Year 1944
January
January to July: Resistance movements gain strength. In the Vercors region, the number of maquisards (resistance fighters) rises from four hundred in January to four thousand in July.
March
The Germans increase the number of searches and arrests in Polish homes in Isère.
They carry out inspections at the Polish high school. The matura/baccalaureate exams are brought forward: first session at the beginning of the month.
2 March
Wacław Godlewski is arrested in La Tronche, near Grenoble, and is deported to Dachau. Ernest Berger becomes the school’s third headmaster.
March
Second session of the matura/baccalaureate at the end of the month: 38 recipients for the two sessions.
6 June
News arrives that the Allies have landed in Normandy. Numerous American bombers fly over Villard, heading north.
8 June
The order for general mobilisation in the Vercors is given.
13 to 15 June
The Germans make their first assault on the Vercors at Saint-Nizier.
16 June
The Germans search the boarding facilities in Lans-en-Vercors, enter Villard, gather everyone in the schoolyard and train machine-guns on them while they search the building for weapons. Ernest Berger is interrogated and manages to convince them that the school’s activities are purely educational. After a few hours, the hostages are freed and most of the Germans leave.
July
Andrzej Kasprzyk, who attended the school from 1942 to 1944, tries to reach London. He is arrested by the Germans at Valence station and dies on the train to Dachau.
3 July
The French Republic is restored in the Vercors.
16 July
The FFI (Forces Françaises de l'Intérieur, a coalition of resistance groups) arrive in Villard and gather around one hundred and fifty men. Among them are twenty-seven students, teachers, a doctor and members of staff from the high school. The recruitment sometimes resembles forced enrolment: only the students are enthusiastic.
17 July
The recruits from the school are posted to Vassieux. The teachers and the doctor join the mobile hospital and an arms depot.
21 July
In Vassieux, at dawn, driven by a sense of foreboding, the members of staff move away from the village. Shortly before nine o'clock, German gliders make a surprise landing in the centre of the village. Five students: Henryk Czarnecki, Jerzy Delingier, Witold Nowak, Leon Pawłowski and Józef Zglinicki are massacred on the spot, along with Eugeniusz Łukomski, a student’s brother. They had no weapons and were aged between sixteen and nineteen.
22 July
Radio Moscow announces the creation in Lublin of the Polish National Liberation Committee (PKWN), which fulfils government functions in Poland's eastern territories.
23 July
Fighting in the Vercors ceases. The leaders of the resistance give the order to disperse.
28 July
Polish survivors of the Vassieux attack make their way through the Vercors massif and reach Villard. Two more, hiding in farms, return a little later. The teachers Jan Harwas and Kazimierz Gerhardt are not among them. They have been arrested. The doctor Tadeusz Welfle disappears without trace.
29 July
Zdzislaw “Jimmy” Hernik fought in Poland in 1939 and in France in 1940. A student at the lycée since 1941, he joined the FFI in March after receiving his Matura. He took part in the fighting at Vassieux. He was shot in Autrans.
(End of) July
Ludwik Wilk, the school's carpenter and a member of the FFI since the beginning of the year, was mistakenly shot by one of his fellow soldiers near Autrans.
August
Michał Stąpor, a student since 1943, was shot by the Germans while returning to his family.
From 1 to 2 August
The Warsaw Uprising continues. The Germans totally destroy the town and expel its inhabitants, while the Red Army halts its offensive near Warsaw.
15 August
Edward Renn, a student, and Zofia Luckasiewicz, a teacher, identify the bodies of the students massacred at Vassieux. They are temporarily buried there.
15 August
The Allies land in Provence. They quickly progress northwards.
From 17 to 21 August
The teachers Jan Harwas and Kazimierz Gerhardt are shot in Bron, near Lyon.
20,21 August
Jan Ambik, Marian Drohomirecki, Jan Kania and Marian Szybka fought in Poland in 1939 and in France in 1940. Students at the high school from 1940 to 1943, they joined the First Armoured Division and were killed in action in Normandy, near Falaise.
22 August
Liberation of Grenoble.
25 August
Liberation of Paris.
Lucjan Owczarek, a former student who joined the Polish resistance network POWN-Monika in 1941, took part.
7 September
Wiktor Suchy fought in Poland in 1939 and in France in 1940. A student from 1941-1942, he joined the First Armoured Division and was killed in action in Belgium.
16 September
Ceremonial funeral in Villard-de-Lans for fifteen Villardians and seven Poles killed in the fighting in the Vercors.
October
The school year starts with two hundred students, including one hundred and three girls.
6 November
Zdzisław Jaworczak fought in France in 1940. A student from 1940-1943, he joined the First Armoured Division and was killed in action in Holland.
Date unknown
Marek Palmbach attended the school from 1942, joined the French Resistance and was killed in Saône-et-Loire. He was fifteen years old.
Romuald Dowmont, a student from 1940-1941, is thought to have died in a concentration camp.
Jan Nowiński, a student from 1940-1943, died during the fighting to liberate Holland.