1. Personal details (name, surname, rank, age, occupation and marital status):
Cannoneer Rafał Lanner, 37 years old, private official.
2. Date and circumstances of arrest:
I was detained along with six friends in Szalenik near Rawa-Ruska on the morning of 23 February 1940. The way they detained us was brutal, because after only a few minutes while searching us, I was struck by a rifle butt despite the fact that they did not find anything suspicious on me. This conduct embittered us, and it even spurred two of my friends into action and we started to flee. At the same moment, two patrols appeared— we didn’t spot them at first—who immediately opened fire in our direction with their rifles. Probably about 20-30 bullets were fired from rifles in our direction. As a result of this shooting, Artur Neumark was killed on the spot (I do not know if the name is right because I do not remember exactly) but he was from Warsaw, aged around 23. The second— Franek Stawiński—was hit in the leg, the third—Stanisław Cekalski—received a light wound on his forehead because the bullet skimmed past without piercing the bone.
Then, seeing that I was under such fire, I threw myself on the ground (in the snow) and it seems that others did the same, and a grenade was thrown after Stawiński, who was running further ahead, which almost fell under his feet. At that time, Stawiński—without losing his cool—quickly picked up the very same grenade from the snow, threw it back in the direction it had come from at which point the grenade exploded, injuring one soldier. However, a few dozen meters further Stawiński was stopped.
For a moment we were lying in the snow, surrounded by Soviet soldiers on all sides. Then they began to check who was still left alive. What happened was that they struck anyone lying down several times in the back with the full force of their rifle butts to see if they were still alive. Whoever could, as a result of these painful strokes, rose from the snow. At that time, we were all gathered together and told to lie face down on the snow with our hands spread out like a cross. So we lay like that for about 20 minutes, at which time we were once again hit with rifle butts. One of the soldiers was particularly abusive towards us, who stood at a distance of 8–10 meters from us and then, without any reason at all, aimed his rifle at Jan Kozufeld from Kraków, who was lying a few feet away from me, and shot him through the chest. He wanted to do the same with us, but a Soviet officer arrived with a few soldiers (maybe after two or three minutes) and told them to take us to their outpost. I forgot to add that a few minutes before Kozufeld was shot, they ordered us to stand in line, declaring that we would be shot. After lining up, they ordered one of us (Stawiński) to step forward and one soldier was already facing him with a rifle, but Stawiński, injured in the leg and beaten, could not keep his balance, staggered and then fell to the ground. At that time, we were told to lie down again and after a short while, as stated above, Kozufeld was shot.
After escorting us to their outpost, our hands were tied behind us and we were told to lie face-down in a muddy shed. After a few moments, the wounded Kozufeld was brought in; he was losing blood abundantly from the wound on his back, and he was also tied up like us and thrown onto the ground. We lay awkwardly like that for almost four hours. During this time, every few moments, one or more soldiers would come in an brutally kick us with their boots or hit us with their rifle butts wherever they could. Kozufeld, who was seriously wounded and caked in blood, was not spared either.
After such horrible battering and abuse, they took us and escorted us to the prison in Rawa-Ruska on the same day. That’s where the real Hell began. Finally, almost unconscious, I was thrown into a cell. The balance at the end of the day read as follows: a bayonet wound under the eye, a broken rib, two teeth knocked out, about 100 (!) rifle butt blows and as many kicks.
In the morning of the second day, I was told to leave the cell and was led into a small room where there were five soldiers (including three non-commissioned officers) and I was asked my name. I hadn’t even managed to answer and already those five men threw themselves at me. After a minute I was lying on the ground, and after another five I was already unconscious, because I had been beaten and kicked so badly. They must have done the same with the rest of my friends, because I heard their screaming and moaning several times through the cell door. That’s how it was for a dozen or so days.
3. Name of the camp, prison or place of forced labor:
I spent 14 months in prison, three weeks in Rawa-Ruska, two weeks in Lwów and a year in Dnepropetrovsk. Housing conditions were disastrous everywhere. Hygiene—none in the first period, to the extent that if someone was found using half a glass of water to have a wash, the water was taken away as a punishment. We slept on the ground, in such dirt that it was difficult to make yourself lie down. Lice were multiplying so awfully that staying in such conditions would have finished you off in the long run. These conditions improved somewhat in Dnepropetrovsk, where there was a large prison and where we were allowed to have a bath (around 20 times a year).
Then I was deported to a so-called gulag, where I stayed for five months. The name of the camp was Vorkuta Corrective Labor Camp.
