1. [Personal details:]
Lancer Wiktor Ronczy, 40 years old, farmer, Polish citizenship, married.
2. [Date and circumstances of arrest:]
On 19 September 1939 I was taken prisoner by the Soviets on the fields of Trembowla.
3. [Name of the camp, prison, place of forced labor:]
I was taken to the prisoner of war camp in Kamieniec Podolski, and then I was transported to the camp in Kozielszczyzna, and then to Rudnik, Kryvyi Rih Oblast, where we were working in the ore mine.
4. [Description of the camp, prison:]
Living and sanitary conditions were good.
5. [Composition of prisoners, captives, deportees:]
The composition of prisoner was as follows: 85% Poles, and the rest were Jews, Ukrainians, Belarussians. The overall number of prisoners: 300 people. Relations between the prisoners were proper.
6. [Life in the camp, prison:]
We were working eight hours a day, food was good. Incomes varied, on average I was earning 200 rubles a month, and I had to pay for everything from that amount: food, clothes and a place to stay.
7. [The NKVD authorities’ attitude towards the Poles:]
In this camp the NKVD wasn’t conducting any interrogations of prisoners. Communist propaganda was broadcasted by the NKVD, but the prisoners didn’t pay it any attention. The NKVD officers were saying the worst things about Poland, and they were always saying that Poland would never exist again.
8. [Medical care, hospitals, mortality:]
Medical care was quite good. There was only one fatal accident due to crushing by a wagon. The deceased’s surname was Skiba, I can’t remember his first name.
9. [What kind of contact, if any, was there with your family and country?]
I didn’t have any contact with my home and family, although I did write a dozen or so letters.
10. [When you were released and how did you get to the army?]
I was released from the camp on 15 August 1941, and I went directly to Totskoye, where I joined the Polish Army.
On 23 May 1940, I was sent from the camp in Rudnik to a camp next to the Ukhta River in the north, where we were working at earthworks. The quotas were very high and almost nobody could meet them. Food was very bad. Out of 400 working people, 50 Poles died during my whole stay there, I can’t remember their names. The living conditions were very bad because the barracks were dirty, full of holes, bedbugs and rats.
Medical care was terrible because the sick were considered healthy and sent to work. Those who resisted were locked up in a separate cell where they were starved and beaten.