World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...
saw the cultivation of underground education in Poland ( pl, Tajne szkolnictwo, or '). Secretly conducted education prepared scholars and workers for the postwar reconstruction of Poland and countered
German and Soviet threats to eradicate Polish culture.
Background: repressions of Polish education
After the Polish defeat in the
invasion of Poland
The invasion of Poland (1 September – 6 October 1939) was a joint attack on the Republic of Poland by Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union which marked the beginning of World War II. The German invasion began on 1 September 1939, one week aft ...
of 1939 and the subsequent
German and
Soviet occupation
During World War II, the Soviet Union occupied and annexed several countries effectively handed over by Nazi Germany in the secret Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact of 1939. These included the eastern regions of Poland (incorporated into two different ...
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
serfs for the
German race.
The only schools that remained opened were trade schools and courses for factory workers.
[Chapter XIII - GERMANIZATION AND SPOLIATION]
" Himmler prescribed:
[HITLER'S PLANS FOR EASTERN EUROPE]
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.
There existed however the
Staatliche Kunstgewerbeschule Krakau, which educated many Polish artists. It inspired also a number of theater creators cooperating with
Tadeusz Kantor
Tadeusz Kantor (6 April 1915 – 8 December 1990) was a Polish painter, assemblage and Happenings artist, set designer and theatre director. Kantor is renowned for his revolutionary theatrical performances in Poland and abroad. Laureate of ...
.
Resistance: the underground education
However, many teachers, professors and educational activists organized underground courses all around the country, reviving the tradition of ''
Flying University'' from the times of
partition of Poland
The Partitions of Poland were three partitions of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth that took place toward the end of the 18th century and ended the existence of the state, resulting in the elimination of sovereign Poland and Lithuania for 12 ...
. Those who survived the
A-B Aktion and were not sent to
concentration camps
Internment is the imprisonment of people, commonly in large groups, without charges or intent to file charges. The term is especially used for the confinement "of enemy citizens in wartime or of terrorism suspects". Thus, while it can simply ...
actively lectured 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 ( pl, Tajna Organizacja Nauczycielska, ''TON'' also translated as the ''Secret Teaching Society'' or ''Clandestine Teaching Organization'') was an underground Polish educational organization created in 1939 after the G ...
(''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 underground primary education; in 1944, the clandestine secondary school system covered 100,000 people and the secret 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
The University of Warsaw ( pl, Uniwersytet Warszawski, la, Universitas Varsoviensis) is a public university in Warsaw, Poland. Established in 1816, it is the largest institution of higher learning in the country offering 37 different fields of ...
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 ( , ; see also other names) is the capital and largest city of Lithuania, with a population of 592,389 (according to the state register) or 625,107 (according to the municipality of Vilnius). The population of Vilnius's functional urb ...
) from 1939 until 1944 with lectures, seminars and exams.
The main universities included the
University of Lwów
The University of Lviv ( uk, Львівський університет, Lvivskyi universytet; pl, Uniwersytet Lwowski; german: Universität Lemberg, briefly known as the ''Theresianum'' in the early 19th century), presently the Ivan Franko Na ...
, Warsaw University, Stefan Batory University in Wilno and
Jagiellonian University in
Kraków
Kraków (), or Cracow, is the second-largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in Lesser Poland Voivodeship, the city dates back to the seventh century. Kraków was the official capital of Poland until 1596 ...
. A new
University of Western Lands (''Uniwersytet Ziem Zachodnich'') was created in
Warsaw
Warsaw ( pl, Warszawa, ), officially the Capital City of Warsaw,, abbreviation: ''m.st. Warszawa'' is the capital and largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the River Vistula in east-central Poland, and its population is officia ...
, with branches in
Kielce,
Jędrzejów,
Częstochowa and
Milanówek. The latter university was composed mostly of the professors of
Adam Mickiewicz University
Adam; el, Ἀδάμ, Adám; la, Adam is the name given in Genesis 1-5 to the first human. Beyond its use as the name of the first man, ''adam'' is also used in the Bible as a pronoun, individually as "a human" and in a collective sense as " ...
of
Poznań
Poznań () is a city on the River Warta in west-central Poland, within the Greater Poland region. The city is an important cultural and business centre, and one of Poland's most populous regions with many regional customs such as Saint Joh ...
