Cannoneer Władysław Ankudowicz, born in Białystok on 23 October 1923, resident of Dubno in Volhynia.
I was arrested at 2 a.m. on 30 December 1940 for storing firearms. I was taken to Krzemieniec [now Kremenets] for questioning; the investigating officer interrogated me for two days. I experienced a lot of distress during the interrogation. After questioning, I was taken to prison in Dubno, where I stayed for three months and one week. They gave us soup (water with kerosene); I thought that was going to be the end, but I was able to hold on and they transported me to Russia on 17 March 1941. There were around 2,000 people; they led us to the station. There was lots of noise and shouting to stop civilians for approaching us. It all happened at night. They shoved us onto the train, 40 people to a carriage. It was very cold and we started to burn boards from shelves. One of the NKVD officers saw that the carriages were burning; he gave us coal and extinguished the fires on the floor. Our transport set off at 6 a.m.; I went into Russia via Lwów [now Lviv], Tarnopol [now Ternopil], Kyiv, Kharkov, Kuybyshev. During the journey, they gave us small fish, called kamsa [khamsa – anchovies], which were very salty, and there was no water. We travelled for two weeks. We left the train in Kuybyshev and they hounded us to a camp. The following day, they assigned me to 1st Uchastok Stroykolonna [1st Construction Section], 26th Brigade. I started going to work. I worked from dawn until dusk; very many [of us] died of hunger during work.
I worked for five months. I was released on 4 September 1941. I received 50 roubles, two kilos of bread and five herrings for the journey. They gave me a ticket to the Kyrgyz Republic, Frunze oblast, Kant region, “Luxembourg” kolkhoz. I worked there, and it was a little better than in prison and in the camps. I signed up for the Polish Army on 10 February.
7 March 1943