1. Personal data:
Platoon leader Alfons Adamowicz, born on 15 December 1906 in Białystok, Senior Constable of the State Police, married, two children, education – seven grades of elementary school.
2. Date and circumstances of arrest:
On the night of 11 July 1940 I was taken along with others from the Camp for Interned Poles in the city of Ukmerge in Lithuania. There were about 1,200 of us – non-commissioned officers, soldiers and policemen. After being marched from the camp to the train station under heavy escort, we were loaded into railway cars, locked up and taken to the camp in Kozelsk, in the Smolensk region.
3. Name of the camp, prison or forced labor site:
From 14 July 1940 to 15 May 1941 in Kozelsk; from 22 May to 13 July 1941 in the Kolski Peninsula, initially in Murmansk in two camps and then in Ponoy by the White Sea, where I worked unloading ships and building roads. I was also involved in constructing a military airport.
4. Description of the camp:
The camp in Kozielsk was set up in the buildings of the former monastery. I was lodged in the Orthodox Church along with other men, from 80 to 500 in number. We slept for three months on bunks devoid of bedding. Sanitary conditions were bearable. In the camps in Murmansk, [we were] initially in tents, sleeping on bunks. Then we were taken to Ponoy. There was still much snow, but no buildings had been arranged for us to be lodged in. Sleeping in the open air, in the rain and cold, we dug ourselves into the sodden ground and this is how we lived until 13 July 1941, when, following the amnesty granted by the Soviets, we were taken by ship across the White Sea to Arkhangelsk, where we were again exposed to miserable hardships. We slept all around the camp grounds, including in old tents, in the courtyard, and even by the toilet. More recently [I was] in the camp at Suzdal, near Vladimir.
5. Prisoners’ nationality, categories:
There were only officers, non-commissioned officers, policemen and soldiers in the camps in which I was. Almost all of them were Poles interned from Latvia and Lithuania, except for the camp near Murmansk where I was detained very briefly and where there were about 2,000 Soviet convicts. Sanitary conditions in Murmansk were very poor. Lots of bedbugs, dirt and garbage.
6. Life in the camp:
In Kozelsk, we did nothing except for some cleanup work. We shared our barracks with officers. For slaves, our life was quite bearable, and so were the sanitary conditions. In the Kolski Peninsula we worked as forced laborers under very harsh conditions, being given no food for a few days.
7. The NKVD’s attitude towards Poles:
We suffered brutal mistreatment, especially during the transports, when even those who were weak, who were unable to endure their thirst or who were no longer able to travel, were tormented. Apart from frequent "examinations", we were often driven out of the camp and we weren’t given our correspondence.
8. Medical assistance and mortality rate:
There was medical assistance and the mortality rate was relatively low.
9. What, if any, was your contact with your home country and your family:
We were allowed to write once a month. I received five letters from my family.
10. When were you released and how did you manage to join the army?
I joined the Polish army in Suzdal, following the amnesty of 24 August 1941.
Field bakery no 101, 5 March 1943.