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Concept
Education in Poland during World War II
Summary
World War II saw the cultivation of underground education in Poland (Tajne szkolnictwo, or tajne komplety). Secretly conducted education prepared scholars and workers for the postwar reconstruction of Poland and countered German and Soviet threats to eradicate Polish culture.
After the Polish defeat in the invasion of Poland 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 serfs for the German race. The only schools that remained opened were trade schools and courses for factory workers. Himmler prescribed:
For the non-German population of the East there can be no type of school above the four-grade rudimentary school. The job of these schools should be confined to the teaching of counting (no higher than up to 500), the writing of one's name, and the teaching that God's commandment means obedience to the Germans, honesty, industry and politeness. Reading I do not consider essential.
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.
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.
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