Cannoneer Tadeusz Łukomski, born on 17 November 1922, a student of Commercial Secondary School in Łuck, son of a State Police Sergeant.
On 13 April 1940, at 3:00 a.m., after a thorough search, I was escorted along with my family— that is, my mother and two sisters—under armed escort to the station and onto freight wagons, on the charge that [I was] a dangerous element in this territory.
We stood for two days at the station, the wagons were closed, the windows were boarded up, they would not release anyone. For two days we received just two buckets of water for 40 people in our carriage. The journey lasted two weeks. During the journey we received bread and water and one cooked meal per day. Hygiene in the cars was terrible, dirty, packed.
After transporting around 1,500 people to Pavlodar, the provincial capital, we were all split up and sent to various places. I ended up with my family in TsES [Центральная электростанция - Cental Power Station] Maykainzoloto, Bayanaul district, Pavlodar Oblast, Kazakhstan. There was a construction site for a power plant and accommodation for people.
We lived in buildings made of plywood, in dreadful conditions—terrible overcrowding, dirt, disease, vermin, cold, lack of shelter against rain.
The inhabitants of this camp were Poles, Ukrainians and a handful of Jews. The Poles were mostly from the intelligentsia—military families, police, teachers and wealthier merchants. There were very few men, so there were [mostly] women with children whose husbands had been arrested or were on the German or Romanian side.
There were whole families of Ukrainians—men, women, children and the elderly. They had been deported as nationalists, for robbery when the Soviet troops came in, even if only one member of the family had been arrested. The Jews were [illegible] merchants.
Initially, the Ukrainians were not well disposed towards the Poles—they looked down on everyone, talked about the old times, that they had it worse during the Polish period, and now it was better. After some time, their attitude changed, they began to live in harmony with the Poles, that is, from the time when talk began to circulate about helping the Poles, about the Polish army, etc.
Work in the camp was very hard—in quarries, earthworks, etc. There was virtually no difference in the work for men and women. Initially, we worked eight hours at a stretch, later this changed to 10 and thus it remained. The quotas were very high and difficult to make, so almost nobody made them. Higher quotas were for heavy work. The workers were divided into brigades, and the brigadier would generally be a Russian who supervised the work. The remuneration was minimal—a woman earned 60 rubles at the most, and a man would make 100–120 rubles maximum, which was a negligible sum when you consider the living conditions.
The food was very poor. Everyone who worked received half a kilogram of bread, and if you didn’t work, you didn’t get any. And it was hard to get—only those who were physically stronger would get anything. In addition, there was a canteen where it was also difficult to get anything, because one canteen for a thousand people was not enough. After six months the conditions improved slightly—more bread, cereal, sometimes sugar and flour, but small portions. However, the clothing and footwear deteriorated. Initially, when everyone still had something left from home, they somehow managed. However, while working, our footwear and clothing was quickly worn out, and new clothes were hard to get—if there were any, they would be taken by the Russians. Lack of clothing and footwear took the worst toll during the winter, because the climate was very cold, with temperatures below 0, wind and snow, during which we had to go to work. During the summer we went to work naked.
Cultural life was poor, there were only newspapers (Russian), sometimes dances, which the Poles did not attend.
Communist propaganda, on the other hand, was very widespread. Various meetings and readings, instilling lies, took place often. Camaraderie among Poles was widespread, spending time together and helping each other.
The conduct of the NKVD towards the Poles was very harsh. There were frequent arrests for minor offenses—for not going to work a few times, spending time together, for the slightest suspicion. Recently, before the amnesty, there were very frequent arrests, five or six per day. The arrests took place at night, in secret.
Medical assistance was very poor. Anyone who was not extremely ill had to go to work, which resulted in more severe symptoms later. There was a shortage of good medical care in the hospital, and there was very little assistance for a sick worker.
Fatalities were very common. Initially, a lot of children died, then old people, because it was a difficult climate and hard to get used to. A lot died from diarrhea and typhus. Illnesses were very common, and there were various bouts of different diseases. About 80 died out of 1,000.
Communication with the homeland before the German-Soviet war was very weak, and after the outbreak of the war completely non-existent. A very large number of parcels, letters and remittances were lost. Parcels arrived having been interfered with, and letters took three months to go anywhere, they were censored in great detail. In general, correspondence was not allowed.
After the amnesty, I was transported along with my family and 14 other Polish families 130 km further, to a new place—Nayzatas [illegible] Bayanaul, Pavlodar Oblast, where there was a private enterprise, the construction of a gold panning facility. Living conditions differed from the first place in the sense that they were worse: we did not receive bread, but unthreshed wheat, which was boiled or in rare cases ground on stones. The payment was negligible, because I received about 300 rubles for six months. We worked about 12 hours a day. The people got more ill, we lived in dugouts which we had to build ourselves outside working hours. We had to build them because there was no shelter. There was no fuel in winter.
On 8 February 1942, we were brought before the medical commission to check if we were fit enough for military service. After recognizing me as capable, I waited to be called up. On 28 February 1942, I was called up for military service.
I traveled in difficult conditions, because the journey was about 2,500 km. Every day of the journey I lacked food. After arriving in Lugovoy, after another commission, I joined the ranks of the Polish army.