 In the General Government , the remaining schools were <unk> to the German educational system , and the number and competence of their Polish staff was steadily scaled down . All universities and most secondary schools were closed , if not immediately after the invasion , then by mid @-@ 1940 . By late 1940 , no official Polish educational institutions more advanced than a vocational school remained in operation , and they offered nothing beyond the elementary trade and technical training required for the Nazi economy . Primary schooling was to last for seven years , but the classes in the final two years of the program were to be limited to meeting one day per week . There was no money for heating of the schools in winter . Classes and schools were to be merged , Polish teachers dismissed , and the resulting savings used to sponsor the creation of schools for children of the German minority or to create barracks for German troops . No new Polish teachers were to be trained . The educational curriculum was censored ; subjects such as literature , history and geography were removed . Old textbooks were confiscated and school libraries were closed . The new educational aims for Poles included convincing them that their national fate was <unk> , and teaching them to be submissive and respectful to Germans . This was accomplished through deliberate tactics such as police raids on schools , police inspections of student belongings , mass arrests of students and teachers , and the use of students as forced laborers , often by transporting them to Germany as seasonal workers . 
