Corporal Julian Rawski, 34 years old, farmer, married.
I was captured on 20 September 1939 as a survivor on the Eastern Borderlands. In total there were 67 of us soldiers including two officers. We were trying to gather our forces but it was too late, during that time the Russians had advanced and we were taken captive in Włodzimierz Wołyński.
We were hurried off on foot to Łuck. During those three days we were given food once: a cube of sugar, two pieces of hardtack and a mug of water. We were driven like cattle to a slaughterhouse. The column we were moving in was up to three kilometers long. During the night we were rounded up in a mass, packed together, and we couldn’t stand up because they were shooting at us. Each of us was shivering with cold because the nights were already chill.
When we came to Łuck, we were loaded into train wagons and transported to Russia, to the town of Shepetivka. We were driven into big halls where we waited our turn on a cement floor until they had written down our personal details. This lasted three days. During that time we were receiving 500 grams of half-baked black bread and porridge once a day. People were starving and getting sick to their stomachs. There were some fatalities. Then we were transported to Nowogród Wołyński, where there was 9,000 of us. We were fed very poorly, sleeping on the floor one next to the other, there was no water for drinking not to mention washing. After five weeks 1,600 people were transported to Zaporizhia in Ukraine, and I was also in that group. On All Saints’ Day of 1939 we were driven for the first time to the factory for work. The work was very hard, we were told to take away debris. Often it was still hot because I was working at open furnaces. We were working for eight hours a day. The food was meager, but they were demanding that we work, saying that we wouldn’t earn enough for living, not to mention housing. Then Christmas came. On the first day of Christmas we were driven out to work. Some of us refused and didn’t work, explaining that if they didn’t respect our holidays we wouldn’t work at all. They tried to compel us to work several times, scaring us with jail, and when that didn’t work they fenced us off from the rest of the camp and we couldn’t walk in the yard. A boyets [guard] was standing next to the door, which was closed anyway, and he was letting us out only in fives to the lavatory.
We were living as brothers, many times sharing the last piece of bread, even though it was scarce because we received only 400 grams.
This lasted until 21 May 1940. On this day we were loaded into barred train wagons and taken away to the north, beyond Kotlas, 250 kilometers beyond the Vychegda River. On 4 June we arrived at our destination. The next day we were driven out to work and we were told to carry soil in wheelbarrows at a railway track construction. The work was hard, and the quota was even harder for me. To receive 900 grams of bread we had to carry away three to five meters of soil, depending on the ground. At that time there were no baths or underwear. Not until the end of 1940 did they did build bathhouses and bring underwear. At that point conditions improved.
Only those who worked well were entitled to medical care. Those who didn’t work couldn’t receive care. All the time they were trying to convince us not to think about Poland, because the Polish nation would never exist again. This lasted until 15 July 1941. On this day we were loaded into rail wagons with barred windows and transported to the town of Vyazniki. When we were unloaded, they drove us for 45 kilometers to a camp. When we got there, they told us about the agreement concluded between Poland and Russia, and then announced the arrival of our military authorities. On 24 August, Colonel Sulik-Sarnowski arrived and confirmed this in his speech about the concluded agreement. I joined the Army then and there.