Master Corporal Franciszek Perepecka, born in 1909, farmer, married.
On 8 September 1939, I was taken prisoner by the Germans in “Gierlitz” [Görlitz?]. I escaped on 15 May 1940. On 18 June 1940, I crossed the cordoned-off border on the Bug River in Żabinka (Brześć Litewski). I made it through the cordon, but then I was arrested by the Soviet police and imprisoned in Brześć nad Bugiem.
I was put in the main prison in Brześć. They managed to fit 30 people in a cell made for one person. Its windows were closed and it was never ventilated. I slept, like all my companions, on one side and it was impossible to turn to the other side alone. Our food ration included 600 grams of bread and half a liter of a watery soup. My fellow inmates were farmers, office clerks and craftsmen living in the North-Eastern Borderlands.
Interrogations and inquiries were carried out only at night, using guns and threats of shooting to death. They had people face the wall and they beat them in the back of the head. Alternatively, there would be sweet talk, an offer of a cigarette and then slapping in the face.
They charged me with espionage for a neighboring power and with being in the Polish army in 1919/1920 (volunteer service), and sentenced me to three years of hard labor (лагeра [labor camp]) in Kirov Oblast, Kaysky raion. I cut down trees and worked in a lumber mill.
We worked without a break and continued for 24 hours. We had to trek 10 kilometers to work.
The supervising staff treated us brutally and ruthlessly. They insulted us in the following manner: Polish mugs; you’ll rot here and never see your country again; tut tvoya mogila [here is your grave] etc. If you weren’t able to do the work, they reduced your food ration to 300 grams of bread and half a liter of a watery soup.
The medical staff only listened to the orders of the camp commanders and ignored the real needs of the prisoners.
When an exhausted prisoner collapsed during work, doctors often forced them to continue working by dragging them on the snow and knags, which resulted in heavy bleeding and injuries. Such prisoners were then put in the punishment cell, without any clothing or food, under the pretense of trying to avoid work. Better pieces of uniform, especially shoes or boots, were greatly desired by the supervisors. To get them, they would send a prisoner into the “zone” and would shoot at him, which made taking the items from him easier.
The mortality rate (in the camp) was very high in such conditions, the prisoners were swollen from hunger and fainted.
Any contact with the country or with the family was out of the question.
I was released on 5 September 1941. I learned about the Polish army in Orenburg and then joined it on 10 September in Totskoye.
Temporary quarters, 10 February 1943