1. [Personal details:]
Lieutenant Bronisław Rek, 37 years old, railway employee, married.
2. [Date and circumstances of arrest:]
On 9 July 1940 I was taken away from the internment camp in Kalwaria in Lithuania.
3. [Name of the camp, prison, place of forced labor:]
Kozelsk, from 14 July 1940 to 30 June 1941,
Gryazovets, from 2 July to 2 September 1941.
4. [Description of the camp, prison:]
The camp in Kozelsk was situated in former monastery buildings. They were ruins. Most of us were living in former Orthodox churches that were not suitable for living. During winter they were poorly heated, our bunk beds were full of bedbugs (the camp was situated in a place called Dom Otdykha im. Gor’kovo for youth [a recreation facility named after Gorky]). The bedbugs were in every building, in every cranny of the bunk beds and walls. We were fighting with them the whole year. For several months we didn’t have straw mattresses.
When we came to Gryazovets we slept outdoors several times. There also were bedbugs in the buildings.
5. [Composition of prisoners, captives, deportees:]
There were around 900 officers and around 500 private soldiers in the camp.
6. [Life in the camp, prison:]
Every day after waking up there was a roll call. This was bothersome during winter because it took place outside and we had poor overcoats – old Polish uniforms worn out in the camps, nothing given us by the NKVD. Our main food was 800 grams of bread a day. For breakfast we got tea, bread, and some fish, for lunch soup and groats or potatoes. Theoretically the ration of fat amounted to 75 grams a day, practically it was around 30–34 grams.
There were two food rations: one for the officers and one for the private soldiers. The rations for officers were 800 grams of bread, 30 grams of sugar, 75 grams of meat, some fish, 200 grams of potatoes, groats, flour. Aside from this, once a month they received five packs of wild tobacco and matches, and 45 grams of tea. The non-commissioned officers and the private soldiers received 800 grams of bread, 25 grams of sugar, 50 grams of meat, and I think the rest was the same.
The daily routine: waking up at 6 a.m., roll call at 6.15 a.m., breakfast at 8 a.m., lunch at 12 p.m., dinner (kipiatok [boiling water]) at 4 p.m. During the day politruks [political commissars] were going around the blocks spreading their propaganda, at the same time other politruks were conducting investigations, interrogating an internee for several hours. During these interrogations they were asking nicely or abusively, intimidating and demanding confessions if you were working in the Second Department of Polish General Staff. They wanted us to give away confidants, if we didn’t they were threatening us and withholding our correspondence. The interrogations were conducted during the night.
The officers were working only for the needs of the camp, on the camp premises. The private soldiers were used for work in a kolkhoz without remuneration.
When we arrived at both camps and when we were leaving Kozelsk, they were searching us and taking our money, gold watches, razors, razor blades, knifes and photographs.
There was a club decorated in the Bolshevik style, there were two billiard tables, chess sets, checkers. Only a few of us were using the club because politruks were constantly interrupting, spreading their propaganda. Once every few days there was a cinema with Bolshevik propaganda movies. The theme of the movies was the revolution.
7. [The NKVD authorities’ attitude towards the Poles:]
The NKVD authorities were unfriendly towards the internees. In their propaganda talks or during the interrogations we were made to think that the Polish nation was gone once and for all. We were psychologically mistreated. Due to the investigations and to that particular atmosphere, many of us went insane, for example Lieutenant Krzyczkowski, Second Lieutenant Dłuski (he died later) and two policemen, I don’t know their names. Moreover, two of us hanged themselves: Captain Wasilewski and one military policeman. Rifleman Stapa died from mental exhaustion.
8. [Medical care, hospitals, mortality:]
Thanks to the cooperation of our physicians, medical care was sufficient and mortality was low. During one year only five people from among 2,500 died.
9. [What kind of contact, if any, was there with your family and country?]
Once a month I received a letter from my wife from Warsaw. But other prisoners’ letters were confiscated, especially those who came from territories occupied by the USSR. A lot of letters were never delivered. On average, letters from Warsaw were reaching us within four to six weeks.
The policemen who came from the Eastern Borderlands were treated in a special way. They were forced to reveal the names of confidants, otherwise their correspondence was confiscated and they were subjected to several hours’ interrogation during both day and night.
When we were leaving Kalwaria in Lithuania we couldn’t use carts to transport our personal belongings. The officers (around 900 persons) carried their bags for about 6 kilometers to the train station in Kalwaria, and the same thing happened in Kozelsk. On 10 July we were loaded onto train wagons, 45 people per wagon, and then the wagons were bolted and the windows were nailed up. They didn’t give us any water and only salted fish to eat. When we demanded water the guards threatened to shoot us.
In July 1941, during the Polish-Bolshevik talks, the politruks in Gryazovets were inducing us to join the Red Army. Even the commanding officer of the camp, Colonel Chodas, was going around the blocks and angrily reproaching officers for not joining the army.
10. [When you were released and how did you get to the army?]
After we were released from Gryazovets, on 2 September 1941, we weren’t given any transport for departure to the train station in Gryazovets (a distance of 7 kilometers). We carried our bags ourselves. When we reached the train station we didn’t get our appointed train and we had to wait for it for five hours in heavy rain. 2,000 people got soaked to the skin. Before we left for the Polish divisions being organized in Gryazovets, the internees were given compensation: staff officers, 3,000 rubles, senior and junior officers, 2,000 rubles, private soldiers, 500 rubles. Moreover, personal documents were given back if they hadn’t been lost in the process.
On 1 July 1941, during our ride from Kozelsk to Gryazovets, our transport was passing by a transport of Polish people that were being driven away by force from Łomża and Białystok districts. When they heard that Polish internees were passing by, the people began to sing religious songs. The guards reacted to this and were threatening to shoot if they didn’t stop singing.