1. Personal data:
Platoon Leader Jan Ambroziak, farmer, married.
2. Date and circumstances of arrest:
I was arrested as a military settler on 18 September 1939, in my home in Kosy-Dwór, by a gang of Belarussian peasants.
4. Description of the camp, prison etc.:
I was placed in detention in the Niechniewicze commune. After two days I was taken to the Nowogródek prison, where I spent ten months. Living conditions weren’t bad. But the cells, filled to overcrowding, were stuffy. Initially, there were lice, but later we managed to improve the hygienic conditions by fumigating the cells and by taking frequent baths.
On 28 June 1940 I was taken to Borysów, where the prison conditions were much worse. Prisoners – all Polish citizens. On 26 July 1940 my sentence was read out to me: eight years of compulsory labor. After two days I was taken to Kotlas. From Kotlas, after a few days, I was taken on a barge to the Komi ASSR, in the Kozhva area. I was put to work building road earthworks from dawn to dusk, regardless of weather conditions. Work quotas were very harsh. It was impossible for me to meet them. For this reason I received no more than 500 grams of bread and no money. The clothes were also poor.
6. Life in the camp, prison:
No cultural life, but we got on well with each other.
7. The NKVD’s attitude towards Poles:
During the interrogation in Novogródek, when I was confronted with Belorussian eyewitnesses – Jan Małachowski, Jan Tyńczyk, Władysław Bajko and Piotr Monicz – who accused me of being a police informer, the NKVD investigator hit me a few times in the face with a rifle butt and with his hand.
8. Medical assistance, hospitals, mortality rate:
Medical assistance was quite good – the doctors were mostly from Poland. The medical care in our small hospital was good too. There were a dozen or so Polish citizens, but I don’t remember their names.
9. What, if any, was your contact with your home country and your family?
I had no communication with my country. Nor was I able to communicate with my loved ones.
10. When were you released and how did you manage to join the army?
I was released on 27 August 1941, and on 15 September I arrived in Buzuluk to join the Polish army.
8 March 1943