1. Personal data (name and surname, degree of rank, age, occupation, marital status):
Rifleman Arkadiusz Skórzewski, 26, a technician for the Polish Aircraft Factory, single.
2. Date and circumstances of the arrest:
I was arrested on 23 January 1940, when crossing the Polish-Hungarian border, in the city of Skok.
3. The name of the camp, prison, or place of forced labor:
I was transported to a prison in Berdyczów, where I stayed from 18 February till September 1940. From there, I was taken to the camp in Starobilsk. I was still under investigation at that point. On 16 January 1941, I received a sentence: five years in labor camps. I was deported to the North, Sverdlovsk Oblast, Ivdel region, t.p. [trudovoy punkt?] Szypiczne.
4. Description of the camp, prison, etc. (grounds, buildings, living conditions, hygiene):
Prison in Berdyczów – an old, brick building with very small windows and no ventilation. The camp in Starobilsk was a complex of several Orthodox churches, monastery [buildings], and wooden barracks; all of them never heated. There was always terrible crowding and a lack of fresh air. The labor camp in Szypiczne had barracks, but there were the same difficult conditions. Bunks for sleeping [were] built one above the other; no covers, no bedding, you used your own fist for a pillow.
5. The composition of prisoners, captives, displacees (nationality, crime types, intellectual and moral level, mutual relations, etc.):
Most of the prisoners were Poles, then Jews who had escaped the German occupation, then Slovaks, Czechs, and Ukrainians. The intellectual level varied. Most of the Poles were working intelligentsia, the Jews were merchants, the Czechs and Ukrainians were farmers. Mutual relations in prison: quite friendly. Everyone, regardless of their nationality, praised the old relations prevailing in their countries and stated that where we were now [imprisoned], it was far from such prosperity.
6. The life in the camp, prison, etc. (the course of an average day, work conditions, quotas, wages, food, clothing, social and cultural life, etc.):
Life in prison was hard. Poor nutrition and bad hygienic conditions were the causes of frequent fainting or diseases such as pneumonia and others. I did not work in the prison and camp in Starobilsk because we were classified as [under] investigation. We spent all day in a cell four by six meters, with two small windows. There were 65 people in our cell. We were sleeping on a cement floor without bedding for four weeks. Later we got bunks, where we slept in such a squeeze that at night it was impossible to turn from side to side. During the day, only a half-hour stroll provided opportunity to take a breath of fresh air. Everyone had their own clothes, including underwear – which was washed only once every half a year. Meals: 600 grams of wholemeal bread every morning, sometimes 10 grams of sugar, and tea. Dinner with supper in the evening: some runny soup without a bit of fat, usually cabbage soup, and also a “second course” – literally a tablespoon of dry groats, sometimes 190 grams of meat per 60 people. Throughout the day, we would have discussions and remember the good times. In the camp in Starobielsk, life was similar to prison. Here, I was living in a large wooden barrack for 500 people, which was never heated despite great frosts. Nutrition [was] similar to prison. In January, I was transported north. We were provided with clothing that was supposed to be warm and rubber boots. The so-called kufajka [thick jacket sewn mainly from wadding] and pants were all this polar equipment consisted of. Many of us had frostbitten ears, toes, or hands before we got to the labor camp because no gloves had been provided.
My work in the labor camp consisted of building a road for vehicles amid snow blizzards and frosts sometimes reaching 70 degrees. The working day lasted 12 hours, and after the outbreak of the Soviet-German war, it was 14 hours. When we were coming back from work, everyone’s dream was to fill their eternally empty stomachs and go to sleep. We were working in brigades where Poles were the majority, then Romanians, Slovaks, and some Russians as well. Meals: in the morning, soup without fat, plus a piece of salty fish. For dinner: cooked runny groats, 10 grams per person. In the evening [we had] 600 or 700 grams of bread, soup, and two spoons of groats. Poor nutrition and hard work were the cause of death of [fellow] comrade Topiłko from Tarnopol voivodeship. I was suffering from avitaminosis, but this disease did not give me the right to take a sick leave. Ulceration marks have remained on my legs and other parts of my body forever. Poles helped each other and comforted each other [saying] that things would end soon.
7. The NKVD authorities’ attitude towards the Poles (interrogation methods, tortures, punishments, communist propaganda, information about Poland, etc.):
I was interrogated in a prison in Berdyczów. Under the threat of death, they persuaded me that I was a spy. Once, when I categorically denied it, they hit me with the butt of a revolver. When I described my life in Poland, they only shook their heads saying that I was lying.
8. Medical care, hospitals, mortality (give the names of the dead):
There were doctors, but they always had limits on sick leaves because the governor did not allow it.
9. What kind of contact, if any, was there with your family and country?
My father was living under the Soviet occupation. Once, I wrote a letter, but I never received an answer.
10. When were you released and how did you get to the army?
Pursuant to the amnesty, I was released on 10 September 1941, and I went to [the village of] Tock [Totskoye – village in the USSR, in the region of Orenburg] immediately. There, I joined the Polish Army on 23 September.
Place of stay, 17 February 1943