1. Personal data:
Gunner Henryk Guzewicz, 25 years old, laborer, bachelor.
2. Date and circumstances of the arrest:
I was arrested on 19 January 1940 at the USSR border in the town of Zaręby Kościelne.
3. Name of the camp:
Prison in Białystok and Brześć nad Bugiem, and then labor camps: Vorkuta in Komi ASSR.
4. Description of the camp, prison:
The labor camp was overcrowded, there were about five thousand prisoners. The conditions were tough – exhaustion, bugs, pests.
5. Social composition of POWs, prisoners, deportees:
Various nationalities: Poles, Ruthenians, Belarusians, Ukrainians. Category – political prisoners. Good intellectual standing.
6. Life in the camp:
We were woken up at 4.00 a.m., went to work at 6.00 a.m., and returned at 6.00 p.m. Dinner and supper, and curfew at 9.00 p.m. The work was hard – a concrete plant. Remuneration: five rubles per month. People were friendly towards their compatriots. Culture: radio.
7. Attitude of the NKVD towards Poles:
Hostile attitude, psychological harassment.
8. Medical assistance, hospitals, mortality:
Quite good medical assistance, high mortality.
9. Was it possible to keep in touch with the home country and your family?
There was no contact.
10. When were you released?
I was released from the camp on 19 September 1941. After five months of wandering from one kolkhoz to another, I was enlisted into the Polish army.