2007 — At the association's meeting, the grandchildren of a former student lay a wreath on the Polish tomb in Villard-de-Lans (Association Mémoire du lycée polonais - Polish High School Memorial Association).

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Places of remembrance

Places of remembrance

Charpters

1. Before
2. Origins
3. The participants
4. Daily life
5. ”A school unlike any other”
6. Fighting
7. Twilight
8. The aftermath
9. Today

With commemorative plaques, tombs and monuments, the “Rue des Villardiens” and the “Rue du Lycée Polonais”, remembrance has been made part of the urban landscape.

9.1.1 In Villard-de-Lans.

The Villard-de-Lans war memorial (Association Mémoire du lycée polonais - Polish High School Memorial Association).

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Place de la Libération, in the heart of the village, a short distance from the Château (now the Tourist Office), La Maison du Patrimoine (Heritage Centre) offers a permanent museum space dedicated to the high school: Foyer des libertés (“Cradle of Freedom”). This website has been built reflecting the structure of the exhibition.

The “Rue du Lycée Polonais Cyprian Norwid” adjoins the site of the Hôtel du Parc and the Château. It was inaugurated in 1976.

On the wall of the Château, a commemorative plaque was affixed in 1976, with these words: “Here, in the former Hôtel du Parc, was established from October 1940 to June 1946 the Cyprian Norwid Polish Lycée, the only free Polish secondary educational institution in occupied Europe.”

The war memorial bears the names of the ten students, teachers and staff from the high school who fell in the Vercors.

At the entrance to the cemetery, the Polish tomb contains the bodies of two students and two teachers who fell in the Vercors: Henryk Czarnecki, Witold Nowak, Kazimierz Gerhardt and Jan Harwas. In 1996, the headmaster Wacław Godlewski was also buried in this vault. In 2012, a student who died of an illness in 1945, who was buried a few metres from the vault, joined his comrades.

The 7th station on the Valchevrière Way of the Cross was built just after the war, in the style of the chapels in Zakopane. It bears the names of the twenty-four Poles who fell in battle with this inscription: “For freedom, justice and human dignity, for France and Poland, the teachers, students and staff of the Cyprian Norwid Polish High School died on the fields of honour and suffered in prisons and concentration camps.”

A transept of the church of Saint-Bruno reveals a painting depicting Our Lady of Ostra Brama. It is the work of the father of a student who donated it to the school in 1942. It was installed in the refectory. When the high school closed, it was presented to the Villardians in gratitude for their hospitality and solemnly transported to the church.

9.1.2 In Vassieux-en-Vercors.

The Vassieux-en-Vercors national necropolis.

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In the national necropolis in Vassieux-en-Vercors, a plaque in memory of the high school is affixed in the national necropolis in Vassieux-en-Vercors.

9.1.3 In Autrans.

The plaque at the Gève refuge in memory of Wilk Ludwick (Guy Giraud Collection).

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On the walls of the refuge on the Gève plateau, a commemorative plaque is dedicated to the memory of Ludwig Wilk, who was killed in action and worked as a carpenter at the high school.

In Bourg-du-Dessus, Chemin des fusillés[/strong], a stele has been erected in memory of three servicemen who fell on 20 July, including Jimmy Hernik, a student at the high school.

9.1.4 In La Doua national necropolis.

La Doua national necropolis. Polish plot.

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Buried in the Polish plot (A, row 10, numbers 70 to 73) are three students and one member of staff: Jerzy Delingier, Léon Pawłowski, Jimmy Hernik, Ludwik Wilk.

9.1.5 In Paris.

Cyprian Norwid High School Memorial, Rue Lamandé Paris 17th arrondissement

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Rue Lamandé, in the courtyard of the École des Batignolles, a plaque is dedicated to the memory of students, teachers and staff of the Polish School and the Cyprian Norwid Polish High School who died in combat or during deportation.

9.1.6 In Montmorency.

The tomb of Cyprian Norwid in Montmorency

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In the Polish necropolis of Champeaux cemetery, Cyprian Norwid and Zygmunt Lubicz-Zaleski are buried.

A commemorative plaque in honour of the high school is affixed to a wall.

9.1.7 In Warsaw, Poland.

Rue de Villardiens in Warsaw's Ursynow district.

