When I was captured on 28 September 1939 in Modlin, the Germans were butchering us Poles. Some five hundred were murdered just like that, because Hitler had given the order. And then they took me as a captive to East Prussia, to the lager of Gerk, where they tortured us, shooting over our heads and giving us food so terrible that a great many of my colleagues died of hunger. Some time later they transported us to Grajewo, where we were forced to work non-stop, day and night, being provided with only meager food. I remember that on a number of occasions when dinner was handed out, the Germans poured scalding water on our boys. Bolek, Franciszek from Łódź, and I escaped the camp and ran away home; this was on the night of 28 April 1940. The Soviets caught me near Grajewo and took me to Augustów. They kept me there, under guard, for a few days, whereafter I and the others were transported to Grodno. We were detained in Grodno for nine months; there was a corporal there, one Kowalońko, a Byelorussian from near Mołodycz, who would inform on us Poles in order to get us sent to prison. When I was in Grodno, I witnessed many of our boys die. The beastly Soviets, when they took us out for a walk, they would kick us and say that we would never see Poland again. One night, they sent us from Grodno to Russia, to the Ural, to a forced labor camp in Ivdel, as prisoners. From Ivdel we were driven on foot to Chornostajek where the Soviets forced us to work day and night, beating us and providing very meager food. There was in our ranks yet another Belorussian who would denounce us to the guards; his surname was Rak and he was from Białystok. He enjoyed telling the Soviets that we planned to escape, for they would then place us under strengthened guard, while he walked around, laughing with glee that we Poles had fallen into his hands.
I was released from the camp in Chornostajek on 28 August 1941 and directed to the township of Bredy, where I spent a few months. Thereafter I left for Tashlak, where I joined the Polish Army in 1942. This is the end of my account.