Krystyna Zawadzka
Class 2b
1 April 1946
My education during the occupation
Times were hard for the youth when Poland capitulated.
Schools were closed and learning was forbidden in the Reich. The Germans believed that Polish youth did not need education, but they could work in Germany. In spite of all the laws and punishments enforced on the teachers and the youth, education still took place. It was difficult to learn under the sharp German eye. In the beginning I was learning in Nowy Dwór [Mazowiecki?], but later, when I was issued a work book, I had to move to Warsaw, because I did not want to interrupt my education. I had to leave soon after because the circumstances forced me to. When I arrived home, I had to go to work, but I was still learning. It was difficult to do it in secret and hide books under my coat. The police came often to look for Polish books. I had to learn in German too, in case they came I would put the German books on the table and hide the Polish books wherever I could. Every Polish child was intellectually crippled because of that. Young people were often beaten for learning [in Polish]. Teachers and professors were thrown into prisons. But even that could not prevent Poles from learning.