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In the Ursyńow district, a Rue des Villardiens was inaugurated in 1998.

9.1.8 In Warsaw, Poland.

Plaque unveiled on 27 September 1986 by Mrs Zofia Lukasiewicz in the crypt of the Church of the Holy Cross in Warsaw. “In memory of the teachers and former students of the Cyprian Norwid High School in Villard-de-Lans, France, who died between 1944 and 1945 fighting in the Resistance in the Vercors and on the battlefields of Europe.” (Association Mémoire du lycée polonais - Polish High School Memorial Association).

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In St John ‘s Cathedral, there is a plaque shared with former students of the Boglar school in Hungary.

In the crypt of the Church of the Holy Cross[/b], a plaque was unveiled in 1986.

” This school was an oasis of Polish culture and peace.” Reported by anonymous alumni – Our School, 2017

It was 5pm in Warsaw and we were gathered in the small courtyard of the Holy Cross Church. There were about thirty of us from here and from the provinces, and we had to introduce ourselves because we did not all recognise each other. To our great delight, our teacher Zofia Lukasiewicz was there. Zbyssek Zarzycki took some pictures in the light of the setting sun. We went down into the crypt and gathered in a large gallery in front of the commemorative plaque covered by a dark veil. We stood in silence for a moment and then Father Bozowski spoke. He held a porcelain and bronze urn in his hands…

” Look at this vase, you see the dolphin on its lid: it is the symbol of Dauphiné, where it all began. This vase was purchased by Zdzis Maszadro. Zdzis went to the battlefields of Normandy; he visited the cemeteries and took a little soil from each of our comrades ‘ graves. We placed the urn in the church, it was then proposed that it should be accompanied by the commemorative plaque that we are going to unveil today. As for the urn, I would like it to remain on this altar and accompany me in the celebration of Masses. After me, it can be passed on to my spiritual son Taddiée who is a seminarian and, after that, perhaps to one of your grandchildren?”

The ladies placed flowers under the plaque. Zbyrek Zarzycki, nicknamed the heretic by Father Bozowski, brought the sprinkler of holy water. Someone brought a chair for Zofia, who refused to sit down and preferred to follow the ceremony standing up. The plaque was unveiled. The priest continued, “It is here, deep within the capital, in the underground passages of the Church of the Holy Cross that once housed the coffin of Prince Joseph Poniatowski, where the heart of our national hero Kosciuszko rests, that the unveiling and consecration of the plaque commemorating Villard-de-Lans will take place. This inauguration is a tribute to those who died in the Vercors or who subsequently disappeared, and also to those who are still alive. It is the memory and symbol of the home that we shared in Villard, the Cyprian Norwid Polish High School.

This school, which became more of a college in the English sense of the word thanks to Mr Zaleski, was an oasis of Polish culture and peace, a real community. The teachers were not ordinary teachers: they were passing on their knowledge and shaping characters, but they also knew that they were preparing the future elite for post-war Poland and the reconstruction of the country.

The ardour and turbulence of youth, headmaster Godlewski’s exceptional classes, Mr Berger ‘s unforgettable choir, the atmosphere, the bonds that united us, all left a powerful imprint on our hearts and in our memories. Friendships were forged and have stood the test of time, as demonstrated by the warmth and kindness of the welcome we received in Villard at our recent meetings.

Let us all now pray for those teachers and classmates who have left us. Let us also pray for the living scattered around the world, those in Poland, France, England, America and Canada. Let us pray for all of you. You, ladies, who have the age of Balzac ‘s heroines, for our ever-young Zofia Lukasiewicz, the heart of Villard, who has not aged a day, and then… for all the others, and finally for Tadzio Lepkowski, that God may help him to write the history of Villard, and to pass on the school ‘s political and religious values.

As the poet said: “Not stubbornly adorning our heads with faded laurels, but moving forward with the living and building a new life.” Let us not live by memories alone. After our mass in these catacombs, we will return to our everyday life. Let us look at it differently, taking away with us from this altar where the ashes are kept, a little spark that will shine in our hearts.

9.1.9 In Walbrzych, Poland.

Rue de Villardiens in Walbrych, inaugurated in 2012.

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A Rue des Villardiens was inaugurated in 2012.

9.Today

Books9.2