1. Personal data (name, surname, rank, field mail number, profession, and marital status):
Gunner Władysław Juszczuk, 24 years old, no profession, unmarried; [field mail number] 160.
2. Dates and circumstances of arrest:
On 29 November 1939, while crossing the border from German to Russian side – Ościłuk [Uściług], Włodzimierz Wołyński district.
3. Name of the camp, prison, forced labor site:
Prison: Włodzimierz Wołyński, Łuck, Kherson in Russia;
labor camp: Komi ASSR, Ukhta Wodonososna [Wodonosna?].
4. Description of the camp, prison, etc. (terrain, buildings, living conditions, hygiene):
There were 80 of us in a cell in the Kharkiv prison for two weeks; cell’s dimensions were 8x5 meters. On the transport from Łuck to Kherson, which went on for about 14 days, they gave us a meal once a day, 600 grams of bread and salted fish, but no water. In the labor camp, we weren’t given any underwear or clothes at all, there was no bathroom nor a doctor, and the place was swarming with lice.
5. Composition of POWs, prisoners (nationality, offense category, moral and intellectual standing, mutual relations, etc.):
Prisoners of Polish and Jewish ethnicity with various levels of education were usually grouped together for crossing the border. In the labor camp, we worked 12 hours at wood processing and moving it out, starting as early as 2 a.m.
7. NKVD’s attitude towards Poles (methods of interrogation, torturing, punishments, communist propaganda, information about Poland, etc.):
During the interrogation in Włodzimierz, he punched me in the face in order to force me to say I was spying for Germany. On the transport to the North, I was handcuffed and thrown into a punishment cell for asking to go to the toilet.
8. Medical assistance, hospitals, mortality (list names of the deceased):
Almost everybody in the labor camp fell ill with scurvy due to lack of food and with ponos – diarrhea – from the lack of good water and from [eating] rotten fish.
9. Was there any possibility to contact one’s country and family?
In the prison and in the labor camp, Poles weren’t allowed to write home.
10. When were you released and how did you manage to join the army?
With the beginning of September, I came on a transport to Totskoye from Ukhta.