1. Personal data (name, surname, rank, age, profession, marital status):
Senior Sergeant Piotr Affek, non-commissioned regular officer, 38 years of age, married.
2. Date and circumstances of arrest:
On 22 September 1939 I was taken into Soviet captivity in a town near Włodzimierz. Then I was escorted to the train station in Włodzimierz, where we were loaded into railway cars, 60-70 people per car, and taken to Szepetówka.
3. Name of the camp, prison or forced labor site:
I was in the following camps: Szepetówka, Zahorce Wielkie, Rudnia Poczajowska, Łuka Wielka, Zastawie, Starobilsk.
4. Description of the camp, prison (camp grounds, buildings, living conditions, hygiene):
Living conditions: Szepetówka – military barracks, concrete floor. There were so many of us that we had to sleep in rotation. There wasn’t enough room to fit all of us. Hygienic conditions were awful. Zahorce Wielkie – cowsheds filled with manure. There was a large heap of liquid manure in front of them. It was impossible to walk across it. Rudnia Poczajowska – a barn, half of it roofless. We slept on bare planks. There was no straw. Łuka Wielka – farm stables. There was a lot of manure around. It wasn’t removed until the very end of my stay there. Zastawie – sheds that had once stored concrete. We built bunks inside. Everyone was allotted 40 centimeters of a bunk to sleep on. We were marched off from Zastawie under heavy escort, driven day and night without rest. The marching conditions were awful. We weren’t allowed to take water with us. Food was out of the question. We lived on nothing but grain, [which was obtained] when one of us managed to detach himself from the [column]. On the way we were subjected to rigid discipline. We weren’t allowed to take one step off to the side. I saw people who were so famished and exhausted that they were no longer able to walk. In such cases Soviet boytsy stabbed them with their bayonets, leaving their bodies unburied. They drove us in this way for 21 days, from Zastaw to Zlotonosha.
5. Composition of prisoners-of-war, prisoners, exiles (nationality, type of crime, intellectual and moral level, mutual relations):
Except for a few Jews, all the prisoners were of Polish nationality. Intellectual level – average. Mutual relations were very good.
6. Life in the camp, prison (daily routine, working conditions, work quotas, remuneration, food rations, clothes, social and cultural life):
Daily routine: we woke up at 5.00 a.m. After breakfast, at 6.00 a.m., we set out to work. Working conditions were very harsh and the work quotas were set much too high for anyone to meet them. How can you be expected to remove 1.2 cubic meters of stone during one day? It was simply impossible. Pay depended on the meeting of work quotas, as did food rations. And none of us was able to meet them. Food rations were divided according to the so-called caldrons: the first, second and third ones. The third caldron was for those who filled 100% of their work quota. They received 800 grams of bread and three hot meals. Those who met 80% of their quota were given 600 grams of bread and two hot meals. The first caldron was for those who failed to meet 80% of their work quota. The latter received 400 grams of bread and two hot meals. The first caldron was called a punitive one, and the camp head, in referring to it, used to say: "if you fail to meet your quotas, you are going to have rations that only smell of groats". And we all received rations from the first caldron, because none of us ever managed to meet the work quotas. In terms of clothes, our situation was also very difficult. We walked ragged, almost naked. In order not to go around naked, everyone had to patch his pants together.
We were all on good terms with each other. The Soviets, fierce in the pursuit of their propaganda, tried to convince us of the advantages of communism and we were lectured on the ideas of Marx and Lenin. They also told us that Poland would never be restored. We attended these meetings because we had to.
9. What, if any, was your contact with your country and your family?
Except for a small number of those who were in the camp head’s good graces, nobody received letters.
10. When were you released and how did you manage to join the army?
I was released from captivity on 26 August 1941 in Starobilsk, and this is where I joined the Polish army.