1. Personal data (name, surname, rank, age, profession, marital status):
Stanisław Jacewicz, son of Michał and Stanisława.
2. Date and circumstances of arrest:
On 1 May 1941, I was drafted into the Soviet army and deported to Ivanovo Oblast, Gorbki District [?]. On 19 May, I was assigned to the 44th ob.w.n.s. [?], where I stayed until 28 June [1941].
3. Name of the camp, prison, forced labor site:
I wasn’t in a camp – rather, I was on the front line, and later in strojkolonna.
4. Description of the camp, prison:
Strojkolonna, Sverdlovsk Oblast, Verkhnyaya Salda. Hygiene was very bad, there was hunger, cold, misery, and poverty. The barracks were fenced with barbed wire and it was forbidden to leave them.
5. Composition of POWs, prisoners, exiles:
24 Poles, 300 Ukrainians, 20 Jews, 50 Rusyns, 5 Byelorussians, 2 Uzbeks, 3 Tatars, 5 Kazakhs, 4 (maybe 5) Romanians (Turks), 2 Germans from the Volga Upland.
6. Life in the camp, prison:
Chay in the morning after the wake-up call, which was at 5.00 a.m. We departed for work at 7.00 a.m., [and worked] until 7.00 p.m., with no days off. [We were given] 800 grams of bread, fish soup for dinner, and that’s it.
7. Attitude of the local NKVD towards the Poles:
Punishment cells for any reason – 5, 15, 20 days – if you bumped into an NKVD translator or a political commisar. Normal except for that, as described above.
8. Medical assistance, hospitals, mortality:
Care was functioning, but not the same as at home: ricin for leg pain, ricin for toothaches, grey ointment for eyes, and so on. Certain death.
9. Was there a possibility to communicate with one’s country and family?
You could send letters before the war.
10. When were you released and how did you manage to join the army?
I was released from strojkolonna on 19 February 1942, and I then reached the Polish posts.