1. Personal data (name, surname, rank, age, profession, marital status):
Gunner Zbigniew Jankowski, 18 years old, farmer’s son, middle school student, finished two years of middle school of the new type.
2. Date and circumstances of arrest:
On 10 February 1942 at 7.00 a.m. The whole family was at the table, eating breakfast, when suddenly two thugs burst in – two NKVD men (Soviet police) – and three Ukrainian militiamen. They searched my father for weapons, and after a while they said: “ Zabirajsia, pojediem wRosiju (pack up, we’re going to Russia)”. There was a lot of weeping, and my mother didn’t want to move an inch. And those thugs were standing with guns aimed at our heads. Whether we liked it or not, we had to put all the clothes and food on a cart and we were taken to Radziwiłłów Station. They loaded 10 families and clothes on the train there. The journey to the point of destination took 18 days.
3. Description of the camp, prison:
Swampy and wooded terrain. Vast forests were everywhere you looked. Wooden buildings, so-called barracks (infested with bugs, usually fleas and bedbugs). Dirt was everywhere, spreading malaria. This poselok was situated right in the middle of the Siberian wasteland, reached by a dead-end railway. Khristoforovo was the name of the poselok. At the beginning, I worked beside my father on loading logs. My father was surprised at how strong I was. Even though I was a big, fat boy, I was very young. But within two months, when Polish food supplies ran out, I lost my strength and I had to escape that work. I rode a horse, carrying wood. It was hard too, but I worked like this until the release.
5. Compositions of prisoners, POWs, exiles:
90 percent of Poles, usually military settlers, and 10 percent of Ukrainians. There were no Jews at all.
6. Life in the camp, prison:
Whoever attained the quota would get a bonus, receive extra food and various gifts; their food and housing was better. Getting nourished was very difficult because of the shortages [?]. Initially, there was a kilogram of bread given per worker, and half a kilogram for a non-worker (in the last months half a kilogram for a worker, 200 grams for a non-worker). [There was] oatmeal soup. Yes, there was better food [available], but we didn’t have money to buy it. Comradeship was much better than back in Poland. We got really close and one spared no effort to help another. And if there was a single egoist, everybody would avoid him until he finally softened.
7. Attitude of the NKVD towards the Poles:
Very strict; NKVD men treated us as if we were bandits. At midnight, I heard somebody knock on the door. I looked and saw NKVD men entering the house with a torch; they counted us to check if nobody had escaped. 112 people lived in one barrack.
8. Medical assistance, hospitals, mortality:
One helped another with all means – money or food – because one worked in a gravel pit, another somewhere on a kolkhoz. Masses of people went away to the hospital, suffering from the following illnesses: malaria, kidney disease, hernias. Thirty-five percent of the people in poselok died out. Listed below: Zygmunt Sutkowski, 15 years old; Radziwiłłów, settler; Krzysztof Kucięba, 4 years old; Stanisław Święciński, lieutenant, 65 years old; Roman Święciński, Stanisław’s brother, 56 years old.
9. Was there a possibility to contact one’s country and family?
Yes, we had contact with my grandfather, who lives in Mława, and with my uncle, whose wife is my father’s sister – he lives in Warsaw. During work, my father’s hernia belt broke. My father wrote to my uncle in Warsaw asking for a new one, and we received it. I need to note that I was deported along with my family. My father was a military settler.
10. When were you released and how did you manage to join the army?
I was released along with my whole family on 30 August 1941. When we received passports, they said we could travel around the entire Russia. Then we demanded remuneration for our work and we set off to be closer to a Polish post. When I learned the Polish army was being formed, I said to my father: “Father, I want to join the army”. In the beginning, I spent several months on a kolkhoz with my family to get nourished. I was the first to join the army, and the rest of my family followed. I joined the ranks on 12 January 1942 in Tatishchevo; the 5th Division was stationed there. During the recruitment, I was assigned to armored weaponry.
31 January 1943