1. Personal details (name, surname, rank, age, occupation and marital status):
Jan Łagowski, cannoneer, 24 years old, tailor, single.
2. Date and circumstances of arrest:
10 February 1940, in my own house in the village of Delejów, Stanisławów district, together with my family, for resettlement. Charge: confidant.
3. Name of camp, prison, place of forced labor:
Rokotyenka labour camp, Chkalovsky Oblast, accommodation with my family. Work at a local copper mine under the supervision of the NKVD.
4. Description of the camp, prison:
A camp away from the town. NKVD supervision. A small room for living designated in advance for four neighboring families. Bad conditions, dirty accommodation, low hygiene.
5. Composition of prisoners-of-war, prisoners and deportees:
100 families, all colonists from Delejów and neighboring villages. Mostly Poles, only a few Ukrainian families, foresters from state forests, from Nadwórna, Stanislawów voivodeship. The attitude of the local Russian population was favorable, while the Russian authorities were bad.
6. Life in the camp, prison:
Life was tough due to the difficulty in securing food for the family. Work for eight hours a day in a copper ore mine. Average wages only when I met the quota, and that was very difficult to make. Clothes were very difficult to buy, because you could only buy them for workers—mother did not work, so it was not possible to buy anything for her. The youngsters were enrolled in the Communists’ organization [Komsomol?].
7. Conduct of the NKVD towards the Poles:
The NKVD authorities conducted themselves very harshly, they interrogated us severely and sometimes several times a week. Constant meetings for all Poles for propaganda purposes. They tried to instill the communist spirit in us. Poland was referred to in a bad way and they said that Poland would never rise again and we would never go back there again.
8. Medical assistance, hospitals, mortality rate:
There was medical assistance in the camp, although medical leave from work was granted only with the permission of the head of the NKVD. The mortality rate in the camp was about 40%. From my family, my mother, Katarzyna Łagowska, died in Russia.
9. Was there any communication with homeland and family? If so, how was it?
Until the outbreak of the war with Germany, we had communication with my sisters in Poland, and communication was broken at the outbreak of the war.
10. When were you released and how did you join the army?
I escaped from the camp with my family on 18 September 1941. They did not want to let me go, because they did not have enough workers for the mine. We fled to Kazakhstan, where we stayed until February 1942. I left to join the Polish Army on 8 Febraury 1942 at the recruitment point in Czokpak, Almaty Oblast.