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 sprang 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 schools, trade schools and special courses on forbidden subjects, such as the
Polish language
Polish (Polish: ''język polski'', , ''polszczyzna'' or simply ''polski'', ) is a West Slavic language of the Lechitic group written in the Latin script. It is spoken primarily in Poland and serves as the native language of the Poles. In a ...
,
history
History (derived ) is the systematic study and the documentation of the human activity. The time period of event before the invention of writing systems is considered prehistory. "History" is an umbrella term comprising past events as well ...
and
geography
Geography (from Greek: , ''geographia''. Combination of Greek words ‘Geo’ (The Earth) and ‘Graphien’ (to describe), literally "earth description") is a field of science devoted to the study of the lands, features, inhabitants, an ...
. A special case were the secret
talmud
The Talmud (; he, , Talmūḏ) is the central text of Rabbinic Judaism and the primary source of Jewish religious law ('' halakha'') and Jewish theology. Until the advent of modernity, in nearly all Jewish communities, the Talmud was the ce ...
ic schools organized in
ghettos. 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 high schools 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
Non-commissioned officers (NCOs) while the regional headquarters organized officer courses and special training. The
Szare Szeregi
"Gray Ranks" ( pl, Szare Szeregi) was a codename for the underground paramilitary Polish Scouting Association (') during World War II.
The wartime organisation was created on 27 September 1939, actively resisted and fought German occupation i ...
(the underground Polish
Scouting Association) opened its own NCO school in Warsaw nicknamed
Agricola
Agricola, the Latin word for farmer, may also refer to:
People Cognomen or given name
:''In chronological order''
* Gnaeus Julius Agricola (40–93), Roman governor of Britannia (AD 77–85)
* Sextus Calpurnius Agricola, Roman governor of the mi ...
.
Religious education and training also took place. Prominently, the
Roman Catholic Church
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...
operated underground
seminaries
A seminary, school of theology, theological seminary, or divinity school is an educational institution for educating students (sometimes called ''seminarians'') in scripture, theology, generally to prepare them for ordination to serve as clergy, ...
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
Pope John Paul II ( la, Ioannes Paulus II; it, Giovanni Paolo II; pl, Jan Paweł II; born Karol Józef Wojtyła ; 18 May 19202 April 2005) was the head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 1978 until his ...
(Karol Wojtyla).
Underground-university lecturers
This is a partial list of professors who risked their lives teaching under the Nazi and Soviet occupations. Dates of death are given for those executed for their teaching activities.
Warsaw
*
Stefan Bryła, engineering (d. 1943)
*
Eugeniusz Lokajski, sports (d.1944 -
Warsaw Uprising
The Warsaw Uprising ( pl, powstanie warszawskie; german: Warschauer Aufstand) was a major World War II operation by the Polish underground resistance to liberate Warsaw from German occupation. It occurred in the summer of 1944, and it was led ...
)
*
Marceli Handelsman
Marceli Handelsman (1882–1945) 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 ances ...
, history (d.1945)
*
Tadeusz Manteuffel, history
*
Andrzej Mostowski, mathematics
*
Kazimierz Iwiński, Polish language
*
Zygmunt Szweykowski, history
*
Władysław Tatarkiewicz
Władysław Tatarkiewicz (; 3 April 1886, Warsaw – 4 April 1980, Warsaw) was a Polish philosopher, historian of philosophy, historian of art, esthetician, and ethicist.
Early life and education
Tatarkiewicz began his higher education at ...
, history of philosophy, history of aesthetics, history of art
*
Jan Łukasiewicz, logic and philosophy
Kraków
*
Władysław Czapliński, history
*
Marian Gieszczykiewicz, biology (d.1942)
*
Mieczysław Małecki Mieczysław Małecki (14 July 1903 – 3 September 1946) was a Polish linguist. Professor at the Jagiellonian University in Kraków, during World War II under a cover of collaboration with the Nazi-run ' he in fact, with support of the Polish Un ...
, linguistics (responsible for organizing much of Kraków's underground education)
*
Konstanty Troczyński, literature (d.1942)
*
Adam Stefan Sapieha
Prince Adam Stefan Stanisław Bonifacy Józef Cardinal Sapieha (; 14 May 1867 – 23 July 1951) was a senior-ranking Polish prelate of the Catholic Church who served as Archbishop of Kraków from 1911 to 1951. Between 1922 and 1923, he was a se ...
