JAN GOREGLAD


Jan Goreglad, born on 17 August 1918 in the poleskie voivodeship, an army driver by occupation, unmarried.


When the Bolsheviks entered our Polish lands, they took me to work in a plywood factory in Horodyszcze, district of Pińsk. I worked there for a month and a half, after which time I resigned, for I was unable to make ends meet.

Six days later [illegible] I was put before a court charged with sabotage, and sentenced to two months of imprisonment. I did time in Pińsk. After I was released from prison, I lived in my flat for 14 days, whereafter, on 27 November 1940, I was called up into the Soviet army.

I served in Moscow, in the 193rd Antiaircraft Artillery Regiment.

This unit was made up of Poles only, and these men were intended to become secret agents – every one of the soldiers was Polish.

After the war broke out on 22 June 1941, they sent us all to a Construction Battalion in Gorky. There we worked in an ammunition factory for two months, and then for four months in the forests – the work was very difficult, digging anti-tank trenches.

We received 800 grams of bread – those who carried out the norm, while those who didn’t were given only 400 grams.

I had many friends there, one of whom happened to die: Staszek Ribicki. I then fell ill with pneumonia and was taken to the hospital in Gorky. There I learned that a Polish Army was being formed. When they discharged me from hospital, I reported to my superiors and requested that I be released so that I could go and enlist in the Polish Army. The political indoctrinator replied that he would sooner put me in prison than allow me to join the Polish Army. And so I made arrangements with the Polish representation and fled to Kuibyshev under an assumed surname. When I arrived there, I was directed to the Polish Army.