Report from the meeting of the Board of Teachers of Wacław Rzysko’s Private Secondary School of Trade in Mińsk Mazowiecki, at Kościuszki Street 8, held on 31 May 1944, at 3 p.m.
Present:
Professor Wacław Rzysko – chairman
Professors Marian Józef Betley
Marian Benko
Regina Cieślak
Irena Dramińska
Aleksander Dramiński
Bolesław Kuraciński
Józef Nowicki
Maria Szymkiewicz
Stanisław Zwierz
Absent:
Father Jan Fatek
Professor Henryk Janiszewski
Subject of the session:
Report of the headmaster on the matter of students taken away by the police
The matter of further work in the school
Completion of the curriculum in grades I, II, III and IV
Plan for the end of the school year
Examination subjects for second grades
Ad 1. On 22 May 1944 at 10.40 a.m. representatives of local police authorities, including four gendarmes (one second lieutenant, two sergeants and one private) and four police constables burst into the school grounds. The school building was surrounded and after the students had been segregated based on their height and age, the following were taken to the local Labor Office (Arbeitsamt): from grade Ia from grade IIb
1. Maria Bykowska 1. Kazimierz Araźny
2. Stanisława Czajka 2. Irena Bartnicka
3. Wacław Jurkowski 3. Władysław Dróżdż
4. Romana Karżan 4. Jerzy Gutowski
5. Alicja Paszkowska 5. Jan Jarząb
6. Henryk Przygodzki 6. Zdzisław Kamiński
7. Tadeusz Stelmach 7. Tadeusz Kieliszczyk
8. Henryka Wąsowska 8. Józef Kossakowski
9. Zbigniew Zientara 9. Bernard Kowalczyk
10. Tadeusz Kurdej
11. Irena Majszyk
12. Jan Rzysko
13. Stanisław Sikorski
14. Tadeusz Strzelec
15. Lucjan Wasilewski
From trade grade I of the Obligatory Vocational School:
1. Helena Barankiewicz
2. Marian Kopczyński
3. Henryka Kozłowska
4. Eugenia Mazek
5. Teresa Mazurek
6. Zdzisława Murawska
7. Janina Olten
9. Marian Rudnicki
10. Sabina Sójcik
10. Krystyna Zagrabska
11. Kazimiera Zawadzka
12. Stanisława Zawadzka
13. Jadwiga Żórawska
An intervention with the Labor Office undertaken by the local school supervisor (immediately notified of this fact by the headmaster) was to absolutely no avail. During the first telephone conversation, the Labor Office communicated that they did not know anything (the students at that time had not been sent to them yet). During the second conversation, when the students had already been delivered to the Labor Office, it was said that the supervisor was told that this had been an operation of the gendarmerie, but since the students were entrusted to the Labor Office, it had to take care of them. As a result of the school supervisor’s intervention with the county authorities, he was promised that the matter would be resolved at 3 p.m. at a meeting of the county governor with the school supervisor and with the participation of representatives of the gendarmerie and of the Labor Office. Yet at 2.30 p.m. the detained students were transported from Warsaw to the assembly point at Skaryszewska Street 16.
At 4 p.m. it was communicated to the headmaster in the School Office that this was a repressive operation in retaliation for the recent killing of a German officer. The school supervisor said that he would not intervene in Warsaw and that he would advise the headmaster not to do that either. Despite this, on 23 May 1944 the headmaster, equipped with a list and a certificate for each of the students signed by the school supervisor, went to the Labor Department with respect to the matter. The head of the Labor Department accepted the certificate and ordered headmaster Rzysko to come back at 2 p.m., telling him that he would in the meantime contact the Labor Office in Mińsk Mazowiecki. The answer the headmaster received was the same as he got in Mińsk Mazowiecki, but topped with a warning that “Headmaster Rzysko should be arrested immediately and not allowed to be insolently intervening and walking around the premises of a district office”.
Thus, no-one was released and further interventions were rendered impossible. The matter had to be considered a lost cause.
Ad 2. The question emerges: Should the school continue in its operations, and if yes, what additional precautionary measures should be adopted.
The answer of the school supervisor to the headmaster’s question formulated in a similar manner was: “You have to keep running the school, otherwise, in accordance with the regulations, you will be forced to provide me with a list of the remaining students, which I would then send to the Labor Office.”
“But will another incident like this not happen again?” asked the headmaster. “Up to the end of the school year – I do not believe so.” In the light of the above, it was resolved to resume classes as of 30 May for grades Ia, Ib (or the so-called first trade grade), IIa and IIb. It was resolved not to resume clandestine courses for grades III and IV until the end of the year, since these grades (the oldest students) were the most exposed to the danger of being deported.
Ad 3. When teaching classes in the first and second grades, the teachers will be allowed to complete the obligatory curriculum. It was decided to deliver to grades III and IV the missing educational material (presented in the most accessible form possible) in typescript, in the number of one set per two persons, so that students could master it at home. If necessary, information will be provided by each teacher at his/her own house at specified times. Final examinations will be organized after 20 June 1944.
The idea of [organizing] clandestine courses in these grades was abandoned, since it would be very difficult to find appropriate flats and since the situation in the city is tense.
Ad 4. The dates for the end of the school year have been set as follows. 17 June 1944 – end of classes
19 June 1944 – written examinations for grade II 24 June 1944 – session for admission to oral examinations 26 June 1944 – July 1944 – oral examinations for grade II 4 July 1944 – end of the school year and the distribution of diplomas
Since both written and oral examinations will take place between 8 a.m. – 1 p.m., the afternoon hours after 20 June 1944 will be devoted to examinations for grades III and IV.
At that the session of the Board was adjourned at 5.45 p.m.