School chronicles are an important but sometimes underestimated source of information for the history of education. The difficulties with their use result from their dispersion, lack of availability and subjective nature. However, despite their subjectivity, they can provide extremely interesting information, e.g. on the biographies of individual educators. This article focuses on the war fate of school teachers in the Eastern Greater Poland. Almost all of them lost their jobs as a result of the closure of schools. Many were deported to the General Government or to forced labour in Germany. Those who stayed undertook off-an-on work or jobs that had nothing to do with the teaching profession. Despite the threat to their lives, some of them were also engaged in secret teaching. Unfortunately, there were also those who decided to collaborate with the German occupier. The research included in this article should be considered an introduction to research in this source area.
The status of the school chronicle as a genre documenting social life may seem dysfunctional from today’s perspective. Nowadays, there are other channels of communication and other means of transferring values, shaping attitudes and setting examples. However, the school chronicle can still be an interesting resource illustrating the contemporary means and tools — actualized in the messages of persuasion and propaganda — which effectively influence the attitudes, ideas, views and decisions of recipients, as well as shape their attitudes and construct personal patterns of parenetic character. The text focuses on the analysis of material from school chronicles which concerns the image of war and that of the soldier.
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