Sergeant Adam Pietrzak, born on 1 December 1907, professional non-commissioned officer, married.
On 22 September 1939, I was taken prisoner by the Soviets in the village of Werba near Włodzimierz. From Włodzimierz we were taken to Shepetivka, where we stayed for no more than 10 days. We slept on concrete, we were fed once a day. From Shepetivka, we went on foot to the town of Hoszcza, to the barracks of the former battalion of the Border Protection Corps which were being used as a POW camp, and we were quartered there. We were given two bunk beds for every three people, some slept on the floor. After a two-day stay in Hoszcza, the whole camp was assembled and we were told that we would be working on the road and we would be paid for that work. However, we were not paid, we were just given food, which was very poor, to the point where some of us gathered and ate scraps. This lasted until March 1940. From March onwards, the quotas imposed were so high that it was impossible to fill them because everyone was physically weak and demoralized, since the camp overseer, the politruk [political indoctrinator], and all of the NKVD officers repeated constantly that Poland was already lost and would never be reborn, pigs would fly before Poland rose again. Food depended on the portion of the quota filled, and those who didn’t fill the quota were even put in jail. As for the uniforms and shoes, everyone had to take care of these on his own, and if he didn’t have anything to wear, he was put in jail and stripped to little more than a shirt, and, to top it off, water was poured on the floor.
Communist propaganda was spread on a large scale, criticizing the Polish government and all its commanders.
Medical aid was sufficient except for the shortage of medicines.
I contacted my family in 1940 and stayed in touch until September. When the German- Soviet war broke out, we were taken to Starobilsk, where we were released and where I joined the Polish army on 25 August 1941.