1. Personal data:
Scouter Wanda Bolimowska, born on [illegible] 1903 in Pomorzawka, district of Horodrów, Wołyń, unmarried, a student.
2. Date and circumstances of arrest:
On 10 April 1940 my family and I (settlers) were arrested and deported to Russia as so-called “free deportees” [deported to a location other than a forced labor camp].
3. Name of the camp, prison, place of forced labor:
Arkhangelsk Oblast, Solvychegodsk District, Vostochny Lesopunkt [forestry camp].
4. Description of the camp, prison:
The camp was located in a forest. We lived in wooden buildings, i.e. barracks. A few families would live in one room. In time, the barracks were restructured and each family got its own “room”.
5. Social composition of POWs, prisoners, deportees:
There were some five hundred people in the settlement. Mainly Poles. There was a small percentage of Ukrainians. Nearly exclusively, the prisoners were settlers. Forester Rej, who had been arrested by the NKVD and deported together with his family, kept our spirits up and was always willing to help.
6. Life in the camp, prison:
We worked felling trees in the forest. The work was hard and tedious, lasting from sunup until sundown. The wages were poor. Only those who carried out the so-called norms received fairly good payment and were able to sustain themselves. There were a lot of youths. We would organize political and even religious meetings, and various others. But we had to do this in secret and be very careful so as to avoid the authorities.
7. Attitude of the authorities, NKVD towards Poles:
The attitude of the Russian authorities to us, Poles, was hostile. Even if you were a few minutes late for work, they would send you to court. I myself was tried for progul [unauthorized absence from work].
8. Medical care, hospitals, mortality rate:
There were five people in my family. I have two younger sisters and a younger brother. My mother, Anna Bolimowska, died in Russia in 1940. Forester Stanisław Wawrzynek also died.
In all, some fifty deportees died in the settlement.
9. Was it at all possible to keep in touch with the home country and your family? If yes, then what contacts were permitted?
We received parcels and money from our families in Poland, and this aid kept us alive. We would not have endured if not for their help.
10. When were you released and how did you get through to the Polish Army?
I was freed on 10 October 1941, following the amnesty. Once the Soviets gave us release certificates, we traveled south. We journeyed for two months. In southern Russia, we ended up in the Krasnyy Partizan kolkhoz in the Bazar-Korgon District of the Jalal-Abad Oblast.
I enlisted in the Polish Army in Margilan on 4 April 1942. My two sisters are in the female army students corps’ school in Palestine, while my brother is in the male school. My father serves in the military.