Witold Morawski, Uhlan.
I was arrested on 26 September 1939 by the Militia from Różowa [?] village for possessing a gun and intending to leave the country. The next day I was turned over to the prosecutor.
I was kept a prisoner on Polish territory in the Włodzimierz prison till 12 February 1940. That day I was transported to Kostusowo in Sverdlovsk Oblast, where I worked until June 1941. I was working in the forest.
The work was very tough. I could earn only enough for one kilo of bread and two plates of soup. Daily payment varied from three to five rubles.
Conditions in prison were terrible due to the overcrowding and the omnipresent dirt. In October 1939 we were given food once a day, later – three times a day. Our diet consisted of 400 grams of bread and two plates of a sludge-like soup. Complaints to the prosecutor went nowhere.
Up until December 1939 they were arresting mainly officers, landowners, settlers and military men; later – workers and peasants. Almost all of these were accused of being enemies of the Soviet Union and the working class, and of shooting at the Red Army in September 1939.
We had to get up at 6 AM. The evening roll call was at 9 PM. They used to interrogate people at night, and we often could hear the beating and crying.
The NKVD’s attitude towards Polish people was hostile, especially towards the intelligentsia. In June 1941 I was arrested for the second time. They accused me of the espionage and agitation among Poles and kolkhoz workers in the woods. They’ve kept me in many different prisons, for instance in Irbita, Jagorszyn or Sverdlovsk. In all those places they used means of repression such as beating or busting teeth. Lieutenant Szapowałow was bragging about how [illegible] the NKWD is better at breaking teeth that the Polish Police.
In prison, in Sverdlovsk, I met an engineer, Pawlik, who went mad as the result of the repression and died in August 1941. Before the war, he lived in Smorgonie in wileńskie voivodeship.
Then the amnesty came, I was released. It was 3 September 1941. First I went to Konstansowy, then, on 3 October 1941, I went to Buzuluk where the army headquarters were stationed. The Armed Service Committee ordered the transport to Nukus in the Karakalpak Republic. From November 1941 to February 1942 I worked in a kolkhoz along with other Poles. Many of them died as a result of various illnesses. I sent the list of deceased to Mr. Kwapiński in Tashkent. I joined the Polish Army on 30 January 1942 in Gorczakowo Margilon. In the headquarters of the 9 Infantry Division, department II, I made this statement.
9 February 1942