1. Personal data (name, surname, rank, age, profession, marital status):
Bombardier Jan Kielnik, born on 15 July 1905, carpenter.
2. Date and circumstances of arrest:
I was arrested on 7 November 1940.
3. Name of the camp, prison, forced labor site:
I stayed in prisons in Kowel and Kharkiv.
4. Description of the camp, prison:
Conditions in the prison were unbearable: typhus, lice, dirt, dampness, and a lack of space.
5. Compositions of prisoners, POWs, exiles:
The prisoners were of various nationalities and were sentenced for different felonies – there were innocent people, too.
6. Life in the camp, prison:
In the labor camp, the work consisted of the following: tree logging, construction, loading wagons – it lasted from dusk till dawn, but we received no remuneration.
7. Attitude of the local NKVD towards the Poles:
The NKVD treated us inhumanely, beat and kicked us; they knocked two of my teeth out, requiring information they didn’t have, and kept questioning me if I knew general Sikorski.
8. Medical assistance, hospitals, mortality:
No medical assistance at all; if one was ill and requested for a doctor, they would say there was no doctor nor medication for us.
9. Was there a possibility to contact one’s country and family?
I was in contact with my family when I was imprisoned on Polish grounds. After I had been deported deep into Russia, it [communication] was lost.
10. When were you released and how did you manage to join the army?
I was released when the Polish-Russian agreement was signed. I was released in September 1941, rugged, barefoot, and miserable. I reached the Polish army after a long journey – I went first to Tashkent and then in February 1942 to Lugovoy, where I finally joined the army.