were constantly risking deportation and death.
Most of the underground education was organized by the Secret Teaching Organization
Secret Teaching Organization
Secret Teaching Organization was an underground Polish educational organization created in 1939 after the German invasion of Poland to provide underground education in occupied Poland....
(Tajna Organizacja Nauczycielska, TON), which took care of the underground primary and secondary level education. Norman Davies
Norman Davies
Professor Ivor Norman Richard Davies FBA, FRHistS is a leading English historian of Welsh descent, noted for his publications on the history of Europe, Poland, and the United Kingdom.- Academic career :...
notes that the Organization undertook the education of a million children. By 1942, about 1,500,000 students took part in the Organization underground primary education; in 1944, its secondary school system covered 100,000 people and the university level courses, about 10,000.
The net of underground university faculties spread rapidly and by 1944 there were more than 300 lecturers and 3,500 students at various courses at the Warsaw University alone. Underground Law and Social Sciences faculties, as well as Humanities, Medical, Theological, Mathematical and Biology faculties were kept alive at Stefan Batory University in Wilno (now Vilnius
Vilnius
Vilnius is the capital of Lithuania, and its largest city, with a population of 560,190 as of 2010. It is the seat of the Vilnius city municipality and of the Vilnius district municipality. It is also the capital of Vilnius County...
) from 1939 till 1944 with lectures, seminars and exams.
The main universities included the University of Lwów, Warsaw University, Stefan Batory University in Wilno and Jagiellonian University
Jagiellonian University
The Jagiellonian University was established in 1364 by Casimir III the Great in Kazimierz . It is the oldest university in Poland, the second oldest university in Central Europe and one of the oldest universities in the world....
in Kraków
Kraków
Kraków also Krakow, or Cracow , is the second largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in the Lesser Poland region, the city dates back to the 7th century. Kraków has traditionally been one of the leading centres of Polish academic, cultural, and artistic life...
. A new University of Western Lands (Uniwersytet Ziem Zachodnich) was created in Warsaw
Warsaw
Warsaw is the capital and largest city of Poland. It is located on the Vistula River, roughly from the Baltic Sea and from the Carpathian Mountains. Its population in 2010 was estimated at 1,716,855 residents with a greater metropolitan area of 2,631,902 residents, making Warsaw the 10th most...
, with branches in Kielce
Kielce
Kielce ) is a city in central Poland with 204,891 inhabitants . It is also the capital city of the Świętokrzyskie Voivodeship since 1999, previously in Kielce Voivodeship...
, Jędrzejów
Jedrzejów
Jędrzejów is a town in Poland, located in the Świętokrzyskie Voivodeship, about 35 km southwest of Kielce. It is the capital of Jędrzejów County. It has 18,069 inhabitants ....
, Częstochowa
Czestochowa
Częstochowa is a city in south Poland on the Warta River with 240,027 inhabitants . It has been situated in the Silesian Voivodeship since 1999, and was previously the capital of Częstochowa Voivodeship...
and Milanówek
Milanówek
Milanówek is a town and a seat of a separate commune in Poland. Located in the Grodzisk Mazowiecki County near Warsaw, it is often considered an outlying suburb of the capital of Poland but is in fact an independent entity administratively and culturally. Milanówek is however part of wider Warsaw...
. The latter university was composed mostly of the professors of Adam Mickiewicz University of Poznań
Poznan
Poznań is a city on the Warta river in west-central Poland, with a population of 556,022 in June 2009. It is among the oldest cities in Poland, and was one of the most important centres in the early Polish state, whose first rulers were buried at Poznań's cathedral. It is sometimes claimed to be...
and included 17 different units, among them the faculty of medicine and surgery.
Almost 10,000 students received master's degrees at the secret universities and several hundred others received doctorates. Secret printing houses that sprung up across Poland shortly after the war started, provided the facilities of secret learning with handbooks and scripts.
