1. Personal data:
Gunner Lech Karudański, born in 1919, physical worker (chernorabochiy), unmarried.
2. Date and circumstances of arrest:
I was arrested on 23 September 1939 and did time in “Brygidki” [prison in the former Bridgettine Convent]. I was arrested gun in hand (as a rifleman, I was appointed to serve as a guard in Lwów). Encouraged by guerrilla fights against Germans, I did the same with the Soviet soldiers who wore shpalas [rectangular badges of rank of senior officers], but I didn’t succeed. [illegible] day I was captured on the road between Lwów and Przemyśl, where most of all kinds of weapons, etc., were – as it’s widely known.
3. Composition of prisoners:
I had the honor to stay in prison with General Zaruski; Colonel Sołtysik; Mr. Girtler, a prosecutor; Mr. Piekarski, an air force captain; Mr. Błażejowski, an editor in “Ilustrowany Kurier Codzienny” (who died from tuberculosis in Kharkiv prison); and Lieutenant Edmund Głaszczak (who was shot in a penal camp in Ukhta, that is, in Chibyu, where Prof. Fuchs was also killed). All prisoners were sentenced for similar offenses. Intellectual standing: balanced and well-educated people.
4. Life in the camp:
I worked as a chernorabochiy for four days, but because I could fool Russkis easily, they later assigned me to work as a chemistry engineer in the chemzavod, where they were extracting radium. I was working in this position until the outbreak of the German-Soviet war. After the war outbreak, I was deported to Vorkuta – to the North.
5. Social life:
It turned out that the gentleman myth was bogus; in poverty, nobody cared.
6. Attitude of the NKVD authorities:
The NKVD authorities did everything that similar institutions of other countries do. They relied on information from those who were in conflict with us.
7. Medical assistance:
I didn’t get ill (as I rarely do) so I didn’t need the doctor.
8. Contact with the country:
I’m an orphan through and through, so I had nobody to write to or receive letters from.
9. Released:
On 18 January 1942. From the penal camp I went straight to the Polish Army outpost in Lugovoy.
Notes: I consider this questionnaire an attachment to the record or the files of the Conscription Commission [?], and that is why I described certain information in a certain way. One would never share valuable information on command, and neither would I.
I was a prisoner under Art. 54/III 11.13 of USSR’s penal code.