Danuta Brzosko (married Mędryk) – A-levels exam in the prison yard

After invading Poland, the German occupiers closed the grammar schools and universities there to prevent the population from attaining higher education. Danuto Brzosko was not prepared to accept this situation – she wanted to become a doctor, and needed her school-leaving certificate. She attended covert instruction classes given in private homes. The Gestapo arrested the teachers and pupils alike. While she was in prison she secretly passed her final exams. After her release she joined the resistance. In 1942 she was once again arrested, now deported to the Majdanek concentration camp, and in mid-1944 to the women’s subcamp in Leipzig. After her return, her school-leaving exam was recognized. She went to university and became a dentist and a writer.