[1.] Personal data:
Rifleman Leszek Bobowski, 33 years old, student at the University of Technology, unmarried.
[2.] Date and circumstances of arrest:
17 April 1940, 3.00 p.m., in the flat of a parish priest from the St. Magdalene’s Church in Lwów, Father Cieński, who is now a chaplain in the Polish Army in Russia. There was an ambush there, and many people were caught then.
[3.] Name of the camp, prison or forced labor site:
Until 17 July 1940 – Lwów, the prison in the Zamarstynów district of Lwów; until 13 July 1941 – a prison in Horodnia, Chernihiv Oblast; until 18 February 1942 – the prison in Verkhneuralsk near Magnitogorsk, Chelyabinsk Oblast. All the time as a podozritelnyy [?] [suspect].
[4.] Description of the camp or prison:
The prison in Zamarstynów, Lwów: overcrowded (27 people in a cell 32 square meters large), lice-infested; otherwise bearable hygienic conditions.
The prison in Horodnia: healthy location, an old former monastery building, all facilities in primitive sanitary condition, lice; in winter we had water running down the walls and ceilings. There were approximately 350 prisoners.
The prison in Verkhneuralsk: a large complex of buildings, housing approximately 3,000 prisoners, overcrowded (85 people in about 36 square meters); the prisoners lay directly on an asphalt floor, without any kind of bedding, regardless of the season, often without any clothes, only in ragged underwear. The prison was unheated and terribly lice-infested; there were leaky, overflowing buckets in each cell, which didn’t close shut, and no water for washing; baths were very rare and irregular. Virtually no walks. Brutal treatment of prisoners. Frequent searches. Despite the amnesty – about which, by the way, we knew nothing – the Poles were treated the same as the USSR citizens.
[5.] The composition of prisoners-of-war, inmates, exiles:
The prisons in Lwów and Horodnia – Polish citizens: Poles, Ukrainians, Old Ruthenians, and Jews of all imaginable professions and various political affiliations. All were imprisoned on charges of carrying out counter-revolutionary activities – either in the pre-war period or following the arrival of the Soviet troops in Poland – and especially of membership in clandestine organizations. Many Ukrainian peasants were charged with being informers.
The prison in Verkhneuralsk – Polish citizens intermingled with citizens of the Soviet Union. The arrests of the latter were carried out mainly as a preventive measure at the outbreak of the Soviet-German War. Various professions: engineers, technicians, laborers. Mainly Belarusians, Ukrainians and Germans – Soviet citizens. Jews from Germany, Czech territories and Poland, who had earlier been given jobs, sometimes even deep in the Russian interior. Their attitude towards the Poles was changeable – it varied from cordiality to hatred and betrayal, depending on circumstances. These people were corrupt to the core, regardless of education and descent. In Verkhneuralsk, there was also a group of Ukrainians and Romanians from Bessarabia. Ukrainians and Old Ruthenians who were Polish citizens were hostile towards the Poles.
[6.] Life in the camp, prison:
Ordinary prison life. Spontaneous talks and stories told by the prisoners themselves. In the prison in Verkhneuralsk – hunger. Sometimes prisoners fainted due to exhaustion and the lack of air. No access whatsoever to tobacco products.
[7.] The NKVD’s attitude towards Poles:
Lwów, Zamarstynów: Beating to unconsciousness, sometimes even five or six times a day during a few weeks; solitary confinement in the dark cell – which was cold and filled with water – from a few days to a few weeks; arm twisting; incarceration in a small cage, in which it was impossible to sit down; being suspended head down; pouring ammonia down one’s nose; eliciting confessions by showing food and promising freedom and a good job; threatening with the imprisonment of one’s family. Provocations and confrontations with previously terrorized co-defendants. Propaganda through books written only in Russian and Ukrainian. Complete isolation. No information about Poland or one’s family; no general news. No letters, no access to newspapers. False information.
[8.] Medical assistance, hospitals, mortality rate:
The medical assistance was virtually non-existent, especially in Verkhneuralsk, where the mortality rate was extremely high – very often a death resulted from negligence, as many people suffered from some minor health issues. The following from among my fellow inmates died in these prisons: Bryks – a merchant from Złoczów (December 1940); Babecki – a landowner from Volhynia; Gustaw Węgrzynowicz – a butcher, Lwów, Zboiska 144; Karol Accord – a railway clerk, Lwów.
[9.] Was there any possibility to get in contact with one’s country and family?
None. From February to May 1941 I received three packages (food, clothes) from Poland, [in response] to letters which I had sent with the permission of the prison authorities, but I didn’t manage to determine who had sent them.
[10.] When were you released?
On 18 February 1942 on the basis of the amnesty. On the day of my release I had my fingerprints and a photograph taken, and I was required to sign a declaration that I wouldn’t disclose any information concerning my stay in the prison. On 24 February 1942 I appeared before the Polish Military Commission in Magnitogorsk (headed by Lieutenant Karaś) where I received an order to leave for the assembly point in Chokpak, where on 27 March 1942 I appeared before the draft board.
Official stamp, 14 January 1943