Platoon Officer Bolesław Ginel, born in 1910, [illegible] bachelor.
I was arrested on 13 April 1940 for crossing the border.
I was imprisoned in Grodno until 21 August and then I was taken away for forced labor to Pechorlag.
There were 50 of us in a prison cell that could normally accommodate 10 people. We slept on bunk beds and below them, on the things that we owned. We had a bath every three weeks, but there was no change of underwear. Once every 10 days we were led out for a 15-minute walk. The cell was full of bedbugs and lice, we had to satisfy our physiological needs in the cell, and the guards punished us by closing the windows. In the camps, we lived in tents and slept on bunks; heating – one stove for each tent. We slept on the things we had, we did not bathe for a couple of months, the place was teeming with lice because we were unable to wash our underwear because of the lack of water and time.
The prisoners were Poles, Ukrainians, and Belarusians. There were people of many different nationalities in the camps.
Poles were put in the camps for crossing the border or for guerilla activities, the Russians – for stealing or murdering. Relations between us were bad, because if we had anything they would immediately steal it, and they were constantly mocking us, claiming that we had lost our home country.
Day and life routine: we were woken up at 5.00 a.m., had breakfast, left for work at 6.00 a.m., and worked until 6.00 p.m., then we returned to the zone for an hour-long prowierka (counting of prisoners) and supper. Food: if you met the quota, you received 800 grams of bread and half a liter of soup twice a day, but if you didn’t meet the quota, you received 300 grams of bread and soup once a day. The required quota was to transport 7 cubic meters of dirt by cart to a place located 150 meters away. They did not pay us any money, we wore our own clothes until they wore out, then we were given clothing just sufficient for us not to walk around naked. People were not very friendly, cultural life was poor.
The attitude of the NKVD was very bad, they always carried out interrogations at night. The interrogations lasted a dozen or so hours, people were forced to sit down on a bench full of nails, had pins stuck under their fingernails, were locked in a basement full of water, were hit on the heels, and had shots fired near their ears.
Medical assistance was very poor. There were no medications. Mortality was high due to the hunger and cold. The following people died in the hospital in my presence: Pawluczek from a village near Grodno, Jurgielewicz from Grodno, Narel from a village near Grodno, Sokołowski from a village near Augustów, Zboryszewski from Smorgonie, Iwiński – Baranowicze, Mielewski – Pińsk, Raczki from a village near Warsaw, Zajdler – Warsaw, Maj from a village near Łomża, and 30 other people whose names I do not know.
We had no contact with the home country or our families.
I was released on 1 September 1941 as a result of the amnesty and I joined the army in Totskoye on 23 September.