1. Personal details (name, surname, rank, age, occupation and marital status):
Irena Lipińska, 19 years old, student, unmarried.
2. Date and circumstances of arrest:
10 February 1940 in [Zdołbunów?], Wołyń, slow deportation.
3. Name of the camp, prison, place of forced labor:
Vologda Oblast, Mezhdurechensk region, Dvinitsa village.
4. Description of the camp, prison:
Not much room, eight houses, barracks of former workers. Housing conditions—4 or more person families lived in small living quarters. Water from the river. Mice and vermin in the living areas.
5. Composition of prisoners-of-war, prisoners and deportees:
The camp consisted of 220 people. Most were Poles, military settlers from the Eastern Borderlands. The level of intelligence was low. The moral standard was average. Initially relations were as they should be, but under the penalty of exile, selfishness prevailed.
6. Life in the camp, prison:
Everyone had to work, regardless of age and health. Anyone aged from 14 to 50 worked. There were cases of dismissal from work, but the material conditions were too poor for this to be of any benefit. The working day lasted from 6:00 a.m. until 8:00 p.m. Occasionally, there were times when we worked a full 24 hours. The quotas were too big for the strength of an average person, let alone for a woman. Remuneration was relatively little and irregularly paid. Meals: 1 kilogram of bread per worker, 400 grams per child. Sometimes we were given millet or fish. [illegible] rented warm clothes for work. Others had to fend for themselves. Camaraderie not bad, cultural life—none.
7. Conduct of the NKVD towards the Poles:
All interrogations were carried out at night. Prison sentences were imposed at the local prison, 10 days or more to a prison 10 km away. Financial penalties were also imposed for so-called ‘ progul’ [truancy], i.e. not turning up for work, without looking into why this had happened. Meetings were organized (attendance obligatory). Newspapers—in the communist spirit.
8. Medical assistance, hospitals, mortality rate:
There was a medic in the camp who gave first aid, often with the result that the sick prisoner’s health deteriorated further, still having to go to work, as she was not allowed to grant sick leave, the NKVD having forbidden this. The dying were taken to a hospital located 12 km away. Mortality was high.
9. Was there any communication with homeland and family? If so, how was it?
Until the outbreak of the war between Russia and Germany, there was communication with the homeland by post (from Zdołbunów and Równe). Then it stopped.
10. When were you released and how did you join the army?
I was released in 1941 in July by the drafting office. At my own expense, together with my little brother and mother, I went to Altai Krai to the south of Russia, from where in May 1942 I went to Yangiyul, where on 15 October I joined the Women’s Auxiliary Service. I joined the army illegally because it was forbidden to leave this oblast.