Volunteer Maria Kolis, born on 1 May 1922 in Niwiska, district of Kolbuszowa, Krakowskie Voivodeship.
I graduated from elementary school in Hallerczyn, district of Brody, Tarnopol Voivodeship. I then attended the Eliza Orzeszkowa gymnasium in Brody. It was from there that I graduated from the 4th grade of the new type of gymnasium. On 10 February 1940, the Soviet authorities deported me and my parents and younger siblings to the USSR, to the Arkhangelsk Oblast, Kotlas Raion. I worked hard in the Nizhnyaya Striga settlement, at first as a lumberjack. This was heavy labor in difficult conditions – it snowed very hard. The temperature would get as low as 55 degrees below zero, and we did not have proper boots. We were paid very low wages. One could earn on average 20 to 30 rubles. Food was lousy and very expensive, and the canteens never provided enough of it. After that, I worked in a canteen for eight months. This kind of work was more acceptable. In May 1941, having suffered from a severe illness, my dad died in the hospital in Kotlas. Our family’s living conditions became even more difficult after my father’s death.
Shortly after he died, I fell ill with influenza, and later with other illnesses. I wasn’t able to work during the whole summer.
On 22 August [1941] we were released on account of the amnesty and travelled south to Tashkent, where we were instructed to cross the Amu Darya river. We stayed in a kolkhoz near Nukus for two weeks. The NKVD sent us from there to Guzar in Uzbekistan – travelling back along the river was very difficult, we were hungry and cold. My little brother, Czesław, died during this journey. The harshest conditions were in a kolkhoz in the Guzar District, many people died there from typhus. So did my mom, Karolina – on 21 March 1942.
After my mother’s death, my brother, sister and I joined the Polish army, which was being organized in the Guzar District. I crossed the Soviet border on 30 March, and arrived in Tehran on 5 April 1942. I am now staying in Quizil Ribat.