1. Personal data:
Senior Rifleman Jan Gaba, 35 years old, a teacher by profession, married.
2. Date and circumstances of arrest:
I was arrested at home on 11 April 1940.
3. Name of the camp (prison):
Tarnopol prison from 11 April until 11 October 1940. Kharkiv prison until 9 December 1940, Burejskie forced labor camp in the Far East, beyond the Amur River.
4. Description of the camp, prison:
Swampy, forested land, wooden buildings, incredibly infested with bugs, abysmal hygienic conditions. Detention in prison was a continuous torment. The cells were filthy and overcrowded (up to 125 men would be kept in a cell intended for 17 – 18).
5. Social composition of prisoners:
Poles, Russians, Ukrainians, Romanians, Kazakhs, Uzbeks, and even Chinese. As regards us Poles, the majority were “politicals” (for example participants of the Czortków Uprising), of average or semi-average intellectual capabilities, but of excellent moral fiber. Mutual relations between Poles were good. But overall, relations were very bad.
6. Life in the camp:
The course of an average day: we would be woken up at five or earlier, get ready, and leave for work. Working conditions were very difficult. The tools were inappropriate, the saws blunt and the axes chipped, while the quotas were high, indeed impossible to fulfill under these conditions and using such implements. The requirements were too much for people who had worked physically on a professional basis, so you can guess the plight of the intellectuals – they fell ill and died, for only the exceptionally strong managed to survive. Those who didn’t carry out the norms didn’t receive any remuneration. The food was insufficient, both quantitatively and qualitatively, without any fats, vegetables or dairy products. The exhausted men looked like skeletons, and fell ill en masse with night blindness and scurvy. Our clothes were dirty and tattered, and provided no protection against the cold and damp; this was particularly true of our shoes, hastily made from rubber, which let in water and snow. In the spring and summer, our legs were constantly wet. Mutual relations were good, inspired by a melancholy longing for the homeland. Our toil would end late in the evening. Sometimes we would be woken from our slumbers, and searches – usually carried out at night – were common. Russian theater and song troupes were all the cultural life that we had. Practically none of us Poles went to their performances – we had lots to worry about, and we were in no mood for “fun”. There were no Polish books or newspapers.
6. Attitude of the authorities, NKVD towards Poles:
The attitude of the authorities and the NKVD towards Poles was terrible – regular beatings, threats, etc. At work, we would be abused both verbally and physically. Communist propaganda was rife in the camp. We had no information at all about Poland.
7. Medical care, hospitals, mortality rate:
Medical care was insufficient, for the “medical assistants” were unable to carry out their tasks (in large part because they didn’t know how to carry them out). The hospitals were full of sick Poles, and the mortality rate was high. Cases of frostbite were numerous – people lost their fingers, ears, noses, and even limbs.
Names/surnames of those who perished:
Bronisław Guziew – he died of general exhaustion. He was aged 20 and came from Przemyśl, where he studied at a pedagogic secondary school.
Książek – he died of a heart ailment, aged 32 – 33; I have no other data concerning his person.
Apart from these two, five other Poles died in the winter of 1941, from a total number of 180 deportees.
8. Keeping in touch with the home country:
Contact through the post was tenuous at best, for you were only allowed to receive two letters a year. I myself never got a letter.
9. Release from the forced labor camp:
I was released on 7 January 1942 and immediately set off for Semipalatinsk, where I was directed to the newly forming 8th Infantry Division in Chokpak in southern Kazakhstan.
Nazareth, 4 February 1943