1. Personal data:
Gunner Wojciech Giermuga.
2. Date and circumstances of the arrest:
On 10 February 1940 I was taken away as a deportee as a result of complaints made by Ukrainians. I was taken away along with my mother, an old woman, who became sick during the journey due to the cold and privation. We reached our destination after nine weeks of traveling, famished, in frozen train cars.
3. Name of the camp, prison, place of forced labor:
Verkhnyaya Tura, Sverdlovsk Oblast. I worked in a sawmill, 12 hours per day. The work was tough, we loaded train cars, regardless of whether it was day or night.
4. Description of the camp, prison:
I lived in a barrack. When we arrived, we all lived together. The housing conditions were very tough because there was one meter of space per person. Three months later they constructed new barracks and split us up – each family got their own unit, although two smaller families were housed together in one unit. The conditions there were not much better, since the accommodation was full of irritating bugs, and there were 14 families in our barrack.
5. Social composition of prisoners, deportees:
There were 45 exiled families in the hamlet, that is 270 souls. Only six of the families were Ukrainian, the rest were Polish. Apart from us, there were also deportees from 1932 from Ukraine. The entire hamlet consisted of displaced persons, except for the NKVD officers and sawmill clerks.
6. Life in the camp:
Our life was pitiful, because we were forced to do hard work, which we didn’t have the strength for because of the lack of food, but we still had to meet the quota. I could earn 10 rubles a day, which had to be enough for myself and my mother. I could buy a kilogram of bread for two people. There were misunderstandings between us due to complaints by Ukrainians that were listened to by the authorities.
7. Attitude of the NKVD towards Poles:
In this respect, the authorities were strict. They took everyone to the commandant’s office, lectured and abused them, because they could not find out anything. They made it very difficult for me when they learned that I had been a member of the Riflemen’s Association and had been accused by Ukrainians.
8. Medical assistance, hospitals, mortality:
There was medical help, but there were no medicines, which were needed because of various diseases going round, causing numerous fatalities, particularly among the elderly and children.
I lost my mother because after I had left to join the army, she moved to a welfare house, where she fell sick with typhus, and she died in June 1942 in Kermine, Bukhara Oblast.
9. Was it possible to keep in touch with the home country and your family?
We had contact with our families in Poland, although it was difficult.
10. When were you released and how did you join the army?
I was released on 31 August 1941 and we left the Urals heading south, near Tashkent. I lived and worked there for five months. On 18 February 1942 in Kermine I joined the army, the 7th Division.