[1. Personal data:]
Rifleman Tadeusz Jodis. I studied at a trade school, I’m single.
[2. Dates and circumstances of arrest:]
I was arrested by the NKVD on 4 April 1940 at the Polish-Lithuanian border and taken to prison in Molodechno.
[3. Name of the camp, prison, forced labor site:]
[I was moved] from Molodechno to Polock and then to Komi in the USSR. Camp Ukhta Drugonieftopromysł was situated close to Ukhta river, and surrounded by a dwarf forest.
[4. Description of camp, prison etc.:]
Buildings were made of boards, and it was stuffy inside. Because of the crowdedness, there were loads of insects.
[5. Composition of POWs, prisoners, exiles:]
There were mostly Russians exiled for thievery in the camp, of low moral and intellectual standing.
[6. Life in the camp, prison:]
You got up at night to go to work and got back at night. I worked at road construction, receiving a remuneration of 300 grams of bread, because I couldn’t fulfill the quota of 15 cubic meters (of ground moved out in a barrow). I was dressed in a worn-out kufajka [jacket] and rubber slip-ons. I made friends with Poles.
[7. Attitude of the local NKVD towards the Poles:]
All of the NKVD’s effort there was aimed to turn the Poles into communists. Interrogations were carried out at night. They promised to return us home or threatened us with death when they needed to extract some information from us. They told us Poland would be no more.
[8. Medical assistance, hospitals, mortality:]
Five people a week died on average. People were sent to see the doctor when it was already too late.
[9. Was there any possibility to contact one’s country and family?]
No contact with the country or family.
[10. When were you released and how did you manage to join the army?]
I was released from the camp on 21 August 1941. After reading an announcement that a Polish Army was being raised, a group of Poles gathered together and I went to Totskoye with them, where I was accepted into the army on 20 September 1941.