even more. Some schools could even turn the issue of a method into a weapon of war [8] [. . .] not impressed [. . .] also not always intelligent. Of course, it also had a demoralising effect on teachers. In view of the fierce competition, this phenomenon occurred in the Jewish system more often than the Polish. Thus, we must conclude that Jewish education did not meet its pedagogical and educational tasks properly. The causes of this phenomenon lie mainly in the harsh economic education of Jewish schools, and in certain qualities of Jewish society, especially the lack of culture. Moreover, it is clear that there were no significant differences between the work of Polish and Jewish schools. The school policy and overall circumstances in the country had a very similar effect. However, the poverty of the Jewish petty bourgeoisie and intelligentsia led to such negative phenomena as an inherently bad [overall] structure, fierce competition, and the consequent disastrous position of Jewish teachers
[9] II
Autumn 1939
The outbreak of the war, its devastating course, and the bombardment and surrender of Warsaw were the events that brought an end to the entire hitherto course of life. The fate of secondary education in the capital was rather grim. Although Polish school authorities still existed, they no longer had any impact on the course of life. The increasingly frequent incidents of teachers being arrested by the Gestapo frightened many people. The situation of Jews was particularly severe. Many teachers and older pupils migrated to areas under Soviet occupation; those who remained were generally idle. At the time, many people were afraid to go out into the street, where German catchers roamed, capturing people for labour or simply “confiscating” their money. Much of the Jewish school premises was destroyed by bombing. These circumstances caused the majority of Jewish teachers to succumb to apathy, which had disastrous consequences given that modest cash reserves were running out and a lot of people were starving. Because the Germans completely ignored the issue of schools, teachers and the still existing school board decided to try to organise school work. No one had realised that the Germans intended to carry out the complete destruction of comprehensive school education, thereby to inhibit the growth of the intelligentsia, which they also sought to
