Roman Kozłowski
Class 3b
State Middle and Secondary School in Brodnica
Pomeranian Voivodeship
17 June 1946
How I studied during the occupation
In the autumn of 1943, the surviving teaching staff turned to my sister Krystyna Kozłowska to give secret Polish lessons. From then on, we regularly studied the Polish language and mathematics twice a week at our apartment at Kościuszko Street 6 in Brodnica.
There were six of us students in total, four boys and two girls. At that time we worked on Polish grammar and spelling, as well as with the textbook Mówią wieki [The Ages Speak] through the first year of middle school and half of the second year. These books were our property, and we managed to save them. Before each lesson, we discussed what to do in case of a sudden search by the German police and how to explain our presence.
We learned very eagerly. We were already old enough to understand what it meant to know our native language, its spelling and the history of Polish literature correctly. At first, our essays left a lot to be desired, but after a few weeks we could already see a significant improvement and our “teacher” was even sometimes pleased with us.
My sister was quite young herself, she was 23 years old at the time, however, she had already been promoted to the second grade of secondary school before the war, and we all knew that she knew more than us. Despite the fact that I was a brother, she treated me like the rest of her students.
Our lessons were interrupted by the arrest of my sister by the Gestapo on 2 January 1945. We all benefited greatly from those lessons, even though they were not taught by a professional.