1. Personal data:
Rifleman Julian Badach, born in 1909, a farmer by occupation, married. My family comprises three persons: myself, my wife (23 years old), and our son, 6 years old; we were accompanied by relatives – my uncle and aunt: Antoni Hołota, 80 years old, and Maria Hołota, 70 years old.
2. Date and circumstances of arrest:
I was deported on 10 February as a person constituting a threat to Soviet authority.
3. Name of the camp, prison, place of forced labor:
The settlement of Vostochny in the Arkhangelsk Oblast.
4. Description of the camp, prison:
We worked in the forest. Living conditions: the place was overcrowded and infested with vermin (for example bugs), which was difficult to kill off. We had to leave our lamps burning for the whole night.
5. Social composition of POWs, prisoners, deportees:
There were seven hundred of us, deportees of Polish nationality.
6. Life in the camp, prison:
We worked from six in the morning to six in the evening. Conditions: the work was hard, but we had to fulfill 100 percent of the quota to earn fifty rubles a month. The food was terrible, and in reality a full portion would only be given to those who worked; the elderly and children hardly ever received their nominal share of food. Those who worked could get 800 grams of bread, while those who did not – only 400 grams. Not everyone could buy clothes, and they would not sell clothes to everyone.
7. Attitude of the authorities, NKVD towards Poles:
Hostile political indoctrinators. They worked at emphasizing the Polish [illegible].
8. Medical care, hospitals, mortality rate:
Medical care was a shambles, the doctor would prescribe potatoes – which could not be bought anywhere – for the seriously ill, and he was not authorized to exempt the sick from work. If you were 10 minutes late (the first time), they would deduct 25 percent of your wages, while for a repeat offense you would be locked up for 6 [illegible]. My uncle and aunt, Antoni Hołota and Maria Hołota, daughter of Wojciech, née Badach, both died. They died in 1940 in the settlement of Vostochny, Arkhangelsk Oblast.
9. Was it at all possible to keep in touch with the home country and your family? If yes, then what contacts were permitted?
It was possible to keep in touch with the home country and our families.
10. When were you released and how did you get through to the Polish Army?
I was released from the settlement in September 1941. We traveled to a kolkhoz, and from there I enlisted in the Polish Army on 28 January 1942.