Platoon Sergeant (Officer Cadet) Maksymilian Baranowski, the “Children of Lwów” 6th Tank Battalion.
I was taken prisoner by the Russians on 19 September 1939 near Tłumacz. In Horodenka we were subjected to a thorough search, during which literally everything was taken from us: our army overcoats, belts, blankets, canteens, spoons, private monies, rings, watches, silver and gold chains and crosses, and suchlike.
Between 19 and 23 September we didn’t receive food even once. Thereafter we were transported to Volochysk in goods wagons; the conditions were terrible, with a few dozen men crammed into each car and no food or water. We remained in Volochysk for around two weeks. The conditions there were just as scandalous. The food – once daily we would be given a few spoons of soup (or rather water) and a morsel of bread. Next, we were all deported deeper into Russia. I ended up in Marhanets (in the Ukraine), where I was imprisoned until April 1940. During winter we were not given any heating fuel, and we had to sleep on planks or on the concrete floor, with nothing to cover ourselves. The food was poor. We were forced to work in decrepit and unsafe manganese mines – without the necessary safety clothing. As a result – and despite the repressions – 90 percent of us ceased working in January 1940. From this time on, the authorities became more oppressive, and on a few occasions we were denied our daily meals. We would be driven out into the extreme frost (minus a few dozen degrees centigrade!) without warm clothing, having to wait five or six hours just to be let back inside the barracks. In addition, nightly interrogations, inspections and body searches became more frequent. Agitators started to appear en masse, encouraging us to go to work – obviously unsuccessfully.
In the beginning of May, we were punished for our “rebellion” by being sent to the Komi Republic (between Kotlas and Arkhangelsk), to work on the Kotlas – Ukhta railway line. The conditions were appalling: penal food and filthy, dilapidated barracks infested with rats, bugs, vermin. In addition, we were set quotas that 90 percent of the prisoners simply could not fulfill. We would be driven out to work in the heaviest frost (minus 50 – 60 degrees centigrade) wearing inadequate clothes, with rubber slippers-cum-shoes on our feet. The majority of us fell seriously ill with scurvy and rheumatism. The nocturnal interrogations intensified (with one person being summoned three or even four times during a single night), as did transferrals of men from one labor camp to another. The guards treated us brutally, frequently shoving and pushing us, or even using their rifle butts. Those who resisted were locked up in dark, damp cells, where they would be given soup once daily and 300 grams of bread.
We suffered these conditions for over a year, until July 1941, surviving by the skin of our teeth.
We were freed under the amnesty in August 1941 and left for the newly established army camp near Moscow, and from there to the Polish Army that was forming in Totskoye.
26 March 1943