1. Personal data (name, surname, rank, age, occupation, marital status):
Gunner Teodor Jarmolik, 31 years old, farmer, unmarried.
2. Date and circumstances of arrest:
On 18 September 1939, as a soldier (reserve) of the 12th Light Artillery Regiment, I was taken prisoner by USSR soldiers in Tarnopol.
3. Name of the camp, prison, forced labor site:
I spent three months in the Marhanets camp (Ukraine). I was then moved to the North, to a labor camp.
4. Description of the camp, prison:
The camp was situated in a forest, fenced with barbed wire and closely watched. Housing in barracks, extremely cold; conditions very hard. We were fed with water, which went by the name of soup; we were dirty and poverty-ridden. Diseases were frequent, but medical care was very poor. I fell ill three times, suffering from throat infection and inflammation of leg joints.
5. Compositions of prisoners, POWs, exiles:
There were 5,000 Polish POWs in Marhanets, including many Byelorussians, Ukrainians, and around 30 Silesians posing as Germans. In the labor camp in the North, there were 1,500 of us divided out from the first camp, POWs exclusively. Intellectual standing varied, moral standing was good. Mutual relations were very good, I mean of course among our fellow men.
6. Life in the camp, prison:
Wake-up call was at 4.00 a.m., then we had work in the forest – cutting trees and piling up the logs. The quota was 8 cubic meters, which was impossible to fulfill. I completed 25 percent of it at best. The work would go on until 8.00 p.m. in summer and 6.00 p.m. in winter, with a dinner break of about 15 minutes. Meals were given three times a day – soup (water). We had ragged clothes and worn-out footwear. Sometimes I suffered from night blindness for two weeks. Social relations were good. The Soviets sometimes ran lectures, but I never attended. The Soviet soldiers treated us very badly. They didn’t pay us anything. Following our release, they gave us 500 rubles.
7. Attitude of the local NKVD towards the Poles:
Attitude of the NKVD towards Poles was extremely negative. They complained about Poles and cursed at us brutally, picking on Polish flaws. While carrying out a search, they would strip us naked, and then let us go dressed, seizing all belongings that we had on us, like knives, medallions, watches, [illegible], etc. They locked us in a punishment cell for up to two to three days (for not going to work or not having filled the quota), serving us soup once a day and giving us 300 grams of bread. They praised their Soyuz at every opportunity. They said they weren’t afraid of the whole world, and that Poland would never exist anymore. They didn’t give any news on Poland since the September events. I hadn’t even known our government was in England before I left the labor camp.
8. Medical assistance, hospitals, mortality:
Medical assistance was mediocre, hospitals were slightly cleaner than houses, and there was a shortage of medicines. The hospital was located in the camp, in one of the barracks. Doctors were exclusively Russian. Two to three patients died in the hospital every day, mostly of dysentery, typhus, and scurvy. From the deceased, I know the surname of Cierpiszewski. Rumor had it that he was probably a captain of the Polish Army.
9. Was there a possibility to contact one’s country and family?
No contact was possible at all.
10. When were you released and how did you manage to join the army?
I was released in autumn of 1941. I spent the winter in Central Asia. I joined the Polish Army in March 1942 in Toshloq.