school certificate after attending secret classes. Interest in learning as such plays a very small role, even as more and more young people are beginning to go to school. [9] During secret classes, young people are diligent pupils because they want to complete the curriculum as soon as possible, and lessons are costly. They bargain fiercely with teachers, monitoring them, and suspecting them of ratcheting up prices; characteristically, wealthy youngsters do this as well, although their parents can easily afford the amount of 40–45 zlotys. As I have already pointed out, pupils work harder than they did before the war. This is particularly true of the youth who attended Jewish schools before the war. It is mostly the capable and hard-working pupils, who had previously been making progress, who are continuing their education now. The less valuable element is much less represented in secret classes. Pupils hailing from assimilated circles progressed more slowly at the beginning. In fact, they have experienced more than the rest of their contemporaries. Their lives have changed the most, suffering a lot due to the expulsion from Polish schools and repossession of their flats. They found themselves in new circumstances, in an essentially foreign environment, which they distrusted and even despised. After all, in their eyes, less assimilated Jews have always been regarded as inferior. Interestingly, many people do not even want to enlist in secret classes. Rather, they learn at home and occasionally go to the “Aryan” side to take exams. It is an expression of their lack of confidence in Jewish teachers and a very curious manifestation of snobbery. Besides, it seems to them that in the future Jewish schools diplomas will be worthless. I believe, however, that [10] the most important reason for the reluctance of this (small) group is snobbery. Most of the more valuable assimilated youth are slowly being absorbed by our study groups, and after overcoming the initial difficulties, they keep pace with their colleagues from Jewish schools. In recent years, the composition of some secret classes has somewhat changed. A lot of boys join in. Vocational courses are no longer as attractive as they used to be; moreover, people expect that the war is about to end soon. There is no doubt that participation in the clandestine classes has had a very positive impact on young people. They themselves confirm that insistent work protects them against derailment and moral collapse. Unfortunately, the vast majority have declined to go to classes. This can undoubtedly be attributed to economic difficulties, but there have been other factors as well. Many boys and girls, liberated from the restrictions of school life, now want to make full
