1. Personal data:
Volunteer Regina Maciejewska, born in 1909 in Iwieniec, nowogródzkie voivodeship.
2. Date and circumstances of arrest:
On 13 April 1940 I was deported to the USSR.
3. Name of the camp, prison, or forced labor site:
North Kazakhstan Oblast, Aktyubinsk Region, Belogradovka hamlet.
6. Life in the camp, prison:
I worked in a kolkhoz for very meager remuneration, so I had to sell my things to buy some food.
7. The NKVD’s attitude towards Poles:
Reporting late for work was punished with a fine or deportation for hard labor.
8. Medical assistance, hospitals, mortality rate:
There was practically no medical assistance, as they didn’t consider any illness to be a legitimate health problem. We had to work until we dropped, even if we ran a high fever. Any hygiene was out of the question, as nobody took any care about it.
9. Was there any possibility of getting in contact with one’s country and family?
I had contact with my family, only I didn’t know anything about my husband, who had been arrested before I was deported to Russia, and I haven’t had any information about him to the present day.
10. When were you released and how did you manage to join the army?
I was released on 10 September 1941. Having heard that a Polish Army was being raised, after strenuous efforts I went south, to Chkalov. I wasn’t admitted to the Women’s Auxiliary Service at first. I arrived in Tehran on 7 April, and a draft board gathered soon after, and then I joined the WAS.