Secret Teaching Organization (Polish: Tajna Organizacja Nauczycielska, TON also translated as the Secret Teaching Society or Clandestine Teaching Organization) was an underground Polish educational organization created in 1939 after the German invasion of Poland to provide underground education in occupied Poland during World War II.
The Organization was created towards the end of October 1939 in Warsaw response to German closure of most Polish educational institutions and repressions against teachers.[1][2] To forestall the rise of a new generation of educated Poles, German officials decreed that Polish children's schooling should end after a few years of elementary education. Heinrich Himmler wrote in a May 1940 memorandum, "The sole purpose of this schooling is to teach them simple arithmetic, nothing above the number500; writing one's name; and the doctrine that it is divine law to obey the Germans... I do not think that a knowledge of reading is desirable."[3] Most schools were closed, many teachers were arrested and even executed during the purges of Polish intelligentsia, in the remaining schools, curriculum was heavily censored, textbooks were confiscated, libraries closed.[1][2]
The Organization concentrated on the primary education.[1] Over time, it expanded into secondary education.[2] It provided assistance to teachers in need, for example to the ones deported from the Polish territories annexed by Nazi Germany, or to the ones in hiding with arrest warrants.[4] It provided assistance to the families of teachers who had been imprisoned or killed, or who were in hiding.[4] It was also involved in the underground printing and distribution of textbooks.[5]
Norman Davies notes that the Organization undertook the education of a million children.[6] By 1942, about 1,500,000 students took part in the Organization underground primary education; in 1944, its secondary school system covered 100,000 people and the university level courses, about 10,000.[7]
The Organization cooperated closely with the Polish government in exile (by which it was subsidized[2]) and the Polish Underground State.[4] Its network covered the whole of Poland, roughly corresponding to the pre-war educational structure of the Second Polish Republic,[1] and was most organized in the General Government.[4] Thousands of its members were arrested and killed by the Germans. It is estimated that about 15% of Polish teachers[8] or 8,000[9] died during the occupation period.
In 1945 the Organization became the basis of the reestablished Association of Polish Teachers; however, it also became controlled by the Soviet-installed communist government.[4]
Ostrów Mazowiecka is a town in eastern Poland with 23,486 inhabitants (2004). It is the capital of Ostrów Mazowiecka County in Masovian Voivodeship.
Gostyń is a town in western Poland, seat of the Gostyń County and Gmina Gostyń in the Greater Poland Voivodeship. According to 30 June 2004 data its population was 20,746.
Kościan is a town on the Obra canal in west-central Poland, with a population of 23,952 inhabitants as of June 2014. Situated in the Greater Poland Voivodeship, it is the capital of Kościan County.
Mogilno is a town in central Poland, seat of the Mogilno County in the Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship.
Buk is a town in Poznań County, in the Greater Poland Voivodeship, in central Poland. As of December 2021, the town has a population of 5,903.
During World War II in Poland, education often took place underground. Secretly conducted education prepared scholars and workers for the postwar reconstruction of Poland and countered German and Soviet threats to eradicate Polish culture.
Rada Jedności Narodowej was the quasi-parliament of the Polish Underground State during World War II. It was created by the Government Delegate on 9 January 1944.
The Union of Armed Struggle, also translated as the Union for Armed Struggle, Association of Armed Struggle, and Association for Armed Struggle, was an underground army formed in Poland following its invasion in September 1939 by Germany and the Soviet Union that opened World War II. It existed from 13 November 1939 until 14 February 1942, when it was renamed into Home Army.
In Poland, the resistance movement during World War II was led by the Home Army. The Polish resistance is notable among others for disrupting German supply lines to the Eastern Front, and providing intelligence reports to the British intelligence agencies. It was a part of the Polish Underground State.
Pleszew is a town in central Poland, in Greater Poland Voivodeship, about 90 km southeast of Poznań. It is the capital of Pleszew County. Population is 16,811 (2022).
Witkowo is a town in Gniezno County, Greater Poland Voivodeship, Poland, located southeast of Poznań.
Polish culture during World War II was suppressed by the occupying powers of Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union, both of whom were hostile to Poland's people and cultural heritage. Policies aimed at cultural genocide resulted in the deaths of thousands of scholars and artists, and the theft and destruction of innumerable cultural artifacts. ''The maltreatment of the Poles was one of many ways in which the Nazi and Soviet regimes had grown to resemble one another", wrote British historian Niall Ferguson.
In the aftermath of the German and Soviet invasion of Poland, which took place in September 1939, the territory of Poland was divided between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union. The Soviets had ceased to recognise the Polish state at the start of the invasion. Since 1939 German and Soviet officials coordinated their Poland-related policies and repressive actions. For nearly two years following the invasion, the two occupiers continued to discuss bilateral plans for dealing with the Polish resistance during Gestapo-NKVD Conferences until Germany's Operation Barbarossa against the Soviet Union, in June 1941.
Organizacja Wojskowa Związek Jaszczurczy was an organization of Polish resistance in World War II. Created in 1939 and transformed into National Armed Forces in 1942, it represented the far right of the Polish political spectrum (related to the National Radical Camp political party. It refused to recognise the broadly internationally recognised Polish Government-in-exile, although there was some uneasy tactical cooperation for practical reasons. It and descendants also refused to recognise the Soviet-aligned Polish Committee of National Liberation and continued to resist the new Polish communist regime and the USSR after the war.
Czesław Wycech (1899–1977) was a Polish activist, politician and historian. He was a member of the Polish peasant's parties: the Polish People's Party "Wyzwolenie", the People's Party, the Polish People's Party, and the United People's Party. During World War II he was a member of the Polish Underground State, responsible for organizing underground education. He was the Minister of Education in the Council of National Unity (1945–1947). Within the People's Republic of Poland, he was a member of the Polish parliament (Sejm) and also held other governmental posts.
Zaniemyśl is a village in Środa Wielkopolska County, Greater Poland Voivodeship, in west-central Poland. It is the seat of the gmina called Gmina Zaniemyśl. It lies approximately 13 kilometres (8 mi) south-west of Środa Wielkopolska and 33 km (21 mi) south-east of the regional capital Poznań.
The Pomeranian Griffin secret military organization was a Polish anti-Nazi resistance group active in Pomerania and East Prussia during World War II. A major Polish resistance organization in the Pomerania region, at its height in 1943 it might have had as many as 20,000 members, although only about 500 were active partisans in the forests (leśni).
Polish Teachers' Union is the largest Polish trade union for teachers and educators and their largest professional association.
Secret Military Organization, or Tajna Organizacja Wojskowa, TOW in Polish, was a clandestine military formation organized prior to World War II in the Second Polish Republic in the event Polish territory was occupied by foreign powers. The country-wide TOW organization was active in the early days of the September 1939 Campaign and during the Nazi occupation of Poland. Some of the offshoots or independently organized local "TOWs", such as Tajna Organizacja Wojskowa Gryf Pomorski or Tajna Organizacja Wojskowa Gryf Kaszubski were active throughout the whole period of the German occupation as well as the early years of the Soviet takeover.
Underground education or clandestine education refers to various practices of teaching carried out at times and places where such educational activities were deemed illegal.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
