1. Personal data:
Sergeant Józef Gospodarczyk, professional non-commissioned officer, married.
2. Date and circumstances of arrest:
I was arrested by the NKVD in Przemyśl on 17 January 1940 for being a Polish NCO.
3. Name of the camp, prison, place of forced labor:
I was detained in Przemyśl for 14 days (200 grams of bread and two portions of water per day; the cells were so crowded that it was impossible to sleep – I was forced to stand). From there, under a strong escort, we were transported to Poltava. The journey took eight hellish days. There were twenty of us packed into a compartment for eight. During the voyage we were given herrings, 300 grams of bread and – once a day – 1/8 liter of water. We had to relieve ourselves in the wagon. We would be torn from our sleep for interrogations, placed in a prone position, with our faces to the floor, in trucks, guarded by two NKVD soldiers armed with Nagant revolvers. They didn’t allow us to dress, and so we traveled in our underwear and slippers. If you refused to testify as they demanded, you would be locked up in a dark concrete cell and cooled with an electric fan until you froze. Whereas our torturers, making full use of the dark, would kick and beat us until we lost consciousness. We were sent from Poltava via Kharkiv to the Arkhangelsk Oblast, to the township of Maloshuyka.
From there we were driven on foot to our destination – Colony 19 – for more than 24 hours through forests and swamps, knee-deep in water and without any food. When we finally arrived, it turned out that there were no barracks or tents – we were forced to sleep in the open for two days, until we ourselves built a few barracks. We were given soup and 300 grams of bread once daily. There was hardly any water. They would wake us up at 5.00 a.m. and, after we had eaten the watery soup, send us to work. We toiled building a railway line. The quota for each of us was to excavate five cubic meters of earth. However, practically no one fulfilled it.
If you refused to go to work, you would be beaten and locked up in the punishment cell. Regarding medical care – there was only one male nurse, and he considered that you were sick only if you could not lift yourself off your bed. With no real medical assistance or drugs, some 30 percent of inmates died of diarrhea.
9. Was it at all possible to keep in touch with the home country and your family? If yes, then what contacts were permitted?
Corresponding with home was out of the question – it was strictly forbidden.
10. When were you released and how did you get through to the Polish Army?
On 3 September 1941, I was informed that I was being released, but also that I would be unable to freely chose my place of residence. I enlisted in the Polish Army on 15 December 1941 in Yangiyul.