1. [Personal data:]
Volunteer Jadwiga Pleciak, born on 3 November 1923, residing at the military settlement of Hallerowo, Równe district, Volyn, student, unmarried.
2. [Date and circumstances of arrest:]
In 1940, on 10 February, I was sent with my family to the Arkhangelsk Oblast, Kotlas district, Monastyrek posyolek [settlement].
3. [Name of the camp, prison, forced labor site:]
The posyolek was located on the Dvina river.
4. [Description of the camp, prison:]
There were several dozen people living in barracks. It was cramped, filthy, and uncomfortable.
5. [Composition of POWs, prisoners, exiles:]
There were exclusively Poles at the posyolek, exiled for owning land. There were farmers only, settlers from the Lwów and Brody region, and settlers from Volyn. There were around 300 Poles at the posyolek.
6. [Life at the camp, prison:]
Life in the camp passed in constant hardships and fear. We went to work very early in the morning. Our work consisted in floating wood down the river. The quota was completely unattainable. We earned very little. It definitely wasn’t enough for food. There was very little bread in the warehouses. Clothes were very expensive.
7. [The NKVD authorities’ attitude towards Poles:]
Commanders, who were NKVD members, had us under their supervision. They instilled Communism in Polish children – or at least they tried to, as they failed completely. The parents of every Polish child prepared us children in such a way that the NKVD completely failed to change me morally in any way. This brought us unpleasant consequences, because the NKVD men took revenge by not giving us work and bread, or drove us to work like dogs and didn’t give us bread and money for that.
8. [Medical aid, hospitals, mortality:]
Medical aid was very poor. A man wasn’t sent to a hospital until he was dying, and then he died in the hospital after a few days. There were many such incidents. 18 Poles died – of exhaustion, hard work, and hunger.
10. [When were you released and how did you reach the army?]
After the amnesty, I found myself in a kolkhoz near Stalinabad, in January 1942. On 26 February I reached Yangiyul. In April, Iran. In May, in Teheran, I joined the Women’s Auxiliary Service.