1. Personal data:
Platoon Leader Jan Darasz, 42 years old, senior guard with the Border Guard, married.
2. Date and circumstances of arrest:
I was taken prisoner by the Soviets on 18 September 1939 in the town of Biała, near Tarnopol, together with the employees of the administrative office of the Polish Border Guard station in Bogumin. The Soviets seized a two-horse carriage with arms: light machine guns, anti-tank rifles, grenades, and uniforms. They behaved ruthlessly towards us, guarding and treating us as if we were bandits.
3. Name of the camp:
1. Wołoczyska at the Polish-Soviet border; 2. Novohrad, Ukraine; 3. Marhanets, Ukraine; 4. Marhanets “Skasarnie”; 5. Swiżok, beyond Kotlas.
4. Description of the camp:
In Vawkavysk [?] several thousand people were placed in the stables. Marhanets – as long as we weren’t denied work, the conditions were bearable: we lived in barracks, there were both beds and blankets, and tolerable food three times a day. However, we were required to work very hard. Marhanets “Skasarnie” – deplorable conditions: pallets made of wood shavings, a bowl of watery oat soup once a day, tea out of the question; we were also forbidden to cook anything on our own. We received 500 grams of bread per day. People suffered a great deal. They fell ill and swelled from hunger; 20 percent had their legs swollen so much that they walked like utter cripples.
We left for the north on 21 January 1940. Accommodation was in barracks. Lots of bugs. Food and clothes depended on meeting work quotas. Poles were assigned to the first caldron, the rest – mostly Ukrainians – had the third caldron. The work was very hard, we worked at railroad construction.
5. Camp life:
In Marhanets, the Soviet authorities offered to change our status so we would become mercenaries. Since we refused – as this might have resulted in imposing USSR citizenship on us – the Poles were imprisoned in Marhanets “Skasarnie”. The Poles acted decisively and in solidarity. In order to press our demands – we were especially concerned with the maintenance of prisoner-of-war rights – we staged strikes.
6. The composition of prisoners:
Poles, Belarusians, Ukrainians from Poland, a few Jews, Russians, USSR citizens. The latter treated us rather kindly and with a sort of respect. The Ukrainians always kept apart, waiting for the German victory; they were hostile towards the Poles to the point where they were informing against us. At first, the Belarusians were also prejudiced against us, but with time – as they came to know the Soviet realities – they abandoned their pro-Russian stance and grew closer to us.
7. The NKVD’s attitude towards Poles:
The NKVD tried to win us over to the USSR. On the one hand, they repeated ad infinitum and ad nauseam that “Poland is lost”, while on the other they tempted us with the prospect of improving our living conditions, offering jobs, remuneration, and even freedom and marriage on Russian territory. This propaganda produced the opposite results. The actions taken by the Poles didn’t suit the NKVD, and they tended to cover these up even at the expense of concessions.
8. Medical assistance, hospitals, mortality rate:
The medical assistance was inadequate. There weren’t enough hospitals, especially in Ukraine. Someone was considered ill only when he ran a temperature of at least 38.1 degrees. The doctors worked on the assumption that people in the camp were healthy, and all they needed was better nourishment. Therefore the more emaciated ones were assigned to the so-called tenth caldron. The mortality rate for the whole period was calculated at 2 percent. As regards deaths among my personal acquaintances, guard Kasprzak from Turek, near Łódź, died in the camp. The most widespread diseases were scurvy, pneumonia, and tuberculosis.
9. Was there any possibility to get in contact with one’s country and family?
We received letters from our country, both from the German and the Soviet-controlled territories. Despite the fact that everybody wrote letters, no more than 25 percent received answers.
10. When were you released and how did you manage to join the army?
On 15 July 1941 the prisoners were transported to a Polish camp near Vyazniki. On 24 August 1941 the released men were sworn in as soldiers of the Polish army.
Official stamp, 13 January 1943