Personal details:
Sapper Michał Młot, born on 20 August 1897, in Tarnopol voivodeship, Kamionka Strumiłowa district [Kamianka-Buzka], Kazaki village. As a civilian, I last lived in Tarnopol voivodeship, Radekhiv district, Ohladów [Ohladov]. Roman Catholic faith, married, three children.
On 10 February 1940, my family and I were taken away by the NKVD to Soviet Russia, namely: Krasnoborsky district, Arkhangelsk Oblast. The journey to my place of residence lasted three weeks, in freight wagons, dirty and shut; they were packed with 40–50 people each, in unheated wagons. All the windows were shut so no one could even lean over and see what daylight was like, because the guards forbade it and beat not only the women but also little children with the butt of a rifle. They didn’t give any food anywhere either, so we were starving and many of our people died of thirst on the way – almost 10 people a day were taken from the wagons.
I arrived on 4 March 1940. We were led to dark, wooden barracks in groups of 60, perhaps even more, where we had to live in filth. The wind and snow blew in from all sides because the boards were thin and broken.
We were driven to work at [minus] 40, 50 and even less degrees, on bare worn-out feet, because we weren’t given any clothes or shoes. We worked hard for 10 to 14 hours in the forest, getting very meager food and very low daily earnings.
Medical care was below criticism. Whoever registered as sick was not recognized as sick by the doctor, and these people were driven to work in hunger and cold. Some were even arrested. I myself sat under arrest for 15 days – in a hole, getting 300 grams of bread and some water there.
Our religious pictures and prayers were scorned and we were laughed at. They tried to ingrain in us that there is no God and we don’t have to pray; but in the end we came out of it victorious, because we prayed in secret that we would return someday.
As to the behavior of the NKVD authorities, we were constantly persecuted. They told us that we’d never see Poland again and that in Soviet Soyuz [Soviet Union] – if you behave badly – you will all starve to death. We were diminishing in numbers due to hunger and cold; around 15 people died from exhaustion each day.
This is where I was, in very difficult and arduous conditions, until the amnesty. On 1 October 1941, together with my family, I was released and I left for Uzbekistan to the “Komsomol” kolkhoz, where I worked with my family in even worse conditions. We didn’t get bread, only 200 grams of millet flour a day and we worked from dawn till dusk. Due to meager food, we lost our strength to work and many of us became blind; many of us even died! I worked there until 2 February 1941, when I volunteered for the Polish army in [illegible]. That’s all my memories of my stay and Soviet torment.
Temporary station, 10 February 1943