4. Description of the camp, prison:
Dreadful conditions. In one of the gulags—this was in the region of Vorkuta—we complained to some head of the camp about lice and other sanitary problems, and we asked him to send us for a bath and disinfection. We received the answer that there is nothing he can do, because there was no bathhouse nearby, and that we just had to get used to it, because lice are an inseparable companion of a gulag prisoner. There the housing conditions were such that there was a skeleton of a tent (wooden) covered with tarpaulin; there were no boards, or so-called bunk-beds for sleeping. You could only sit on a crossbeam, or if somebody exhausted from work had to lie down to sleep a little at night it would be on muddy ground, or you would have to sleep sitting up.
5. The composition of prisoners, prisoners of war, deportees:
The composition of the prisoners: about 100 Poles, 300 Russians from all corners of the USSR, a lot of political ones from Russia’s notorious so-called article 58 [counter-revolutionary activities] and even more criminal offenders of the worst possible kind. The level of intelligence among the political prisoners was quite high (about 10 people), while the rest were average or mediocre. Of course, this only applied to the Russians. Among the Poles, there were a lot of attorneys, doctors, officials and workers. Our co-existence was characterized by companionship, friendship and even sacrifice, which cannot be said for the opposite side, because even though none of them was hostile to us, in any case they thought that we should be the first to work and we should serve them. Often this led to many misunderstandings, because our portion of the work was counted as theirs, and the work was calculated according to ‘percentages’—i.e. the so-called quotas. They often took some of these percentages for their own benefit. The effect was that we received less bread and food. In this way, at our expense, the Russians often received—for doing nothing—the third rank of Stakhanovite [top prisoner rank]. For us, the amount of food remained more than insufficient.
6. Life in the camp, prison:
The course of the day was more or less the same. Getting up at 4:30 a.m., then razvod, or departure for work at 5:30 a.m. Then a few kilometers’ march to work and work for 12 hours (with an hour break) until 6:00 p.m. The working conditions were very harsh. Mostly earthworks for the construction of a railway track or in clay areas, or in areas where the land has been frozen for hundreds of years. All this made it simply impossible to meet the daily quotas, which was roughly 3.5–5 m3 of soil. I also had a case when the quota was 21 m3 a day for pouring ground and stones that had already been dug, which I had to transfer to wheelbarrows. I worked as hard as I could that day and I managed 5 m3, so not even 25% of the quota, and I was punished with a hot iron for that. Wages were to be paid to those who had reached their full quotas for the entire month. But it was enough not to meet the quota on one day of the month and you would lose the right to be paid. I did not get paid during my entire stay in the gulag.
Social life with some of the Russians was possible, but with others it was not. No cultural life at all.
7. Conduct of the NKVD towards the Poles:
The conduct of the NKVD towards the Poles was very harsh. During interrogation, they would often beat us, forcing the testimonies that they wanted to hear, accusing everyone of espionage for Germany, belonging to anti-communist organizations and many other accusations that made no sense: like belonging to Ukrainian organizations, acting for England, France, America etc.
8. Medical assistance, hospitals, mortality rate:
There was medical assistance, but it was completely ineffective. In the gulags there were so- called lekpomi [medical assistants], usually recruited from among criminals who had nothing to do with medicine. The bar for them was a temperature of 38 degrees. If anyone was ill but had a lower temperature, he was not considered ill. However, whoever was on good terms with them could count on their kindness and might get sick leave even if they were healthy. However, if someone had a temperature over 38, he was not refused help (which, in the gulag, was very modest). In the hospital, however, our sick were looked after kindly and effectively. A lot of our people dreamed about getting to the hospital—to be free from hard work for some time. I knew of cases when they would cut off their fingers or mutilate themselves in some other way so that they could have some respite from the hard and difficult labor for some time.
9. Was there any communication with homeland and family? If so, how was it?
There was no communication with my country or family from the moment of my arrest. Despite intense efforts, both during the investigation and after the verdict, I was not allowed to write any letter. I do not remember the names of the dead—except for the murdered Arthur Neumark. I must add two who are probably dead: Franciszek Stawiński from Jarosław and Stanisław Odalski from Warsaw, who alongside me in court received a sentence to death by firing squad but I do not know if they managed to obtain a pardon.
10. When were you released and how did you join the army?
I was released from the gulag on 21 September 1941 in Kotlas. At that time (when we were released) there were a few hundred of us, and there the railway authorities put us on a train, which transported us to the railway station in Buzuluk over the course of four weeks, where we were to be incorporated into the Polish army. In Buzuluk, our transport was not accepted and we were sent to Samarkand, where we were told to wait to be commissioned. After being commissioned, I was admitted to the Polish army in Guzar.