1. [Personal details:]
Volunteer Zofia Paszkiewicz, born in 1917, Jordan’s Gardens instructor, unmarried.
2. [Date and circumstance of arrest:]
An unforgettable night: on 29 June 1940 at midnight, I was deported, together with my parents and a 13-year-old sister, from Kołomyja as evacuees from Western Poland, from Katowice.
3. The place of deportation:
The place of deportation: Swierdlovsk Oblast, Beryozovsky raion, Pyshminsky c/c [?], 38th quarter.
4. [Description of the camp, prison:]
Area: deep in the forests of Ural. Buildings: barracks divided into single cubicles with bloodthirsty bedbugs. There were baths, a dayroom, a common room, an infirmary, a shop, a canteen, warehouses, a bakery, a classroom, administrative offices, stables, sheds, toilets.
Hygiene: anti-lice treatment room, hot bath once a week, disinfectants in the toilets.
5. [The composition of POWs, prisoners, exiles:]
Exiles: 150 people, 75 percent of whom were of Jewish faith, mostly merchants and landowners. People of Polish nationality were mostly office workers, priests and monks. All had been evacuated from the western parts of Poland and registered in Lwów to enter the protectorate. Our mutual relations were a source of help for people in misfortune, we got support from our relations and friends in Poland. Despite oppression, the moral standing of the exiles was good, and so was the morale in our children, who tried to help their hard- working, hungry families with work and with picking up mushrooms and berries.
6. Life in the camp, prison:
a) Summer work. The main task in the summer was collecting resin and mowing the grasses. Quotas: 52 kilograms – 5 rubles; mowing, drying and putting up sheaves of grasses within 10 square meters – 7 rubles. We were given aprons and nakomarniks [mosquito nets] against badly-biting mosquitos and black flies. The work continued for 12 hours, with an hour- long break for dinner, namely bread and water from the lake or from puddles. We were all excessively thirsty. We had to wake up at 4 a.m., because the resin ran faster in the morning.
b) Winter work. In the winter, when temperatures fell to minus 40 degrees, we woke up at 6 a.m. and had to go to work poorly dressed, wading through snow that reached up to our waist. We cut trees and stacked the pieces to form meters. One meter = 225 kopecks. The quota was set at six meters. We burned branches to warm up and dry our stockings. We worked also on skis, debarking trees four meters above the ground. The elderly worked in sheds and made brooms – 45 brooms (the quota) earned 5 rubles. Cutting birch trees into small cubes called ciurki (quota: 1 square meter – 6 rubles) to fuel cars. The pay was extremely poor and they paid us a part of our remuneration once a quarter. They cheated us and if it wasn’t for the selling of our own things and for the financial support from Poland, it would have been difficult to live.
c) Food. After the work was finished, everybody stood in a queue in the camp canteen and waited patiently for a soup called szczi, made of cabbage leaves and hot water. In the shop, one could buy 600 grams of bread per working person, 400 grams per those unable [to work] and 200 grams per child under 15!!! Apart from that, there were fish and herrings and on their national holidays one could buy sweets, vodka, fabrics, shoes, etc.
The cinema came a few times, but each time the hall was empty, and no one came despite the invitations of the camp commander. The cinema then packed up and never came back. The children went to school very unwillingly and mocked the 17-year-old teacher, who had never seen anything but her own village.
One thing was very dear to us, namely the celebration of the Mass and the communion service by the Reverend Wacław Kołodziejczyk. It was mostly he who helped us to uphold our faith and our hope for liberation. All of our masses were spied on and I don’t know what or who saved the priest from being arrested.
In the evening after work, one could hear Polish songs and merry jokes addressed to our authorities and our overseers.
7. [The NKVD’s attitude towards Poles:]
Punishments: failing to fill the quota meant being put in the camp prison for five days with
only one meal [a day]. Anyone failing to go to work and not having a certificate from a vrach
[doctor] was punished with progul, meaning that one’s remuneration would be lessened by
20 percent for six months. All people of 15 to 55 years were forced to work. The authorities
supervising the work often hid behind the trees and spied on the workers. It was most
frequent during our religious and national holidays.
Information on Poland. Usually, they said at the gatherings (which one was supposed to join) that Poland is dead and that the authorities had fled to Romania and that we would do better to stop thinking about it and work.
8. Medical assistance:
The medical assistance was only for those in a severe condition, and usually came too late. Such aid resulted in the death of my parents, Maria and Antoni Paszkiewicz, Ewunia [illegible], 6 years old, from Wilno; Renia Arzemiak from Kraków, 63 years old; Julian Górski, a monk from Chynów, 73 years old; Anna Zarębina from Warsaw, the mother of Ewa Szelburg-Zarębina.
[9. Was there any chance to get in contact with one’s country and family?]
Contact with the country or with families was minimal, all parcels were checked.
[10. When were you released and how did you manage to join the army?]
I was released on 29 August 1941. I joined the army on 27 February 1942 in Guzar.
5 February 1943