The professors organized a net of secret high school
High school
High school is a term used in parts of the English speaking world to describe institutions which provide all or part of secondary education. The term is often incorporated into the name of such institutions....
s, trade schools and special courses of forbidden subjects, such as the Polish language
Polish language
Polish is a language of the Lechitic subgroup of West Slavic languages, used throughout Poland and by Polish minorities in other countries...
, history
History of Poland
The History of Poland is rooted in the arrival of the Slavs, who gave rise to permanent settlement and historic development on Polish lands. During the Piast dynasty Christianity was adopted in 966 and medieval monarchy established...
and geography
Geography
Geography is the science that studies the lands, features, inhabitants, and phenomena of Earth. A literal translation would be "to describe or write about the Earth". The first person to use the word "geography" was Eratosthenes...
. A special case were the secret talmud
Talmud
The Talmud is a central text of mainstream Judaism. It takes the form of a record of rabbinic discussions pertaining to Jewish law, ethics, philosophy, customs and history....
ic schools organized in ghetto
Ghetto
A ghetto is a section of a city predominantly occupied by a group who live there, especially because of social, economic, or legal issues.The term was originally used in Venice to describe the area where Jews were compelled to live. The term now refers to an overcrowded urban area often associated...
s. Until 1944 there were more than a million secret high school students in Poland. At least 18,000 students passed their final school exams and received their certificates. This led to a bizarre situation in which students of formally non-existent colleges entered formally non-existent universities. Most of these certificates were issued on pre-war forms with the dates forged to indicate either 1938 or 1939. These were later accepted by post-war Polish universities.
There was also a net of secret military colleges in most major cities. Until 1944 most of Armia Krajowa
Armia Krajowa
The Armia Krajowa , or Home Army, was the dominant Polish resistance movement in World War II German-occupied Poland. It was formed in February 1942 from the Związek Walki Zbrojnej . Over the next two years, it absorbed most other Polish underground forces...
regiments had their military schools for NCOs
Non-commissioned officer
A non-commissioned officer , called a sub-officer in some countries, is a military officer who has not been given a commission...
while the regional headquarters organized officer courses and special training. The Szare Szeregi
Szare Szeregi
"Gray Ranks" was a codename for the underground Polish Scouting Association during World War II.The wartime organisation was created on 27 September 1939, actively resisted and fought German occupation in Warsaw until 18 January 1945, and contributed to the resistance operations of the Polish...
(the underground Polish Scouting
Scouting
Scouting, also known as the Scout Movement, is a worldwide youth movement with the stated aim of supporting young people in their physical, mental and spiritual development, that they may play constructive roles in society....
Association) opened its own NCO school in Warsaw nicknamed Agricola.
Religious education and training also took place. Prominently, the Roman Catholic Church
Roman Catholic Church
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the world's largest Christian church, with over a billion members. Led by the Pope, it defines its mission as spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ, administering the sacraments and exercising charity...
operated underground seminaries
Seminary
A seminary, theological college, or divinity school is an institution of secondary or post-secondary education for educating students in theology, generally to prepare them for ordination as clergy or for other ministry...
for the education of priests. One well-known seminary was run by the Archbishop of Kraków, Cardinal Sapieha and trained future cardinal and pope, John Paul II (Karol Wojtyla).
Lecturers of the underground universities
The following is a partial list of the individuals who risked their lives teaching under the Nazi and Soviet occupations. Date of death is given for those executed for their involvement in the underground education system during that time.Warsaw
- Stefan Bryła, engineering, (d. 1943)
- Eugeniusz LokajskiEugeniusz LokajskiEugeniusz Zenon Lokajski was a Polish athlete, gymnast and photographer. He is notable as the Champion of Poland in javelin throw and the creator of more than 1000 photos documenting the Warsaw Uprising.-Biography:...
, sports, (d.1944 - Warsaw UprisingWarsaw UprisingThe Warsaw Uprising was a major World War II operation by the Polish resistance Home Army , to liberate Warsaw from Nazi Germany. The rebellion was timed to coincide with the Soviet Union's Red Army approaching the eastern suburbs of the city and the retreat of German forces...
