1. Personal data (name, surname, rank, field post office number, age, occupation, marital status):
Gunner Jan Kotowicz, born in 1915, tailor, unmarried.
2. Date and circumstances of arrest:
8 October [?] 1939, as a counter-revolutionary and agitator.
3. Name of the camp, prison or forced labor site:
Forced labor in the Pechora camp.
4. Description of the camp, prison etc. (grounds, buildings, housing conditions, hygiene):
The camp was composed of tents set up on swampy grounds. There weren’t any bathhouses, but there was a ton of lice, and we had to go to work even when the temperatures fell to 50 degrees below zero.
5. The composition of POWs, prisoners, exiles (nationality, category of crimes, intellectual and moral standing, mutual relations etc.):
There were 250 people in the camp: 150 Poles and 100 Russians. The Russians were hostile – there were even some clashes, as a result of which the guards would place the Poles in isolation cells, even though the Russians were to blame.
6. Life in the camp, prison etc. (daily routine, working conditions, work quotas, remuneration, food, clothes, social life etc.):
The working conditions were unbearable, we were ragged and barefoot, and we suffered from frostbitten legs, noses and faces.
7. The NKVD’s attitude towards Poles (interrogation methods, torture and other forms of punishment, Communist propaganda, information about Poland, etc.):
The authorities were very hostile. There was propaganda to the effect that nothing was left of Poland.
8. Medical assistance, hospitals, mortality rate (give the names of the deceased):
There wasn’t any assistance. Those who were dying were taken to the hospital, but only so that they would die sooner.
9. Was there any possibility to get in contact with one’s country and family?
There wasn’t any contact.
10. When were you released and how did you manage to join the army?
I was released on 6 September 1941, and on 18 February 1942 I joined the 7th Infantry Division.
Official stamp, 15 March 1943