The Organization was created towards the end of October 1939 in Warsaw response to German closure of most Polish educational institutions and repressions against teachers.

Heinrich Himmler wrote in a May 1940 memorandum, "The sole purpose of this schooling is to teach them simple arithmetic, nothing above the number 500; writing one's name; and the doctrine that it is divine law to obey the Germans...

[6] By 1942, about 1,500,000 students took part in the Organization underground primary education; in 1944, its secondary school system covered 100,000 people and the university level courses, about 10,000.

[4] Its network covered the whole of Poland, roughly corresponding to the pre-war educational structure of the Second Polish Republic,[1] and was most organized in the General Government.

Founders and main activists of the Organization, many of whom were connected to the pre-war Association of Polish Teachers (Związek Nauczycielstwa Polskiego),[4] included: Zygmunt Nowicki,[4] Kazimierz Maj,[4] Wacław Tułodziecki,[4] Teofil Wojeński[4] and Czesław Wycech.