1. Personal data:
Section leader Maria Gładyszewska, born in 1905, a manicurist by occupation, unmarried.
2. Date and circumstances of arrest:
I was arrested on 30 January 1940 after crossing the Soviet-German border near Luboml, where I had gone from the German side to provide aid to my sister and her children.
3. Name of the camp, prison, place of forced labor:
I was locked up in the prison in Brześć nad Bugiem on 30 January 1940 and remained there until 28 June of the same year. I was then deported to Russia, to the prison in Gomel, and incarcerated there from 28 June to 4 October 1940. On the latter date I was tried in absentia and sentenced to three years of hard labor.
4. Description of the camp, prison:
Conditions in prison: terribly crowded, vermin, filth, hunger, a complete lack of washing water. In the labor camp, I and more than 500 other people lived in a barrack with a length of some 30 and width of 20 meters. It was cold, congested, dirty and infested with vermin; we had no soap or water.
5. Social composition of POWs, prisoners, deportees:
As regards the social composition of prisoners: the inmates were of diverse nationalities and both sexes, and had been sentenced for various crimes (i.e. both criminal and political offenses). Their intellectual and moral level was good. Our mutual relations, and in particular between Polish citizens, were very good.
6. Life in the camp, prison:
Life in the camp was hard. In summer, we would be forced to work from 6.00 a.m. until 12.00 p.m. and from 2.00 p.m. until 10.00 p.m., with a single break for dinner. In winter, work lasted from 9.00 a.m. to 12.00 p.m. and then from 2.00 p.m. to 4.00 p.m., again with only one break for dinner. We labored in fields under the supervision of the NKVD. Our daily food ration comprised 800 grams of black bread, badly baked, and a watery soup with soy and sour cabbage (given twice). We received the following items of clothing: [illegible] pairs of underwear, donkey jackets and quilted trousers. As I have already mentioned, our mutual relations were very good.
7. Attitude of the authorities, NKVD towards Poles:
The investigation against my person was conducted over a period of six or so weeks. I would be summoned late at night, well after having fallen asleep. I was threatened in various ways – sometimes with a revolver – in order to give testimony. The normal penalty for even the slightest infringement of prison regulations would be detention in the punishment cell (the black hole). We would be kept there for three to ten days, receiving a reduced daily ration: 100 grams of bread plus water. The punishment cell was also used in the labor camp.
Initially, the camp authorities attempted to disseminate propaganda, however we remained indifferent to it. They also said various things about Poland, for example that it had ceased to exist for good.
8. Medical care, hospitals, mortality rate:
Medical aid was very poor. In the main, the doctors were co-prisoners. There was a lack of drugs. The lightly ill were forced to work, whereas the seriously ill were exempted from work; but only those who were dying would be sent to the hospital. I know the names and surnames of only two of those who died: Maria Misiura from Brześć nad Bugiem and Halina Dąbrowska from Tomaszówek nad Bugiem; many others also perished, however.
9. Was it at all possible to keep in touch with the home country and your family? If yes, then what contacts were permitted?
I had no contact with my family or the home country from the day of my arrest until the time of my release.
10. When were you released and how did you get through to the Polish army?
I was released on the basis of the amnesty, on 1 October 1941. The NKVD transferred me together with a group of others to the Poltovka kolkhoz in the Petropavlovsk Oblast. There we worked in the fields, receiving no more than a small quantity of meager food. In January 1942, I learned that a Polish Army was being formed on the territory of the USSR. I left the kolkhoz with a few girlfriends and traveled to Alma-Ata in Kazakhstan, where we found a Polish representation, and I applied for admission to the Army as a volunteer. From there, the Polish authorities directed me and a group of others to Persia. In Tehran, I appeared before the Recruitment Committee and was enlisted as a volunteer in the Polish Army.