1. Personal data:
Second lieutenant Józef Malinowski, born in 1915, student of Lwów University of Technology [?], single.
2. Date and circumstances of arrest:
Taken hostage in the city of Włodzimierz on 18 September 1939.
3. Name of the camp:
Szepietówka, Żytyń, Równe, Skole, Starobilsk.
4. Camp description:
Barracks of the Border Protection Corps, Żytyń; Równe – an old well; Skole – wooden barracks, new. The camps were fairly clean. No heating fuel in the winter and no water.
5. The composition of prisoners:
Polish soldiers – 70% of Polish nationality, 25% Ukrainians, Belarussians and Jews, 5% Germans. Very bad relations between the Poles and Ukrainians.
6. Life in the camp/prison:
Work in quarries (Skole), very hard. Unsafe work, day shifts and night shifts. A workday of 10 hours. Laboring during frosts of 35 degrees [Celsius]. Cultural life – constant lecturing by politruks [political workers]. The topics were about communism, anti-Polish. The lectures were not popular. During holidays POWs organized entertainment shows which were popular.
7. The NKVD’s attitude towards Poles:
Hostile in every way. They were trying to convince us to work for the USRR in various ways. They forced POWs to fill very high quotas in various ways. They punished us with incarceration during 35-degree frosts.
At the time of the outbreak of war, during a convoy to the Bolshevik territories, a couple of prisoners were wounded by the NKVD.
They transported us to Starobilsk by train from the city and station of Dolina. During the journey, which lasted three weeks, daily rations were very poor. Faintness from hunger was common, there was a significant lack of water. Three cases of death.
8. Medical care, hospitals, mortality rate:
Medical care was almost good. There were infirmaries in all the camps.
9. Was there any possibility of getting in contact with one’s country and family?
There was communication with family by post until 10 March 1940.
10. When were you released and how did you manage to join the Polish Army?
It was pursuant to the Polish-Soviet agreement, in Starobilsk, where Polish squads were being formed (2nd lieutenant Wiśniowski).