Stanisław Czeczot
Middle school, class 4
Private Coeducational Middle and Secondary School in Zagórze
How I learned in secret during the occupation
1939 was a watershed year for the whole world, especially for Poland. In that year, Germany, [our] eternal enemy, declared war on us. In the first days of the war, we saw the bestial murder of civilians with bombs dropped from German planes. The Germans, fighting according to the idea that “everything that is Polish must die”, occupied more and more parts of the country.
And finally the most painful news reached every Pole – the news of the seizure of our beloved capital Warsaw. Then the German administration began. Thousands of Poles were taken to Germany to work, and thousands of Poles were locked up in prisons, in camps, where they died of hunger or were killed in a bestial way by Nazi thugs.
Neither did they spare the youth, whom they began to persecute in particular, forbidding them to learn or feel Polish. So the youth began to study in secret. Secret middle schools and even universities were organized, headed by people whom we can truly call the benefactors of humanity.
As for me, I started attending the seventh grade of the Public School in Zagórze during the occupation. After finishing it, I was forced to go to work to help my parents, at least in a small way. First, I worked on road construction, and then in the railway kitchen as a warehouse worker’s assistant from 1942 until the end [of the occupation].
After work, when I had a free moment, I would often read the history of Poland or one of Sienkiewicz’s novels, e.g. The Knights of the Cross. I liked this novel very much because it taught me the truth about the Germans. That is all I learned secretly during the occupation because I did not have time for more, working from morning to evening.
That is how two years passed before Germany’s arrogance was broken, Poland regained its independence thanks to the help of the Soviet army, and now that I can study legally, I often recall my meager secret teaching.