Volunteer Elżbieta Czosyk, born in 1916 in Czortków; until the deportation I lived in Czortków, supported by my husband.
My husband was arrested on 21 January 1940, and I was deported to Russia on 13 April. We were transported in locked trucks. It was hot and stuffy inside, and the sick lay on the floor. I was deported to the Semipalatinsk Oblast, Pishchanka hamlet. We lived in the krasnyj ugolok [lit. red corner, a community room] until it collapsed on top of us. We performed various tasks. We worked in the fields, fed pigs, made bricks. We were paid for our work. However, we couldn’t buy anything with the money we earned. I used to send the money to my mother, who sent me food packages in return.
As soon as I received my udostoverenie [certificate of release] I left with a few other ladies for Semipalatinsk. In order to scrape a living I had to work in a sewing workshop and to sell off my clothes. On 13 November 1941 I left Semipalatinsk in a military transport headed by Sergeant Miler. We were to join the army. We went as far as Kitab. From Kitab we were sent back to Dzhambul, and from Dzhambul we were sent to various kolkhozes. The life in the kolkhoz was horrible. 21 people had to live in one room. The conditions were cramped, we were cold and hungry. We didn’t read the newspapers at all, as there weren’t any. We received a Kazakh newspaper, but we couldn’t read it, as we didn’t know the language. There was propaganda against Poland. The Russians were trying to explain to us in their beautiful but foolish speeches that life in Russia was wonderful, whereas life in Poland was – or rather had been – very bad. A young Jew died in the kolkhoz from a tarantula bite. Unfortunately I don’t remember his surname. In the kolkhoz I worked in the fields and at making kibitkas. I spent nine months there. In August I left for Pahlavi and joined the Women’s Auxiliary Service.