1. Personal data (name, surname, rank, Field Post Office number, age, occupation, marital status):
Corporal Bolesław Prus.
2. Date and circumstances of arrest:
On 9 February 1940 I was arrested by the NKVD together with my entire family and transported in a car, at night, in an unknown direction.
3. Name of the camp, prison or forced labor site:
Durovatka hamlet, Gorky Oblast, Sharangsky District.
4. Description of the camp, prison etc. (grounds, buildings, housing conditions, hygiene):
The buildings were in fact barracks with each room being 5 square meters large; one room held 30 people. The rooms were furnished with double pallets and a stove. We were very cramped, and besides the room was cold and there were plenty of bugs, due to which many of us fell ill and died.
5. The composition of POWs, prisoners, exiles (nationality, categories of crimes, intellectual and moral standing, mutual relations etc.):
The camp comprised about a thousand people, including 5 percent of Belarusians and one Jew. The relations with the Belarusians were very bad; they stressed that Poland no longer existed and that from that moment on we had to obey orders given by Russians and by themselves.
6. Life in the camp, prison etc. (daily routine, working conditions, work quotas, remuneration, food, clothes, social and cultural life etc.):
We had to work 10 hours [per day], both the men and the women, and also children older than 12 years old. We worked in the forest or at the railway. Toiling all day didn’t do a laborer any good, because they gave us only 400 grams of bread and some fatless soup after we had met the work quota. For failing to meet the work quota we received 200 grams of bread. The laborer who exceeded the quota could once a year buy a jacket called a fufayka, trousers and slippers made of linden bark. Life among the Poles was generally good. They deducted 10 percent of our daily earnings for the NKVD.
7. The NKVD’s attitude towards Poles (interrogation methods, torture and other forms of punishment, Communist propaganda, information about Poland, etc.):
All interrogations were held at night. The NKVD would summon us at night for interrogations which were held for charges of political crimes and during which we were beaten and threatened with capital punishment. Then they tried to talk us into taking Soviet citizenship, promising that our standard of living would improve and that we would be free; besides, as they said, Poland would never be restored.
8. Medical care, hospitals, mortality rate (provide the surnames of those who perished):
No medical assistance. The mortality was huge, especially among the children. My family consisted of five persons: myself, my wife and three children aged from two to nine years. Two of my older daughters died of typhoid fever and due to lack of food.
9. Was there any possibility of getting in contact with one’s country and family?
I didn’t have any contact with my country, because there was no post office there and the local authorities didn’t allow for any communication, even with the neighboring camps.
10. When were you released and how did you get through to the Polish Army?
I was released on 15 September 1941, following the conclusion of the agreement between the Polish and Bolshevik governments. I went to the Army by my own means; about a hundred of us gathered, we sold our last belongings, hired an entire wagon and after six weeks we arrived at the town of Guzar, where on 25 January 1942 I joined the Polish Army.
Place of stay, 17 March 1943