Izabela Wrona-Meryk
Prace Historyczne, Numer 148 (1), 2021, s. 143 - 160
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844069PH.21.009.13686Vocational schools in Częstochowa in the years from 1939 to 1945
The disorganisation of Polish national life which was brought about by the outbreak of the World War II, commenced by the invasion of Poland by Hitler’s Germany, afflicted the spheres of education and science just as severely as all the others. The occupying forces set out to destroy all that bore the hallmarks of being Polish, evicting teaching staff and students from the school buildings, confiscating school equipment and subjecting teachers as well as students to forced labour, death, starvation, and torture in the name of achieving occupier’s political goals. However, the Polish school community did not remain indifferent to the actions of the enemy. Quite the opposite, in fact: it took up the fight by means of organizing clandestine tuition and also engaging in conspiratorial activities, which cost the lives of numerous teachers and students of the vocational schools of Częstochowa.