1. Personal data:
Gunner Michał Jarmarkier, 24 years old, forestry technician, unmarried.
2. Date and circumstances of arrest:
10 February 1940, at my residential address.
3. Name of the camp:
Arkhangelsk Oblast, poselok Wodopad.
4. Description of the camp:
Forest, barracks, one room for a family, no hygiene (bedbugs).
5. Compositions of prisoners, exiles:
Majority were Poles, the remainder – Byelorussians. Exiles were mostly the National (and private) Forestry management staff members and military settlers.
6. Life in the camp:
We had to walk far to work. Work was hard, quotas were high, salaries were rarely given.
7. Attitude of the local NKVD towards the Poles:
Hostile. Meetings were held every week, but no news about Poland was given at all.
8. Medical assistance, hospitals, mortality:
There was a doctor, but no infirmary, [mortality] was quite high, 40 cases of death throughout a two-year stay.
9. Was there a possibility to communicate with one’s country and family?
Up until the German-Soviet war outbreak, I received letters and food parcels.
10. When were you released and how did you manage to join the army?
On 23 December 1941, from the work site I was on, I boarded a train to Lugovoy and I joined the Polish Army there.