Robert Arendarski
Class 7
Stanisław Staszic School in Kielce
My memories of clandestine classes
After the Warsaw Uprising, when thousands of people became homeless, the Germans deported them to various cities and placed them in schools. They did not care about teaching children, so it was convenient for them.
Then I started attending classes organized by one of the teachers. The classed were conducted at his home. There we studied all subjects with him, while at school we were only taught mathematics and reading. Every day except Sunday I went there to study, sometimes earlier in the day, sometimes later. There were several of us with briefcases in full view, yet none of the Germans guessed that there were Polish books inside. I had been studying there for over a year and not one German discovered our secret school in the apartment.
Once I even saw a boy who also took clandestine classes and was caught by a gendarme. First he was asked where and with whom he studied, then where he lived. The boy, however, did not answer the questions and managed to escape. The German did not even manage to shoot, because the boy disappeared behind houses.
Just before liberation, when the Germans had been punishing people for smallest reasons, my colleagues and I carried books under our coats. Now I no longer hide my books or go to secret classes, but to a school that teaches all subjects.