Volunteer Ewa Epsztein, born on 19 August 1922 in Rozprza, Piotrków district, łódzkie voivodeship, unmarried.
I was arrested together with my brother on 28 November in Uściług, on the Bug River, when we were about to cross the river to get home.
In Uściług I was separated from my brother (I haven’t heard from him since) and taken to the prison in Volodymyr-Volynsky.
I was incarcerated in seven prisons successively. The last prison: Kherson, where I spent eight months and was sentenced to five years. When the sentence was passed, I was deported to Karabas, northern Kazakhstan, to a Gulag camp.
The work in the camp was very hard: drainage, threshing, haymaking. During winter, when temperatures fell to 40 degrees below zero, I worked in the fields at building snow banks. During summer I got up at 3.00 a.m. After a breakfast of watery soup, I had to go 5–10 kilometers to work in the fields. I came back to the camp at 10.00 p.m. In case I failed to do the prescribed amount of work – which was very high and indeed impossible to do – I would get 400 grams of bread and go to bed without supper. I lived in a barrack that was horribly infested with bugs (I slept on the upper bunk and bugs fell on my face while I was sleeping). The barrack was occupied by 240 women, mostly Poles.
The medical assistance was practically non-existent. In order to be released from work, one had to run a temperature of over 38 degrees. If someone stayed behind without medical leave, she would be placed in solitary confinement and receive only 300 grams of bread and water. I hadn’t received any messages from home since 1 September [1939].
In October [1941] I was released and went with my girlfriends to Kostanay. Due to the fact that we were wearing light clothes and therefore couldn’t go to work like that, we were sent with a transport of men to Buzuluk.
When we reached our destination, it turned out that women were not being admitted. They directed us southwards. On the way, Mrs. Irena Radlińska and Captain Dzierzek took care of me. I went with them to Farab, and then to Bukhara.
In March, when the first transport of troops had left, I went with Irena Radlińska to Chok- Pak. There I was admitted to the Women’s Auxiliary Service (WAS). In April, I left with the army for Guzar, where the WAS Center was located. I remained there until 11 August, that is, the day our troops left for Iran.
As soon as I arrived in Pahlavi, I fell ill with typhoid fever and spent six weeks in the hospital. From Pahlavi I went to Tehran. There, the doctor sent me to the recuperation camp of WAS. I spent three weeks in the camp. After my full recovery, I left for Khana-gih.