1. Personal data:
Bolesław Drozdowicz, 30 years old, farmer, married. Field Post Office number: 163.
2. Date and circumstances of arrest:
I was arrested by the Lithuanian authorities, who were bound by Soviet law. I was arrested on charges of membership in an organization.
3. Name of the camp, prison, or forced labor site:
Incarcerated in the prison in Wilno on 21 October 1940, I stayed in the prison until 3 June 1941, when I was deported to Russian gulag camps in the Karelo-Finnish, Shalskoy region.
4. Description of the camp, prison etc.:
In Wilno, all sizeable buildings and basements were transformed into prisons. A lot of prisoners were incarcerated there. In cells that normally held 24 people, 70 and more prisoners were incarcerated at one time, and due to the lack of air, water, and food, people suffered from many diseases. In the camps we worked at breaking stone, with the work quota set at 11 cubic meters per person. In return for work we received 400 grams of bread and maybe half a liter of soup.
5. The composition of prisoners-of-war, inmates, exiles:
All the prisoners were Poles, but the wardens and foremen were Russians, and they harmed us.
6. Life in the camp, prison:
We worked twelve hours a day. Our clothes were in tatters, and we wrapped our feet in rags or fastened pieces of tire to them. We lived in barracks, where we slept on bare pallets, with our own clothes for bedding and cover.
7. The NKVD’s attitude towards Poles:
The NKVD was very hostile towards us. On the way between staging areas, when people were dropping from exhaustion, we were hit with rifle butts, kicked, and had dogs set on us. We were called names and reminded that Poland would never exist again etc.
8. Medical assistance, hospitals, mortality rate:
There was no organized medical assistance.
9. Was there any possibility to get in contact with one’s country and family?
I didn’t have any contact with my family.
10. When were you released and how did you manage to join the army?
I was released following the amnesty, on 23 October 1941. After release I worked in the forests in the hamlet of Pokrovka, Arzamassky region, Gorky Oblast. On 24 March 1942 I joined the Polish Army in Tashlak.
Official stamp, 15 March 1943