1. Personal data:
Rifleman Stanisław Marczak, 45 years old, farmer, married.
2. Date and circumstances of arrest:
In the Łeska Dola settlement near Dubno, 10 February 1940, in the morning. Men were ordered to lie on the ground, women were instructed to pack essential belongings, being allowed very little time for that. Then by sledge to a railway station. Treated violently.
3. Name of the labor camp:
Arkhangelsk Oblast, Yarensk region, Litwinowskij Lespromchoz.
4. Camp description:
Woody and marshy surroundings. A room in barracks. Lice and bedbugs. Sanitary facilities unbelievably primitive and functioning badly.
5. Composition of prisoners:
150 people in the camp, mostly Poles, four Ukrainians; farmers.
6. Life in the camp:
We worked at felling trees, more than a dozen hours a day. Salary was in cash: three to six rubles per day. This had to be enough to support oneself and one’s family. A worker could buy a kilo of bread for 1,2 rubles, and 400 grams for a child. A bowl of soup in the canteen: 1,8 rubles, goulash 4 rubles. Families that included a number of people unable to work were starving terribly. We were given materials for house construction – on credit; those unable to build were promised a readymade house, being charged 6 rubles a week on account of that. We were told to cut trees for private gardens. But neither time nor strength allowed us to exploit the soil.
7. The NKVD’s attitude towards the Poles:
The authorities assumed a really unfavorable attitude towards Poles. They were considered
lords and kulaks by the NKVD. The NKVDists were especially hostile to any form of collective
prayer. Once, when women tried to sing at a funeral, they were scattered amid threats
and curses and had guns waved at them. Information about Poland: Polszyuże ne bude.
Propaganda – through forced participation in lectures and anniversary events. Newspapers.
8. Medical care, hospitals, mortality:
Medical care was limited. The hospital was 70 kilometers distant, mortality was high – around 15%. General health condition were terrible – exhaustion.
9. Communication with the country:
Correspondence was kept up. For some time they began viciously withholding letters, but it stopped.
10. Date of release, and of joining the Army:
On 10 October 1941 the exiles were transported to Uzbekistan, then to Kyrgyzstan and placed around in kolkhozes. I was accepted into the army on 25 February 1942, 9th Division, 26th Infantry Regiment.
Official stamp, 15 January 1943.