Volunteer Zofia Mocarska
Date [and location] of arrest: June 1940 in Łomża. I was arrested [?] for not wanting to accept the Soviet passport, considering [illegible] this passport would make me a Soviet citizen. A single cell [illegible] 8 of us; we slept on the cement floor with nothing to cover ourselves with. The hygienic conditions in this cell were horrible. During the day, it was not allowed to [illegible] in the cell; we just had to sit quietly. On 16 September 1940, we were deported [?] from prison to the Gulags in Komi ASRR, Ukhta. During [illegible] the conditions were terrible. [There were] forty people in each wagon; food was given [illegible], [but] there was absolutely no water provided neither for washing nor drinking. After [illegible] we weren’t allowed to leave the wagon or even look out; they transported us in [illegible] wagons.
I had to work hard in the camp in Ukhta. It was outright [?] impossible to achieve the quotas, so we received little [?] bread. I had a lot of help from the Russian women who lived with me in [illegible]. Some men lived nearby, Poles; the stance towards them was awful, they were starved. In the winter, we worked [illegible] without having the proper clothing. I lived only with Russian women [illegible], one Polish woman; our mutual relations were cordial and friendly.
We would get up at 4 AM, we would get [?] breakfast, which was made up of a tablespoon of groats and that’s all you had [illegible] to work until the evening. The conditions were very difficult; food was meager, there was no cultural life, and there were no newspapers or radio.
The NKVD visited us from time to time, threatening and insulting us coarsely, [without] any reason. Communist propaganda consisted in the fact that they kept on saying that there will be no Poland and that we would spend our entire [life] here in the Gulags.
There was no medical care. Though there was a doctor, [but] he had orders not to let anyone off work. There was no hospital, but there was a sick room where a terminally ill person could rest.
I did not have any communication with my country.
In September 1941, they dismissed me [illegible] and I left by collective transport to Buzuluk, where I joined [illegible].