Stanisława Witecka
Class 2b
1946
What underground education looked like during the occupation
Like from a spring sleep, my memories awaken and take me back to the past days of captivity, spent in fear and impatience. The enemy’s motto was to rip the Christian faith from Polish hearts and Germanize Polish youth.
So what should we do? Maybe let to be enslaved to the enemy, who wanted to rip the spirit out of Polish hearts. No! A Pole had to follow such a path to gain knowledge and, through it, to love the Homeland. I also went to school and had many adventures.
Lessons were given by people who loved the Homeland, who sacrificed their lives for us so that we wouldn’t be as the enemy wants but as our Homeland needs. I was controlled by the enemy when I attended school, who was looking for Polish, geography, or religion books in my briefcase. I didn’t carry [handbooks] to school but I used them at home. When there were lessons of history, the Polish language, or geography, one person stood outside the building and observed whether the enemy was coming. The more occupiers forbade learning, closed schools and forbade saying “ Mary, Queen of the Polish Crown” the more we thought about studying and the beloved Homeland that was free in the past.
During the study, we all trembled because we were in danger of a terrible enemy at any time. Although it was forbidden to study in Polish schools and they were closed, Polish youth nevertheless built the foundation of their Homeland, ignoring the terrible torture [caused by] the enemy.