Fighting

The region’s accommodation centres sent refugees to the Villard high school and Grenoble university. Together they formed the Centre for Polish Studies: a Centre of Resistance.

While at the high school or after leaving, young people and adults, boys and girls alike, took part in resistance activities. They joined the French and Polish networks and paid the price: four were killed and around thirty deported, three of whom did not return.

One form of Resistance was to escape from France to Britain. This was attempted by more than ninety students and three teachers, and involved crossing the Pyrenees, and then travelling via Spain, Portugal, Gibraltar, Algeria etc. Several were intercepted. Those who succeeded joined officer training colleges and Polish divisions. They subsequently contributed to the liberation of Europe.

The year 1943 and the invasion of the unoccupied zone by the Italian and German armies marked a turning point. The Vichy regime and occupying forces kept a close eye on the school. Zygmunt Lubicz-Zaleski and then Wacław Godlewski were arrested and deported.

When the Vercors uprising broke out, twenty-five students, teachers and staff joined the Resistance and the French Forces of the Interior. Eleven were killed in action when the Germans subdued the Vercors.

The Polish resistance network POWN-Monika took part in the liberation of Paris. The liberation was that of France and Europe, in which the Polish Army of the West has participated. Sixty-seven former students of the school took part. Nine were killed in action on the French, Dutch and German fronts.

Men and women, students, teachers and staff, soldiers, prisoners, deportees and victims are listed here.