Throughout history, conquering powers have sought to suppress culture as a means of control. This talk will explore underground universities as sites of intellectual resistance, focusing on clandestine efforts in occupied Poland during the Second World War. Although higher education was directly targeted by Nazi policy, Polish scholars organized secret courses, exams, publications, and degree programs, often at great personal risk. Using education itself as an act of defiance, these faculty members and students contributed to sustaining national identity and many would go on to shape postwar intellectual life.