Re.School memories.
Jan Mokrzycki (xuegxaw@CSV.WARWICK.AC.UK)
Fri, 12 Apr 1996 11:57:51 +0100
This is a somewhat belated response to Mary Haas's
letter.I did respond earlier, but could not get int the
memories list for technical reasons, this has now been
sorted out, so here we go.
Mary's note made me think and dig deep in memory as
I suddenly realised that I never thought about that
period of my schooling.
Just before the outbreak of WW2 I was still in nursery
school, but during that summer of 1939 we visited the
school outfitters to get my uniform and cap for my
entry into the "big boy's school"The school was to be
Gorski's a large but fairly exclusive establishment in
the centre of Warsaw. To this day I remember the very
distinctive cap, a sort of two tier affair which I was
so proud of that I wanted to sllep in it!
The school was only slightly damaged during the bombing
and shelling of Warsaw in 1939 so I proudly presented
myself there at the first day of the new term.
Unfortunately my education there did not last long.
After about 3 month the German occuping powers closed
the school as they suspected, correctly, that it would
become one of the centres of resistance.
I was transferred to a state school on the banks of the
Vistula, where I learned several new swear words and
little else.Most of my education continued in
underground classes conducted at great personal risk by
patriotic teachers. They were held in private dwellings
with only a dozen or so pupils.A lot of attention was
paid even at that early age to Polish history and
geography which were taught from a patriotic, one could
almost say chauvinistic point of view.
Anything published in the press under the German
occupation was dismissed as propaganda and we were well
informed on the latest news through clandestine
listening to the BBC (punishable by death) and Polish
underground press.
While there were no official efforts to help Polish
prisoners of war and inmates of concentration camps, in
fact meetings of more than a dozen people needed
special permission, unoficially all sorts of efforts
were made to prepare and send parcels to them.
The basic premise of the German authorities was I
believe that Poles were considered to be sub-human.Thus
they did not require any education beyond the primary
one, so all secondary schools were severly curtailed or
closed, as were the universities, where most of the
professors were imprisoned in the concerted effort to
get rid of the Polish intelligencia. None the less the
underground resistance movement took upon itself the
additional burden of providing an education system and
underground gimnasia and universities flourished,
though at great risk to teachers and students alike.
My own education was very patchy especially post 1942
when my parent's were arrested by the Gestapo. It did
not really resume till I arrived to England in 1946.
Luckily I was and am a voratious reader so once I
picked up the language I did not have too many
difficulties.
I hope this is of some help, but I'll be quite happy to
enlarge on anything or try and answer any specific
questions.
Jan.