1. Personal data (name, surname, rank, age, occupation, and marital status):
Platoon Officer Wacław Geniusz, 32 years old, local government clerk, bachelor.
2. Date and circumstances of the arrest:
16 March 1941 at night, around midnight.
3. Name of the camp, prison, place of forced labor:
The prison in Stara Wilejka, Wilno Voivodeship, and in Ryazan (Russia) near Moscow.
4. Description of the camp, prison:
Prison conditions were as bad as they could possibly be – a cell of six by seven meters, into which 80 to 85 people had been packed. The hygiene was tolerable.
5. Social composition of prisoners, deportees:
The prisoners in the prison (in Wilejka) – up to two thousand, mostly of Polish nationality. The Wilejka inmates had mainly been imprisoned for belonging to the Polish Military Organization, which was formed after the Bolsheviks entered the Wilno region (political prisoners).
6. Life in the camp, prison:
There were no fixed interrogation times in the prison. Interrogations were conducted all day and night long, with short breaks; people were often kept there for 18 hours. The food was very bad (450 grams of bread and a liter of soup per day).
7. Attitude of the NKVD towards Poles:
The attitude of the NKVD towards Poles was horrific. During interrogations, the NKVD beat us unconscious, using rubber truncheons confiscated from our former policemen. They locked us naked in punishment cells, filling them with ankle-deep water (in winter). They pushed flaming matches into our noses, pricked us with pins. Communist propaganda was widespread. The NKVD spoke of Poland extremely badly.
8. Medical assistance, hospitals, mortality:
The medical assistance was poor, mortality was high, mostly due to exhaustion.
9. Was it possible to keep in touch with the home country and your family?
We were not allowed to exchange letters with our families.
10. When were you released and how did you join the army?
I was released from the prison in Ryazan (near Moscow) on 7 September 1941. The prison authorities gave me a train ticket to Buzuluk and 160 rubles for the journey. On 10 September 1941 in Buzuluk I was admitted to the Polish Army.