ANTONI FORYŚ

1. Name, surname, rank, age, occupation, and marital status:

Gunner Antoni Foryś, born in 1919, turning student, bachelor.

2. Date and circumstances of the arrest:

17 February 1940 at the Russian-Lithuanian border.

3. Name of the camp, prison or place of forced labor:

[Illegible] prison, camp in the Arkhangelsk Oblast, Yertsevo branch.

4. Description of the camp, prison:

During the 13 months I spent in prison, I did not receive any underwear or clothes, went to the bathhouse once a month and for a five-minute walk every four days. The conditions in the camp were also horrible, I was unable to meet the quota; hunger, cold, and misery.

5. Social composition of prisoners:

Poles, Ukrainians, Jews, and Russians. Crime category – counter-revolutionaries and for crossing the border. Mostly members of the intelligentsia, farmers, and laborers. Poles were holding up [illegible] because they expected to be freed any day and they got on very well with each other, but they always quarreled and argued with the Russians. The Russians would hurt and steal from the Poles.

6. Life in the camp, prison:

In the prison we were woken at 5.00 a.m. I received 600 grams of bread and a mug of water, half a liter of watery soup at noon and in the evening the same – half a liter of watery soup.

In the camp I worked from dawn to dusk, but I was unable to meet the quota, so I was always hungry and wearing rags.

7. Attitude of the NKVD towards Poles:

The attitude of the NKVD towards Poles was awful. During interrogations, Poles were beaten and locked in punishment cells. The authorities claimed that Poland would never exist again and that communism would take hold all over the world.

8. Medical assistance, hospitals, mortality:

Medical assistance was poor, hospitals were lousy. Quite a lot of Poles died, but I cannot remember the names.

9. Was it possible to keep in touch with the home country and your family?

When I was in prison I had no contact with my family, but while in the camp I had the right to write letters: one every three months.

10. When were you released and how did you join the army?

I was released on 5 November 1941. As soon as I was released from the camp I went to join the army, but they were not accepting new recruits at that time, so I had to work in a kolkhoz for six weeks. Then they started organizing the 7th Division in the village, so I joined the army.