Personal data:
Franciszek Szymański, gunner, aged 23, baker [?].
Date and circumstances of arrest:
I was drafted into the Red Army on 11 October 1940 in Zambrów and sent to serve in a heavy motorized artillery regiment in Leningrad (105-millimeter guns).
Name of the camp:
I was transferred to a light artillery regiment stationed at Krasnodar (near the Black Sea).
Description of the camp:
Brick buildings without internal sanitation.
The composition of POWs:
Mostly Poles, Ukrainians and Belarusians. The Ukrainians were unfriendly towards the Poles. Morale was low.
Life in the camp:
Military exercises from 7.00 a.m. till noon and then from 1.30 p.m. till 7.00 p.m. The food was good until the outbreak of the war with Germany.
The NKVD’s attitude towards Poles:
The attitude of the subunit political commissars towards Poles was negative. In frontline conditions the food was bad.
Medical assistance:
Medical care at the hospital was very good. Medical care in frontline conditions was also very good, as were the conditions in the municipal hospital in Oryol.
Was there any possibility to get in contact with one’s country and family?
I received two letters from my family during the one-and-a-half-year period.
When were you released and how did you manage to join the army?
I ran away on 11 October 1941 from the town of Nizhny Tagil by boarding a train. I traveled to Lugovoy, where I presented myself to the army draft board sometime in March 1942.