MICHAŁ KASZA

Corporal Michał Kasza, 28 years old, farmer.

I was taken into Russian captivity on 19 September 1939 in Sarenki Dolne. We were searched, disarmed, and divested of ammunition and many other things, such as watches and razors. Then we were marched under escort to Kamianets-Podilskyi. This journey took seven days, including two nights of rest which we spent in the open air, in the rain. The journey was very hard, because we didn’t get anything to eat. We were taken to Husiatyn, where we were given a short break, and the Polish civilian populace went to the commander of the escorting unit to ask permission to give us some bread. After this modest meal we were marched on. Whenever we entered some bigger town, [illegible] threw pieces of bread at us, just to see how we would fall upon the crumbs of black bread to alleviate our hunger. We passed by those crumbs and didn’t pick them up in order not to show them that we were hungry, and upon seeing this they gave vent to their anger. Then we crossed the border. In the first town we heard them shouting that they would finish us off and we wouldn’t see Poland ever again. In Kamianets-Podilskyi we were taken to the barracks, where we spent seven days. On the eighth day they took us to the train station. They said that they were taking us to Siberia, where we would all croak. In the wagons we received one fish per day for twelve people and one 2-kilogram loaf of bread for forty people. This was repeated over ten days. We were brought to Równe, from where we walked to the barracks in Żytyń, where there were 3,000 soldiers. Eight rows of barbed wire hung over our lives there. They began to cook soup from rotten fish for us and gave us 400 grams of bread per person. Although it was freezing cold, we didn’t receive any coal to make ourselves warm. We were driven out for hard labor. Later on we were divided into small camps. We came to the clays [?]. There wasn’t even any water for washing there, let alone food, and we had to melt snow to obtain some. There was so much lice that I’m grateful they spared our lives. It was impossible to get rid of them, because during the day we had to work on the road, and at night there wasn’t any light or water. When the doctor visited us, he said that he couldn’t do anything, as he was always being escorted.

On 2 March we were taken to a gulag camp in Niesłuchów, where we were again marched for forced labor. We were taken to the camp in Słowita, and after a month to Oszanica, where we were tormented with work on the airport.

We were severely punished for mentioning the restoration of Poland. The briefest mention of Poland entailed incarceration in the prison, and I shall now describe what the prison looked like: it was a basement dug into the earth, which after spring rains was filled with water to such a degree that it was impossible to pour it out, and it kept leaking from the surface and the sides, and as a result one had to stand knee-deep in water both during the day and at night. Any food was out of the question, there was only some sour cabbage soup to drink once a day. When we walked to work, we were forced to quick march. When we couldn’t obey due to exhaustion, they told us to lie down in the mud, then kicked us and beat us with rifle butts. On Sundays, when we were driven out for work but refused to go in order to celebrate the holiday, they told us to stand to attention facing the sun and then to lie down in the mud. We had nothing to smoke; if they gave us some tobacco, they didn’t give us newspapers to roll it in, and when they gave us some newspaper, they didn’t give us tobacco. We were divested of books; we were forbidden to read Polish books. We were searched and robbed of any clean change of Polish underwear, knives, etc. When there were no more shoes or underwear, we were told that we would be issued some if we kept working.

The German-Russian War

When the war between Germany and Russia broke out, we were marched to Russia. We were in a pickle: we were so hungry and it was so hot that we could barely walk. But there was no other way, because we were beaten; that was not the end, we simply had to go. Many kilometers later night fell on us, and as many suffered from night blindness, they had to be led. Those who couldn’t walk on their own couldn’t count on any help. The escort walked in the back, and those who fell to the ground were finished off with a bayonet. In Złoczów, following a break in a gulag camp, four of our soldiers were killed in this way. We were loaded into wagons at some Russian station, and then the wagons were sealed; we didn’t receive food or water, and air raids continued over our heads, not leading to victory this time.

We came to Starobilsk, where there were several thousand prisoners. One day they announced to us the signing of the Polish-Russian agreement. Then Colonel Wiśniewski came and began to organize a Polish army. Thanks to our beloved Commander, our days of captivity were over and a new life began for us.