1. [Personal data:]
Rifleman Wiktor Rutkowski, farmer, married.
2. [Date and circumstances of arrest:]
I was taken into captivity by the Russians on 22 September 1939, the day of Lwów’s surrender.
3. [Name of the camp, prison, place of forced labor:]
Names of the camps: Filipowicze, Sosenki, Wozdów, Wójtowce.
4. [Description of the camp, prison:]
Description of the camp in Filipowicze: we lived in tents, on the bare ground, in mud. There were 140 people in the tent. We had no underwear. It was difficult to tell our shirts apart from the ground. There was dirt, lice, and no water. We received some watery soup twice a day and 400 grams of bread. We were chased off to work at 6.00 a.m. In summer, we’d crush stones and dig trenches. In winter, we’d remove snow from the road. Meeting the quota was out of the question due to physical exhaustion. We would sell our belongings so we’d be able to buy something to eat.
5. [Composition of POWs, prisoners, exiles:]
There were only Polish POWs. The majority of them were soldiers, recruited from farmers and laborers. Apart from them, there were also many officers and priests. There were also informers, for example Rifleman Suchowski [Arkadi?], who betrayed Senior Sergeant Szatłan, convicted for 10 years. Another one was Rifleman Pietuszko, who worked for the NKVD.
8. [Medical assistance, hospitals, mortality:]
There were very few medicines, which resulted in a large number of diseases. The water stank. Those seriously ill were taken away to the hospital in Korzec. They didn’t return from the hospital – since it was located in Polish territory, they ran off to their homes.
9. [What, if any, was your contact with the home country and your family?]
Correspondence was absolutely prohibited.
10. [When were you released and how did you get through to the army?]
In September 1941, I was released on the power of the Polish-Soviet agreement. I joined the army at the end of September in Totskoye.