Rifleman Józef Młynarczyk, 21 years old, unmarried, tiler’s assistant.
I was arrested on 13 November 1939 in the village of Sianki. I wanted to cross the Polish- Hungarian border so I stopped in Sianki, where as a suspect I was arrested by a local NKVD post and sent to prison in Skole. I was released due to lack of evidence of guilt. After three days, I was arrested again in Lwów on charges of attempting to cross the border, and was imprisoned in the “Brygidki” prison, Kazimierzowska [Street] 24. The prison was overcrowded, filled with lice, there was insufficient food, and a lack of vitamins.
On 15 September 1940, I was deported to Starobilsk, where we were interned for about three months in relatively bearable conditions. One day, I was told that I had been sentenced in absentia to a penalty of five years of forced labor in Ukhta.
The next day I was transported to the Chibyu labor camp in Ukhta. There were wooden barracks located in a coniferous forest. Work consisted in logging. We worked in minus 60 degree [weather] in footwear made of old car tires. The wadded clothes we worked in were also used as bedding. We slept in wooden bunks. All the types of crimes had been mixed up. There were many murderers next to the intelligentsia. The frequent thefts didn’t let you take off your clothes even when you were sleeping, which made the dirt and vermin spread. During the 10 hours of work with the convoy standing by, you had to attain a 100 percent quota to get 700 grams of bread and half a liter of watery soup twice a day. The quota for laying logs was 37 cubic meters a day.
Medical care was limited to cases of emergency. Mortality continued to rise – of the 300 laborers there, one person died a week.
Communication with the country was very poor. Throughout my stay in the camp, until I was released, I had received one letter.
On 1 September 1941, we were dismissed from work and after two weeks the Poles were transported to Buzuluk. From Buzuluk, we left for Totskoye, where I applied to stand before the military commission. After quarantine, I was assigned to the 18th Infantry Regiment.