) - Marceli HandelsmanMarceli HandelsmanMarceli Handelsman was a Polish historian, a Warsaw University professor, medievalist, modern historian, and historical methodologist.-Life:Marceli Handelsman was born on 8 July 1882, in Warsaw, to a family of distant Jewish ancestry...
, history, d.1945 - Tadeusz ManteuffelTadeusz ManteuffelTadeusz Manteuffel or Tadeusz Manteuffel-Szoege was a Polish historian, specializing in the medieval history of Europe.- Biography :...
, history - Andrzej MostowskiAndrzej MostowskiAndrzej Mostowski was a Polish mathematician. He is perhaps best remembered for the Mostowski collapse lemma....
, mathematics - Kazimierz IwińskiKazimierz IwińskiKazimierz Iwiński Łodzia coat of arms - MA Philosophy, a retired senior inspector of the Ministry of Education and Schools of Academic Rank . Taught many generations of young people...
, Polish language - Zygmunt SzweykowskiZygmunt SzweykowskiZygmunt Szweykowski was a historian of Polish literature who specialized in 19th-century Polish prose.-Life:...
, history - Władysław Tatarkiewicz, philosophy, history of art
- Jan Łukasiewicz, logic and philosophy
Kraków
- Władysław Czapliński, history
- Marian GieszczykiewiczMarian GieszczykiewiczMarian Teodor Ludwik Gieszczykiewicz was a Polish physician, bacteriologist....
, biology (d.1942) - Mieczysław Małecki, linguistics (responsible for organizing much of Kraków's underground education)
- Konstanty TroczyńskiKonstanty TroczynskiKonstanty Troczyński was a Polish literature theoretician and critic.Troczyński worked at the Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań. During the Second World War and the German occupation of Poland he taught at the so-colled "Secret Universities" in Kraków...
, literature (d.1942) - Adam Stefan SapiehaAdam Stefan SapiehaPrince Adam Stefan Stanisław Bonifacy Józef Sapieha was a Polish cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church who served as Archbishop of Kraków. Between 1922–1923 he was a senator of the Second Rzeczpospolita. In 1946, Pope Pius XII created him Cardinal....
, theology - Władysław Ślebodziński, mathematics
Wilno
- Iwo Jaworski - law
- Kazimierz Petrusewicz - law
- Bronisław Wróblewski - law
- Stefan Ehrenkreutz
Other
- Franciszek LejaFranciszek LejaFranciszek Leja was a Polish mathematician.He was born to a poor peasant family in the south-estern Poland. After graduating from the Univestity of Lwów he was a teacher of mathematics and physics in high schools from 1910 until 1923, among others in Kraków...
, history, Łańcut, LeżajskLezajskLeżajsk is a town in southeastern Poland with 14,127 inhabitants . It has been situated in the Subcarpathian Voivodship since 1999 and is the capital of Leżajsk County. Leżajsk is famed for its Bernadine basilica and monastery, built by the architect Antonio Pellacini... - Tadeusz Strumiłło, pedagogy?/psychology?, Kraków?
Students of the underground universities
The following is a partial list of the notable students of the underground universities.- Andrzej Maria Deskur, Kraków
- Tadeusz KonwickiTadeusz KonwickiTadeusz Konwicki is a Polish writer and film director, a member of the Polish Language Council.-Life:Konwicki was born in 1926 in Nowa Wilejka near Wilno, where he spent his early childhood. He spent his adolescence in Wilno, attending a local gymnasium...
, Wilno - Pope John Paul IIPope John Paul IIBlessed Pope John Paul II , born Karol Józef Wojtyła , reigned as Pope of the Catholic Church and Sovereign of Vatican City from 16 October 1978 until his death on 2 April 2005, at of age. His was the second-longest documented pontificate, which lasted ; only Pope Pius IX ...
, Kraków - Zbigniew HerbertZbigniew HerbertZbigniew Herbert was an influential Polish poet, essayist, drama writer, author of plays, and moralist. A member of the Polish resistance movement – Home Army during World War II, he is one of the best known and the most translated post-war Polish writers...
, Kraków