Origins

September 1939. Poland was invaded by Germany and the USSR, and its territory divided between them. The Polish government went into exile in France, in Angers. The Polish army reformed in Brittany.

Polish refugees flocked to France. Something had to be done to avoid the children losing a school year. A Polish school was due to open in Amiens, but this was quickly changed to a high school in Paris. It was named after the poet Cyprian Norwid.

After eight months of “phoney war”, during which everyone kept a close eye on each other, the Germans invaded the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg. The Battle of France began and ended in defeat. The first Cyprian Norwid Polish High School closed. The Polish government in exile moved to London.

For the Polish government in exile, the priority was to continue the fight, and to look after the thousands of Polish refugees in France, including education for the youngest. Zygmunt Lubicz-Zaleski was tasked with setting up a Polish high school in the free zone. Wacław Godlewski was to assist him.

Grenoble seemed an ideal location: a university town with numerous refugees, including the Warsaw elite, and close to neutral, benevolent Switzerland. The final choice was a more discreet village in the surrounding area: Villard-de-Lans and its many hotels that had been deserted since the beginning of the war.

On 18 October 1940, the second Cyprian Norwid Polish High School opened its doors on the premises of the Hôtel du Parc et du Château. Ambroise Jobert, a Polish history teacher, welcomed the students on behalf of the French authorities.

The high school’s legal status was difficult to define precisely. It was in fact a foreign, private school with its own administration and its own programmes, but was overseen from an educational point of view by the French Ministry of Education.