1. Personal data (name, surname, rank, age, occupation, and marital status):
Gunner Zbigniew Gaciąg, 22 years old, typist/printer, bachelor.
2. Date and circumstances of the arrest:
18 January 1940 for illegal crossing of the German-Russian border and the Soviet- Hungarian border.
3. Name of the camp, prison, place of forced labor:
Prisons in Białystok, Brześć and Minsk. Sevzheldorlag camp, northern Pechora polar labor camp.
4. Description of the camp, prison:
Both the prisons and camps were atrocious in terms of accommodation and hygiene. In the prisons, people were treated worse than animals. Polish prisoners were kept in small cells, almost suffocating with no air, dying of hunger, exhaustion and serious infectious diseases. The conditions in the camps were even worse, because the people, emaciated after prison, were forced to work 12 hours a day regardless of their state of health, and that’s not to mention the accommodation and nonexistent hygiene.
5. Social composition of prisoners, deportees:
The prisoners were divided into two groups – political and criminal. According to the NKVD, political prisoners were those who spoke their mind and those who had not handed in their farming crops to the kolkhozes or sovkhozes, as well as those who had wanted to escape from the USSR and had crossed the border. Criminal prisoners were people who – unable to make ends meet by working casual jobs – were forced to steal in order to save themselves and their families. The rest of the deportees were drawn from among international bandits, thieves, etc. The intellectual standing among the Russian [?] deportees was low, and it was difficult to find any signs of morality.
6. Life in the camp, prison:
The prisoners’ life was one of constant, grueling work. We never received any remuneration. The food comprised dark bread, the amount we received depending on the quota percentage met, and water, grandly called soup. Our people, hungry, dirty, with hair uncut for months, spent the nights guarding their civilian coats and clothes, because Soviet bandits, who had never seen anything like them, were always lurking around.
7. Attitude of the NKVD towards Poles:
The attitude of the NKVD towards Poles was particularly hateful. They abused us in ways bringing the Middle Ages to mind. People were called out of their cells several times a night, were beaten, had a revolver put to their heads, were taken away to be executed by shooting, and were locked in punishment cells that were full of water and rats, and freezing due to broken windows. The NKVD spoke insultingly of Poland, calling us bourgeois and exploiters of the labor force.
8. Medical assistance, hospitals, mortality:
It was difficult to receive any medical assistance. People went to work half-naked, with terribly swollen legs. When we complained, the NKVD beat us and said: “You had enough clothes for twenty years, so now you can walk around naked.” 37 degrees below zero was considered a normal temperature.
As for the people I knew, a professor of the University of Warsaw, Lelewel, died in the town of Chibyu, Komi ASSR; his grave was marked with a plate with an NKVD number.
9. Was it possible to keep in touch with the home country and your family?
It was impossible to keep in touch; the USSR considered me an outlaw and an animal.
10. When were you released and how did you join the army?
I was released on 5 September 1941. Following a one-week journey, I applied to the Polish army in Buzuluk and then in Totskoye.