 In response to the German closure and censorship of Polish schools , resistance among teachers led almost immediately to the creation of large @-@ scale underground educational activities . Most notably , the Secret Teaching Organization ( <unk> <unk> <unk> , TON ) was created as early as in October 1939 . Other organizations were created locally ; after 1940 they were increasingly subordinated and coordinated by the TON , working closely with the Underground 's State Department of Culture and Education , which was created in autumn 1941 and headed by <unk> <unk> , creator of the TON . Classes were either held under the cover of officially permitted activities or in private homes and other venues . By 1942 , about 1 @,@ 500 @,@ 000 students took part in underground primary education ; in 1944 , its secondary school system covered 100 @,@ 000 people , and university level courses were attended by about 10 @,@ 000 students ( for comparison , the pre @-@ war enrollment at Polish universities was about 30 @,@ 000 for the 1938 / 1939 year ) . More than 90 @,@ 000 secondary @-@ school pupils attended underground classes held by nearly 6 @,@ 000 teachers between 1943 and 1944 in four districts of the General Government ( centered on the cities of Warsaw , Kraków , <unk> and <unk> ) . Overall , in that period in the General Government , one of every three children was receiving some sort of education from the underground organizations ; the number rose to about 70 % for children old enough to attend secondary school . It is estimated that in some rural areas , the educational coverage was actually improved ( most likely as courses were being organized in some cases by teachers escaped or deported from the cities ) . Compared to pre @-@ war classes , the absence of Polish Jewish students was notable , as they were confined by the Nazi Germans to ghettos ; there was , however , underground Jewish education in the ghettos , often organized with support from Polish organizations like TON . Students at the underground schools were often also members of the Polish resistance . 
