1. Personal data (name, surname, rank, age, occupation, and marital status):
Private Jerzy Grzeszczak, 20 years old, secondary school student, bachelor; field post office number – 111.
2. Date and circumstances of the arrest:
I was arrested on 28 November 1939 in the village of Międzybrodzie near Sanok, while I was crossing the border.
3. Name of the camp, prison, place of forced labor:
I spent four months in the Sambor prison, four months in Poltava, and then in the North Correctional Labor Camp in Komi ASSR.
4. Description of the camp, prison:
Polish prison in Sambor, an old Tsarist prison in Poltava. Barracks and dugouts in the camps. Housing and hygiene conditions beneath any criticism (dirty, cold, cramped).
5. Social composition of prisoners, deportees:
Most of the prisoners were Russian criminals, some of them were political prisoners – also Russians – and Poles were in the minority. Intellectual and moral standing among the criminal prisoners was very low; as for the rest – quite high. Relations between Poles and Russians were very bad.
6. Life in the camp, prison:
The work lasted 12 hours during the day, but when we changed from day shift to night shift or the other way round, we worked for 18 hours. We worked in very tough conditions doing earthworks (building railroad embankments) and the quotas were simply impossible to meet. The pay was extremely low (I received 21 rubles for over a year’s work). We were fed mostly on oat groats, twice a day. I have nothing to say about cultural life, because it didn’t exist at all.
7. Attitude of the NKVD towards Poles:
The NKVD treated Poles very badly (beating them during investigations).
8. Medical assistance, hospitals, mortality:
Medical assistance was very poor. People were taken to hospital only when dying, and on many occasions they were already dead once they got there.
9. Was it possible to keep in touch with the home country and your family?
I had no contact with the home country from the moment I was arrested.
10. When were you released and how did you join the army?
I was released on the grounds of the Polish-Russian agreement in September 1941, and I joined the army in February 1942, following lots of unpleasant experiences and hardships.
Place of stay, 15 February 1943