Monument to the Teachers of Secret Teaching (Kazimierzowski Park)
After the outbreak of The Second World War, Polish education officially ceased to exist. At the territories incorporated into the Third Reich (Trzecia Rzesza), Polish schools were closed. In the General Governance (Generalne Gubernatorstwo), secondary and higher education schools ceased to exist. History, geography and literature subjects have been withdrawn from the curriculum in primary and vocational schools. At the territories incorporated into the Soviet Union, many institutions were closed. Russification began at universities, and teaching was subordinated to communist ideology. That is why, in October 1939, the Secret Teachers’ Organization (Tajna Organizacja Nauczycielska) was established. Its task was to create a conspiratorial teaching system. TON worked in the structures of the Polish Underground State and was a form of struggle with the invader. Secret lessons (‘’komplety”) were held in almost all voivodeships of the former Second Polish Republic. The Secret Teachers’ Organization not only organized secret teaching, but also helped teachers, hid the sought, and imprisoned in concentration camps and prisons.
The monument was founded by the Polish Teachers’ Union (Związek Nauczycielstwa Polskiego) and commemorates nearly 10,000 teachers who died during secret teaching in time of occupation from 1939 to 1945. Antonina Wysocka – Jończak is the author of the sculpture.