Platoon Leader Józef Batura, born in 1896, last place of residence: military settlement of Ruda, Kosów Poleski district, Iwacewicze commune.
In 1939, on 19 September, after the Soviets crossed the Polish border, I was arrested and incarcerated in a commune jail. For seven days I was held with a group of 37 people in a cell 4 by 4.5 meters large, with a concrete floor. On 26 September, at night, 57 people were loaded onto a goods train and transported to the prison in Pińsk. We traveled for three days without any bread or water. Having arrived in Pińsk, we were searched and divested of money, watches and rings. Not everyone was issued a receipt. They took 345 zlotys from me and didn’t issue me a receipt. All 57 of us were crammed into a cell 6 by 9 meters large, with a wooden floor. For two weeks we received 200 grams of bread and twice [a day] some soup made from mangold. Nobody had enough strength to stand straight. However, they allowed for food to be sent to us from home. In November, they began to issue 600 grams of bread per day and interrogated us. In total, I was interrogated five times. Four times the interrogation lasted no more than an hour, but the fifth one was from 8.00 a.m. to 4.00 p.m. The sledowatiel, whose surname I don’t remember, punched me twice in the face. I shared a cell with the president of Pińsk, Mr. Ołdakowski; a secondary school teacher, Mr. Mazerga; the chief constable of a State Police station, Mr. Rosalski; a commune secretary, Mr. Bielawski; landowner Chomątowski; a constable with the State Police, Mr. Kusark; and others.
On 1 December, they [illegible] to our commune: me, Lieutenant Jan Trębicki, Count Jundził, school inspector Karol Osiński, administrator of the Piaski commune Niedźwiedź, and others. Conditions in the district prison were bad: the cell was 3 by 6 meters large and held 37 people. The prison was wooden, and so was the floor. Lice and bugs [illegible] us. Former district administrator, [illegible] Marian had previously been badly beaten, and he had to be attended to by a doctor. On 8 February 1940, at night, they loaded us onto trucks and took us to a train station, from which we were transported by train to Brześć nad Bugiem, to the prison [illegible]. There I was placed in a cell which held 12 people; we slept on pallets, on a concrete floor. It was cold, and water dripped from the ceiling – the cell was huge. Life: 600 grams of bread twice a day and [illegible]. We weren’t interrogated. On 31 March 1940 we were transported to the prison in Mińsk. We traveled for three days, and for the journey we were issued two kilograms of bread [illegible] per person. We were loaded onto cargo trains, 40 people to a wagon. We had to beg to get some water, and there wasn’t any medical assistance.
Conditions in the prison were rather bad: the cell was 9 by 10 meters large, and there were 110 [?] prisoners; there was a concrete floor and plenty of lice. We had a bath once a month. Food was passable: millet soup with a piece of fish or a morsel of bread, 600 grams [illegible]. On 2 June [1940] we were issued 300 grams of bread each and loaded onto prison cars. We spent three days going to Vitebsk; there wasn’t any medical assistance during our journey, but the conditions in the prison were bearable, and as for food we received 600 grams of bread, 2 decagrams of sugar and tea for breakfast, soup and fish for dinner and the same for supper. We had a 15-minute walk every day, and a bath every 10 days. The cell was made of bricks, with a concrete floor. 29 people were incarcerated in a cell 5 by 6 meters large. On 16 September [1940], a sentence was read out to me: eight years for enlisting as a volunteer in the Polish Army. On 18 September we were transported in cars to the train station, where we were loaded into cargo wagons, 40 people per each. We received 600 grams of bread per day and sometimes some salty fish; we got soup very irregularly, but they gave us bread every day; we had a bucket of water per wagon. There wasn’t any medical assistance during the transport. We traveled for 15 days to a camp in Kotlas, and then we were driven to perform roadworks. The quota was to dig 10 running meters of ditch a meter wide and 75 centimeters deep, but nobody was able to meet it, because at 2.00 p.m. we were taken to unload potatoes from wagons, which lasted until [illegible] or even 9.00 p.m. For breakfast we had half a liter of watery soup and 700 grams of bread; there wasn’t any dinner, and for supper, which we received after we returned from work, we had half a liter of soup. When we complained that we wanted to eat, a boyets would take us and order us to sit on the rails, so that we would freeze.
Medical assistance was poor, as there were no medicaments. On 10 March 1940, we were loaded 40 people to a cargo wagon and taken to the Kozhva camp on the Pechora River. For eight days we received 700 grams of bread per day and once a day half a liter of watery soup. There wasn’t any medical assistance during the journey. There weren’t any barracks in the camp to which they sent us, so we slept in tents until we built the barracks ourselves. From 26 March to 30 April life was bearable, and those who met the work quotas received 900 grams of bread and 25 rubles per month. I was paid 62 rubles for May and June. For July, August and September they didn’t pay anyone, but I don’t know why. The work quota was 9 square meters per person if we were using materials ready to hand. Clothes: quilted trousers and patched bushlats [pea jackets]; we slept on pallets, and each person was issued a blanket and slippers made of car tires.
The NKVD would tell the Poles: “Come, forget your Polsha ”. They spread communist propaganda and [praised] their system.
I didn’t have any contact with my country. While in Russia, I established contact with my family. My wife and children had been deported on 10 February 1940 to Arkhangelsk Oblast, and my entire property was pillaged – partly by the local populace and partly by the authorities.
I was released from the camp on 2 October 1941. I worked in a kolkhoz until 11 February 1942 for 400 grams of flour per day, and on 12 February I was called into army service, and I reported for it on 13 February.
Official stamp, 9 March 1943