1. Personal data:
Section leader Helena Jaciuk-Jaciukiewicz, 26 years old, teacher, married.
2. Date and circumstances of arrest:
On 29 June 1940 I was deported from Ostrówki (Luboml district) for refusal to take a Soviet passport.
3. Name of the camp, prison, or forced labor site:
I was assigned to the Zaya sovkhoz, Asino region, Novosibirsk Oblast.
4. Description of the camp, prison etc.:
The sovkhoz was situated 25 kilometers away from the town and the train station. There were wooden buildings with electric lights, a bathhouse, a shop, a bakery and a little hospital.
5. The composition of prisoners-of-war, inmates, exiles:
All the sovkhoz laborers (Soviet prisoners) had been deported and were replaced with us, exiles from Poland, that is, approximately 60 families of Polish, Ukrainian, and Jewish nationality. Two families had to share one room, and everyone from 16 to 50 years of age was forced to work in the fields. We grew potatoes, beets, and onions, and we raised herds of cows, pigs, hens, etc.
6. Life in the camp, prison:
The normal working day lasted for eight hours, and at sowing and harvest time – 14. We were paid in money once every two weeks. All laborers could buy a kilogram of bread per day, three kilograms of groats per month, and any amount of potatoes, which cost 30 kopecks per kilogram. Milk was only for the children.
It was worse with clothes, as only cart drivers could obtain valenki boots and the so-called bushlats [pea jackets]; the rest had to sew, darn, and mend their clothes, or buy some garments from the others.
7. The NKVD’s attitude towards Poles:
We were guarded by the NKVD commander and one militiaman. The sovkhoz was fenced with wire, and we could leave the premises only if we had been issued a pass.
At first they tried to inculcate us with their Communist propaganda, but eventually they figured out that they were only wasting their breath.
8. Medical assistance, hospitals, mortality rate:
There was a Jewish doctor, who had been deported along with us; he issued us medical leaves from work (for 1–3 days), provided us with first aid and sent the more seriously ill to the district hospital. One child died, and a 50-year-old man, Szloma Korn, died from a heart condition.
9. Was there any possibility to get in contact with one’s country and family?
We received letters and packages from our country.
10. When were you released and how did you manage to join the army?
In September 1941, the amnesty was announced to us. We all left the kolkhoz – some sooner, some later – and went south (to Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan). On the basis of an application filed with the office of the Women’s Auxiliary Service in Guzar, on 21 May 1942 I was admitted into the ranks of the WAS.