The aim of the article is to show the role of the Polish legation in Bern in the emergence and development of Polish higher education in Switzerland from 1940 to 1942 on the basis of diplomatic cables exchanged with the Polish government in London. After the fall of Poland in 1939, some of the Polish troops were evacuated to neutral Switzerland where they were interned. From that moment on, the head of the mission in Bern, Aleksander Ładoś, continued his efforts to provide soldiers with access to education. The soldiers were deployed in specially created camps and it was there that the education system at the upper secondary school and university levels was organised for them. Students were divided according to age, education and skills. The camp education was subject to administrative and scientific supervision by the relevant Swiss state and university authorities. This education system received financial support not only from Switzerland itself but also from many international institutions, the Polish diaspora, the Polish government and private individuals. An educational camp magazine was also published.
The article aims to show the changing methods of discouraging seminarians, who became soldiers in military units, from continuing their priestly education. Unpublished letters Warsaw seminarians sent Władysław Miziołek from military barracks serve as a source of analysis. At the time, Miziołek was the rector of the Metropolitan Higher Theological Seminary in Warsaw; in 1969, he became an auxiliary bishop of Warsaw.
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