Elżbieta Sprząszkowska
Class 2b
1 April 1946
Education during the German occupation
During the occupation, Germans hampered education. There was a low level [of teaching], and it was forbidden to learn Polish history. Otherwise, you exposed yourself to the risk of being taken to a concentration camp. Despite that, teachers took the risk because they wanted Polish children to know at least a little about Poland’s past and its heroes as well as its friends and foes so that they would know what an eternal enemy the Germans were to the Poles.
We didn’t carry history textbooks to school. Teachers dictated, and students took notes and learned at home. All the while, we were listening to whether the gendarmerie was coming. When the inspector arrived and searched one classroom, girls and boys in another classroom looked through their notebooks to check for anything incriminating. When they found something, then it was thrown into the furnace or into a hidden place previously prepared. Everyone was scared and nervous, especially the teachers who were [responsible for everything]. Junior high schools and universities existed under the names of handicraft or trade schools. It was worse in that part of Poland where the Germans made the German Reich. There, it wasn’t allowed to form schools or study at all. Young people gathered in secret groups and studied to make up for the lost time. Everyone who walked down the street passed quietly, looking around suspiciously to see if anyone was following them. There was always one student who stood and observed so that in case of danger from the Germans, he would inform the other [classmates]. Sometimes this was successful. But the Germans often were able to approach so quietly that no one noticed, and then took the teachers to prison or to a concentration camp, as well as students who didn’t escape. Parents of the students were also held responsible, as the Germans looked for the slightest offences to murder as many Poles as possible.