Easter 1943. Wacław Godlewski standing, with chaplain Bronislaw Bozowski by his side (Association Mémoire du lycée polonais - Polish High School Memorial Association).

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”A school unlike any other”
Spirituality

Spirituality

Chapters

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

Spirituality at the school was not purely patriotic, it was also religious, but in the form of a benevolent Catholicism, open to others.

Some claim that the school was deeply Catholic, while others believe that most of the students were agnostic or even atheist. The truth, as is often the case, is more complex. Spirituality at the school was not purely patriotic, it was also religious, but in the form of a benevolent Catholicism, open to others.

5.2.1 “The students fulfilled their religious obligations… but without excessive zeal.”

Reproduction by a student's parent of the icon of the Black Madonna from the Ostrobrama chapel in Wilno. It was on display in the school refectory. When the high school closed, the painting was taken in a procession to the church in Villard-de-Lans. (Association Mémoire du lycée polonais - Polish High School Memorial Association).

—Tadeusz Łepkowski, student. A free Polish school in occupied France (2012), based on Wolna szkoła polska w okupowanej francji (1990).

At the high school, the situation was identical to what it had been in pre-war Poland: collective morning and evening prayers were compulsory, also before lessons and meals, as were religious instruction classes, attendance at Sunday services, mass service for boys, confession and communion before Christmas and Easter. The students fulfilled their religious obligations as a matter of course, conscientiously, but without excessive zeal.

However, the generation of student-soldiers who were the majority in the classes during the first two years of the school ‘s existence found it difficult to accept the schematism of Father Chechelski ‘s lessons, preferring the much more open-minded Father Bozowski, nicknamed Bozower.

There was a significant proportion of rebellious, anti-clerical, sceptical and agnostic students, but very few unbelievers or declared atheists. Some behaved badly during prayers, played truant from religious education classes or had very poor marks in this subject. Some even went so far as to refuse to take the test that was part of the “petit bac” exam (to progress from junior high school to high school), but these were exceptions. Few students were hostile to Catholicism and even fewer were atheists, but there were not many very pious one either.

They were happy to go to mass on Sundays, as it was an opportunity to show their patriotism. In front of the icon of the Black Madonna in Wilno ‘s Ostrobrama chapel, traditional religious festivals were celebrated in a way that was either patriotic and tearful, or folkloric and popular.

5.2.2 “Patriotic religiosity or religious patriotism.”

1943 — Bronisław Bozowski marries two former pupils, Ewa Valentin and Zdzisław Stączek (Association Mémoire du lycée polonais - Polish High School Memorial Association).

—Tadeusz Łepkowski, student A Polish free school in occupied France (2012), based on Wolna szkoła polska w okupowanej francji (1990).

During a discussion in the 1970s with Godlewski and Zofia Łukasiewicz, Father Bozowski defined Villard ‘s spirit as follows: “It was a very broad humanism (but was it very deep?), a cult of man and Polish culture, but there was no cult of God.”

The critique is somewhat excessive, and Bozower was more inspired when he wrote: “Most of the students had the typical Catholicism of pre-war Poland: sentimental, strongly patriotic, and further reinforced by the war and its trials.”

Elsewhere, Bozowski stresses that Villardian religiosity was the “normal religiosity of Poles of that period, with, it seems to me, a predominance of the national tradition and a nostalgic attachment to the values it contained and to God as protector” . It was debatable whether it was a matter of patriotic religiosity or religious patriotism.

5.2.3 “There was no room for any other faith in our imagination.”

Bronisław Bozowski in front of the wall of his memories (Association Mémoire du lycée polonais - Polish High School Memorial Association).

—Karol Obidniak, student Our School, 2017, based on Mój Villard de Lans, 1978.

In the world of disillusionment that was unfolding in 1939, young people everywhere were instinctively looking for ideals to mobilise their strengths as they entered adult life. I arrived at the Polish high school in Villard-de-Lans in 1941, at this incredible school where the children of Polish immigrant miners from the north of France and soldiers sat on the same classroom benches, and where the teachers were university professors. There I met a catechist and educator, Father Bronisław Bozowski.

Like almost all my friends, like young people all over the world, I was an inveterate dreamer, I aspired to a better future for Poland and for the world. We believed in it so much that it was enough for us to be happy; there was no room for any other faith in our imagination. “Bozower” , as we called our chaplain, sought to enrich our imagination, saturated with temporal desires, with faith in God and eternal life. But when you ‘re sixteen or seventeen, life itself seems divine and so full of promise that you think it ‘s eternal. Bozower knew us too well not to know that. No doubt that ‘s why, with rare patience and understanding, he discussed with us this world that we saw from a materialistic angle. The respect he showed for our opinions led us to admire his faith.

I remember one lesson when we attacked him mercilessly with a question laden with demagoguery: “Can you give us an approximate date when divine grace will have been sufficiently poured out on mankind to humanise them to the point of allowing them access to God and Paradise?” The hour passed more quickly than usual, followed by a biology lesson with Mrs Zofia Łukasiewicz, nicknamed Amoeba, and then a philosophy lesson with Mr Tarlo-Maziński. After those three hours of lively discussions, our cheeks were flushed; our teachers remained invincible, but knew not to overwhelm us with their knowledge.

I can still feel the warmth and joy of those classes today. How important it was for us young people to measure ourselves against such authorities in their respective fields, while remaining ourselves and not being ridiculed! It was a lesson in tolerance that invigorated and inspired us! An unforgettable lesson.

Bozower regretted that we did not share his faith, but he allowed us to flourish with opinions that were not his own. He very much participated in shaping our lives here on earth, while seeing his future in the hereafter. He was close to us on account of the respect with which he approached our differences. He was close to us on account of his utopian faith, similar to ours, in a better tomorrow for Poland and for the world.

5.2.4 “Religion and me.”

Alexander Uszynski walking in the Oisans region.

—Aleksander Uscynski, student History from 1927 to 1957 as partially and incompletely found in my memories, 2014.

Like almost all Polish families, mine was Roman Catholic, practising in an innate and traditional way that, without being aggressive, left no room for the slightest doubt. The cement of the nation for centuries, between predominantly Protestant Germany and Tsarist, Orthodox and then atheist Soviet Russia, all religious practice was at the same time a manifestation of unshakeable patriotism and a means of resisting attempts at Germanisation on the one hand and Russification on the other during the dark period in history that followed the division of Poland.

Its resurrection from oblivion in 1918 was, after multiple uprisings and insurrections, simply a consequence of this singularity.

Baptised in the Church of the Holy Saviour near Wileza Street, I was a voluntary and assiduous altar boy during primary school, and was confirmed in the Church of the Holy Cross (where Chopin ‘s heart is preserved) on New World Street and enthusiastically joined the scouts. I never felt alienated in any way by this education and the moral principles that went with it. The German occupation and soon the increasingly brutal hunt for Jews in Poland (and throughout Europe) increased my feeling of belonging to a particular community, although at the time I could not have clearly explained why this was.

Contrary to the weight and constraints often associated in France with a religious education (at Jesuit junior high schools), this same education in Poland was joyful, inventive, open to others and to the world. At least that ‘s how I felt, perhaps because of the many constraints imposed by the occupier in many other areas: education, community life and even sport. The mere fact of attending a solemn mass, a pilgrimage or even a procession among thousands of people provided a certain comfort in these times of sadness and multiple personal tragedies.

5.1Preparing the nation’s renewal

Relations with ViIlardians5.3