Kazimierz Rożek
Elementary School in Lubienia
Iłża district
Ruda, 17 November 1946
Memories of clandestine teaching
During the war, when the German troops invaded Poland in 1939, I entered the elementary school in Ruda, where my studying and work began. At the beginning of my studying, in the first, second and third grades, the teacher taught accounts, Polish language, religion and singing. Later, in the fourth grade, we learned the same subjects, because other subjects were forbidden. The Germans wanted to make Polish children dim and stupid, so they did not allow them to learn history and geography, and forbade teachers to teach these subjects. Students could be expelled for learning these forbidden subjects, the school could be closed and the teacher removed. My school had only four classes and was built close to the railway track and the highway, so it was often controlled by the Germans and the police. Despite German controls and visits to the school, the teacher secretly taught history and geography to children. She also showed interesting and informative pictures and read beautiful books about Poland. Once, when a teacher were reading such a book and the children were listening, the German controller came in and found out how learning was going on in that school, and then left. After a while, the police came, the children were sent home, the school was closed and the teacher was chased away; she was not allowed to teach anymore. The school was closed all winter.
In my village there was one clever man, almost a teacher, and my parents asked him to teach me. I studied with his help throughout winter. In February, the school reopened, but with different teachers. In this school, my studying lasted only until June, and then it was already summer holidays. After receiving my diploma and after the summer holidays, I entered the fifth grade in the seven-grade school in Brody. It was much better, because it was after the war and you could learn all subjects. I attended this school for two years, i.e. in the fifth and sixth grades. Now I go to school in Lubienia, to the seventh grade, where I will finish elementary education.