[1.] Rank, name and surname of the interviewee:
Cadet Sergeant Tadeusz Konopacki
[2.] The course and circumstances of arrest:
I was arrested while crossing the Romanian border in the vicinity of Horodenka. Immediately afterwards I was beaten by the Soviet border guard and taken to Horodenka.
[3.] Methods of interrogating and torturing the arrestee during investigation:
During the investigation in Horodenka I was beaten several times by NKVD functionaries, and the interrogations took place exclusively at night.
[4.] Court procedures, ruling in absentia, ways of delivering verdicts (particularly desirable are full texts of judgements):
In the prison in Zhytomyr I learned that I was sentenced to eight years of forced labor camps. Several hundred Poles were sentenced at the same time. The full text of my sentence: “Surname, name, date and place of birth, is sentenced to eight years of labor camps for attempted border crossing”.
[5.] Cases of people who were murdered during their march, during their deportations, during their stay in prison or during their work as forced laborers:
During a march from frozen barges to the township of Kozhva (Komi ASSR), a dozen or so people froze to death, including a farmer from the vicinity of Rzeszów by the surname of Tabaka. During transport by barges on the Pechora River, a few prisoners died from exhaustion. In the 23rd colony, 1st section [otdeleniye], near Kozhva, several dozen prisoners died between November 1940 and February 1941. As for their surnames, I remember a merchant, Temerson, from Bydgoszcz.
[7.] Life in the forced labor camps (camp organization and work quotas):
In the above mentioned camp we lived in dank, gloomy barracks, full of bugs. The prisoners suffered a plague of lice, which wasn’t fought against at all. We received starvation-level rations of food, and the work quotas surpassed the capability of the weakened people. Those who shrank from work were inhumanely tortured and starved. This is best evidenced by the fact that out of 400 [prisoners], 270 died or fell sick within three months.
[8.] Life in prisons:
In Stanisławów, the prisoners were kept in small cells and damp basements. In Polish prisons the inmates received far milder treatment than in the Soviet ones. In the prison in Zhytomyr we were plagued by the hostility of the prison authorities, hunger, and lice.
Official stamp, 16 March 1943