, theology
*
Władysław Ślebodziński, mathematics
Lwów
*
Stefan Inglot, historian, imprisoned (but not executed)
Wilno
*
Iwo Jaworski - law
[ Mikołaj Tarkowski]
Wydział Prawa i Nauk Społecznych Uniwersytetu Stefana Batorego w Wilnie 1919-1939, - przyczynek do dziejów szkolnictwa wyższego w dwudziestoleciu międzywojennym
*
Kazimierz Petrusewicz - law
[
* Bronisław Wróblewski - law][
* ]Stefan Ehrenkreutz
Stefan may refer to:
* Stefan (given name)
* Stefan (surname)
* Ștefan, a Romanian given name and a surname
* Štefan, a Slavic given name and surname
* Stefan (footballer) (born 1988), Brazilian footballer
* Stefan Heym, pseudonym of German writ ...
Others
* Franciszek Leja, history, Łańcut, Leżajsk
Leżajsk (; yi, ליזשענסק-Lizhensk; uk, Лежа́йськ, Lezháysʹk), officially the Free Royal City of Leżajsk ( pl, Wolne Królewskie Miasto Leżajsk), is a town in southeastern Poland with 13,871 inhabitants. It has been situated ...
* Tadeusz Strumiłło
Underground-university students
These are some notable underground-university students:
* Adam Bielański, chemist, Jagiellonian University professor, member of the Polish Academy of Sciences
The Polish Academy of Sciences ( pl, Polska Akademia Nauk, PAN) is a Polish state-sponsored institution of higher learning. Headquartered in Warsaw, it is responsible for spearheading the development of science across the country by a society o ...
, Kraków
* Andrzej Maria Deskur
Andrzej Maria Deskur (29 February 1924 – 3 September 2011) was President emeritus of the Pontifical Council for Social Communications and a Cardinal (Catholicism), Cardinal of the Catholic Church.Prokop, Krzysztof Rafał, in Salvador MirandaTh ...
, Roman Catholic
Roman or Romans most often refers to:
*Rome, the capital city of Italy
* Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD
* Roman people, the people of ancient Rome
*'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a let ...
cardinal, Kraków
* Zbigniew Herbert, poet, Kraków
* Tadeusz Konwicki
Tadeusz Konwicki (22 June 1926 – 7 January 2015) was a Polish writer and film director, as well as a member of the Polish Language Council.
Life
Konwicki was born in 1926 as the only son of Jadwiga Kieżun and Michał Konwicki in Nowa Wilejka, ...
, writer, film director, Wilno
* Karol Józef Wojtyła (Pope John Paul II
Pope John Paul II ( la, Ioannes Paulus II; it, Giovanni Paolo II; pl, Jan Paweł II; born Karol Józef Wojtyła ; 18 May 19202 April 2005) was the head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 1978 until his ...
), Kraków
Ukrainian education
Ukrainian education in occupied Poland was more developed than before the war.[http://bazhum.muzhp.pl/media//files/Dzieje_Najnowsze_kwartalnik_poswiecony_historii_XX_wieku_/Dzieje_Najnowsze_kwartalnik_poswiecony_historii_XX_wieku_-r1998-t30-n1/Dzieje_Najnowsze_kwartalnik_poswiecony_historii_XX_wieku_-r1998-t30-n1-s207-209/Dzieje_Najnowsze_kwartalnik_poswiecony_historii_XX_wieku_-r1998-t30-n1-s207-209.pdf ]
References
{{reflist, 2
Additional sources
* J. Ślaski ''Polska Walcząca'' (1939–1945), vol. 3 "Noc", Instytut Wydawniczy Pax, Warsaw, 1986, p. 34. See: racial theories of Heinrich Himmler
Heinrich Luitpold Himmler (; 7 October 1900 – 23 May 1945) was of the (Protection Squadron; SS), and a leading member of the Nazi Party of Germany. Himmler was one of the most powerful men in Nazi Germany and a main architect of th ...
* Adam Redzik
Rocznik
Instytut Lwowski, Warsaw, ISSN 1230-0829
* Adam Redzik
Polish Universities During the Second World War
''Encuentros de Historia Comparada Hispano-Polaca / Spotkania poświęcone historii porównawczej hiszpańsko-polskiej'' conference, 2004
* Zygmunt Albert,
Zakład Narodowy im. Ossolińskich - Wydawnictwo. Wrocław 1975.
History of education in Poland
Polish resistance during World War II
Poland in World War II
Education activism
Poland
Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populou ...