 To <unk> the rise of a new generation of educated Poles , German officials <unk> that the schooling of Polish children would be limited to a few years of elementary education . <unk> @-@ SS Heinrich <unk> wrote , in a memorandum of May 1940 : " The sole purpose of this schooling is to teach them simple arithmetic , nothing above the number 500 ; how to write one 's name ; and the doctrine that it is divine law to obey the Germans .... I do not regard a knowledge of reading as desirable . " Hans Frank echoed him : " The Poles do not need universities or secondary schools ; the Polish lands are to be converted into an intellectual desert . " The situation was particularly dire in the former Polish territories beyond the General Government , which had been annexed to the Third Reich . The specific policy varied from territory to territory , but in general , there was no Polish @-@ language education at all . German policy constituted a crash @-@ Germanization of the populace . Polish teachers were dismissed , and some were invited to attend " orientation " meetings with the new administration , where they were either summarily arrested or executed on the spot . Some Polish schoolchildren were sent to German schools , while others were sent to special schools where they spent most of their time as unpaid laborers , usually on German @-@ run farms ; speaking Polish brought severe punishment . It was expected that Polish children would begin to work once they finished their primary education at age 12 to 15 . In the eastern territories not included in the General Government ( <unk> <unk> , <unk> <unk> and <unk> Ukraine ) many primary schools were closed , and most education was conducted in non @-@ Polish languages such as Ukrainian , <unk> , and Lithuanian . In the <unk> <unk> region , for example , 86 % of the schools that had existed before the war were closed down during the first two years of German occupation , and by the end of the following year that figure had increased to 93 % . 
