1. Personal Data:
Volunteer Janina Malecka from [illegible], born 14 October 1914 in Warsaw, security guard, widow.
2. Date and circumstances of arrest:
I was deported from Baranowicze on 29 June 1940 for refusing a Soviet passport and therefore refusing their citizenship. The journey was horrible, we were travelling in locked wagons with a heat of twenty-something degrees outside. And what was going on inside, it’s hard to express. In such conditions, I reached our destination.
3. Name of the camp, prison or forced labor site:
My destination of exile was the Arkhangelsk Oblast, posiolek [settlement] Ivanovo. At first I worked in the forest, where, unfortunately, I was unable to fill the quotas, and my stomach suffered from that quite a lot. Later I got into a counting house and worked as [illegible], and it wasn’t bad.
4. Description of the camp/prison:
The accommodations consisted of old, musty huts, threatening to collapse at any time, but we managed to live and get by.
5. The composition of prisoners, POWs, exiles:
More than thirty families of various nationalities lived with me, exiled for the same reason as me, or as so called pomieszczyki, that is, landowners. Most of them were clever people. Even though there were efforts to break our Polish spirit by saying “your Poland is no more and will never be, you shall stay here forever”, the Poles kept their spirits high, believing that Poland must remain. People of strong faith supported those who doubted.
6. Life in the camp/prison:
Days were passed with very hard work, usually in the forests, cutting trees. Often we risked our lives to fill the quotas, but unfortunately not everybody could do so, due to lack of strength. The remuneration that we received for this heavy labor wasn’t enough to survive. It was necessary to sell something, if you had anything, or if you didn’t, somehow you had to live on what you earned.
The only entertainment was getting together in somebody’s hut. Then we would chat in Polish, but as this was forbidden, we had to be careful in case somebody in charge was eavesdropping.
7. The NKVD’s attitude towards Poles:
Attitude of the authorities towards Poles was very bad. For being 15-20 minutes late for work, the so called proguł, they took 25% out of our meager salaries for six months. When I was working in the counting house among Russians, they often tried to persuade me to stay there, I was told that the Sowietskij Sojuz was the best place to be. I was advised to simply forget about Poland, that I’d never return there.
8. Medical care, hospitals, mortality rate:
When it came to medicines or medical assistance, there were major barriers, because drugs were often missing. It was only thanks to a Polish doctor, who worked in the local hospital and secretly helped Poles as much as she could [that we received some aid]. But Poles were dying anyway, unable to withstand the conditions.
9. Was there any possibility of getting in contact with one’s country and family?
Letters from Poland got through, but very rarely. I would receive a letter from my friend in Warsaw from time to time.
10. When were you released and how did you manage to join the Polish Army?
My release took place after the amnesty in September [1941]. I joined the ranks in Pahlevi on 9 September 1942.
Official stamp, 5 February 1943.