1. [Personal data:]
Corporal Feliks Korowaj of the gendarmerie, reservist, born in 1911, administrative clerk by trade, unmarried.
2. [Date and circumstances of arrest:]
I was arrested on 9 November 1939 in the village of Wielkie Czuczewicze, district of Łuniniec, on a charge of espionage.
3. [The name of the camp, prison, or place of forced labor:]
I was imprisoned in Łuniniec, Pińsk, Łomża, and in the Pechora forced labor camp in Vorkuta, Komi, in the 18th subbranch [otdelenie], where we built the railway.
4. [Description of the camp, prison etc.:]
The prisons were intended for Poles: we were placed in cellars, about 50 – 60 people each in rooms 20- to 30-square-meters in size. The windows were boarded up, so that we wouldn’t be able to see the world outside. They gave us no bedding, we had to sleep on a concrete floor. There was plenty of lice and bedbugs. We were allowed to bathe once every few months.
5. [The composition of prisoners of war, inmates, exiles:]
90 percent were officials, 10 percent – other workers. Poles, Belarusians and Jews who were charged with political crimes and with crossing the border.
6. [Life in the camp, prison life:]
From 6.00 a.m. to 9.00 p.m. we were not allowed to talk normally amongst ourselves or to lie down on the floor. At night we were interrogated by the NKVD. Every second or third night, a great number of body searches were conducted in the cells. We worked in the camp from 7.00 a.m. to 7.00 p.m. building the railway. We didn’t get any breaks or celebrate any holidays. Quotas were set so high that it was impossible to fill them – that way they didn’t have to provide us with full food rations. We received no money for our work. The food ration consisted of 300–500 grams of bread a day, a liter of soup, a bit of salty fish, and unsweetened boiled water. People usually had to wear their clothes from home. Fellow prisoners were not very friendly, but they were well-mannered.
7. [The NKVD’s attitude towards the Poles:]
The NKVD authorities subjected us to inhumane treatment. They beat the detainees, put them in punishment cells filled with water, hanged and murdered them in various ways, and spread propaganda about communist progress. At the same time they were constantly condemning the Polish state and authorities, and talking about them in the worst way possible. They also prohibited both collective and individual prayer.
8. [Medical assistance, hospitals, mortality rate:]
Medical assistance was very poor and the mortality rate in the camp was rather high: 60 out of 340 people died. Their names are unknown to me.
9. [What, if any, was your contact with the home country and your family?]
There was no contact with the home country or with our families.
10. [When were you released and how did you get through to the Polish Army?]
I was released on 23 September 1941 and asked to be sent to Buzuluk, where the Polish army was supposed to be organized. When I got to Buzuluk, I joined the transport to Tashkent, from where we were sent to kolkhozes in the Fergana Oblast.
On 8 March 1942 I appeared before a Recruitment Committee in Tashtak and was accepted. I was then assigned to the 9th Heavy Artillery Regiment in Gorchakovo, and travelled with them to Palestine.
Official stamp, 19 January 1943