WINCENTY BUJONEK

I was caught and disarmed by the Soviets on 28 September 1939, in the township of Łęczna by the Wieprz river. From Łęczna I was marched by the Soviets to Chełm, put on a transport and taken to tarnopolskie voivodeship, Złoczów district, and then imprisoned in a Gulag camp [illegible], in the castle of King Jan Sobieski (in Olesko) – from 11 September 1939 to 17 December 1940. From 17 to 22 June 1941, I was in Brody, in a POW camp. On 23 June 1941 they began to march us to Russia as well, over two thousand Polish prisoners. And so we marched, and our route looked as follows: the first stop – Brody, then in the direction of Złoczów (that was near Brody), where ninety of our prisoners fell, shot dead by the NKVD men. From Złoczów we marched to Tarnopol, and from Tarnopol to Podwołoczyska, where we crossed the former Polish-Soviet border. From Podwołoczyska we marched across Russian lands, across the whole of Russian Ukraine. From Podwołoczyska to Skvyra. Before we reached Skvyra, some German airmen attacked us, shooting at our column from a machine gun and throwing grenades. 45 prisoners were killed on the spot and 145 were wounded. Then we marched to Dnipropetrovsk, and from there to Zolotonosha. We were loaded onto a train there and brought to Starobilsk. We arrived there on 24 July, and were again placed in a Gulag camp. We were fed as follows: we received 400 grams of bread and once a day [?] some soup and rotten fish. So we – 10,000 Polish prisoners – were getting ready for the other world. On 24 August, Colonel Wiszniewski came to us, and then the wool was pulled from our eyes, and we began to say that the Polish authorities had saved our lives, and so we live to this day, I live and deep down in my heart I cherish the hope to be able to thank the NKVD men some day. I don’t write more because that’s all I remember.