1. Personal data (name, surname, rank, age, profession, marital status):
Corporal Edward Jaworski, farmer, married.
2. Date and circumstances of arrest:
Deported along with my family on 10 February 1940, in the morning. We were allowed to take clothes and 30 kilograms of food with us, but nothing more. The cause of departure was that my father was a military settler from 1920, and I was a Polish Army instructor at the Rifleman’s Association.
3. Name of the camp, prison, forced labor site:
Arkhangelsk Oblast, poselok Wołosznica [Wołoszka].
4. Description of a camp, prison:
I lived in a barrack, where the living space was cramped: there was one bed for every four people and one very small window. The flat [?] was full of bedbugs, and we were unable to get rid of them. I worked in the forests eight hours a day, often for even 24 hours. Remuneration was 300 rubles a month, so it was very difficult [to get nourished]; of course, meat or fat was out of question.
5. Compositions of prisoners, POWs, exiles:
All exiles were Roman Catholic and of Polish nationality; usually they were settlers and foresters. There were no families of officers. Everybody’s attitude towards Poland was very positive. There was one Byelorussian among us, who was an NKVD’s informant – Mikołaj Lepeszko (I’m not sure about the first name, however). He is now in the Polish army. A settler named Szwarc was killed by him personally. Due to his actions, I was tried and they had 25 percent deducted from my remuneration for six successive months. Many others also suffered.
6. Attitude of the local NKVD towards the Poles:
Attitude of the local NKVD towards the Poles was horrible. Nevertheless, they organized various propaganda meetings and screenings of movies about 1920, in which Soviets were defeating Poles, and Poles were raping Russian women and burning down farms. They would say that the Polish government squandered Poland in three days for booze and that Poland would be no more.
7. Medical assistance, hospitals, mortality:
Medical assistance was very poor. No doctor was on site. The hospital was 12 kilometers away. They wouldn’t accept Poles into the hospital, which resulted in a great number of deaths.
Surnames of the deceased:
| 1. | Arkadiusz Jaworski, 9 years old |
| 2. | Dan[i]ela Jaworska, 3 years old |
| 3. | Leokadia Jaworska, 36 years old |
| 4. | Bronisław Jaworski, 13 years old |
| 5. | Bronisław Kacpura |
| 6. | Stelmaszek, three persons from Wołkowysk district |
| 7. | Janiszewski [?] |
| 8. | Wilgocki, two persons |
| 9. | Maria Tołoczko [?] |
10. Władysław and Emilia Kacpura
11. Władysław Prokop and two persons from the family
12. Stankowski and two persons from the family
13. Józef Tryć
14. Helena Szewczyk with her father and mother
Apart from the listed above, 90 more people died, including a Polish Army major. I don’t
remember those individuals’ surnames.
8. Was there a possibility to contact one’s country and family?
You could contact the country and family by mail. Apart from that, there was no contact at all.
9. When were you released and how did you manage to join the army?
On 9 February 1942, the Soviet authorities [illegible] to [illegible] Kazakhstan. I stopped in Lugovoy, where the Polish army was already being formed, and on 23 March I appeared before the drafting commission and was assigned to 10th Light Artillery Regiment.
6 March [1943]