[1] In this essay, I will try to present an overview of the education of young people during the war. I will address middle-school and high-school pupils because I have direct observations and information only in this realm.
At the end of September 1939, when the occupying forces came into power, neither teachers nor parents grasped the new educational situation. Everyone expected restrictions on certain subjects, such as history and geography, but it was thought that the Germans would allow schools to operate. The Jewish community thought that relations would be the same as in Germany and the Czech lands—namely, that Jewish youth would be able to attend several or one Jewish school.
For now, the field of education has succumbed to chaos. Many teachers and some older Jewish youth have fled to the Russian-occupied lands, and many premises have suffered as a result of the bombing. For a long time, the German authorities did not issue any regulations concerning schools. Therefore, the directors, pursuant to a tacit agreement with the still existing school board, decided to open schools in October. The beginning of classes was announced. It was done without posters or public notices so as not to draw undue attention from the authorities. Young people began to arrive, but they were mainly younger boys and girls, while older ones were less enthusiastic. Classes started at the end of October in an atmosphere of general uncertainty. This mood turned out to be entirely justified because just a few days after the classes had started, the authorities issued a decree ordering them to be discontinued in the schools throughout Warsaw. The Germans officially quoted a threat of the spread of epidemic diseases as the reason, although in fact they wanted to gain time to reorganise the Polish education system. They had probably already decided by then to completely abolish [2] Jewish schools.
