Franciszek Arciszewski, reserve platoon leader, staging area command post, service company PAI 232.
I was born on 2 November 1908, farm Ł[illegible] in the Nieśwież district, nowogródzkie voivodeship.
During the 1939 mobilization I was drafted into the battalion of the Border Protection Corps (KOP) in Ludwików, Łuniniec district, poleskie voivodeship. The battalion in which I served was involved in fighting the Germans at Sądowa Wisznia. Having received three wounds on 15 September, on 18 September I was taken prisoner by the Germans. Then I was treated in the Red Cross Hospital in Nowy Sambor. In accordance with the agreement between Russia and Germany, Nowy Sambor came under Soviet rule and so did the hospital and its patients, including myself. Exposed to the Ukrainian terror, deprived of proper medical care, and suffering from improper nourishment, a significant number of those who were sick and wounded escaped home. I escaped too. I went to the village of Łachówka, the Łuniniec district. Relying on the help of the local doctor from the care fund, I was recuperating from my wounds at home. The doctor was called Święcicki. Following the well-known pattern, the Soviet authorities, in order to destroy everything Polish, set out to deport Polish citizens deep into Russia. Families of soldiers and civil servants, administration workers, and all who didn’t share the Bolshevik ideas were subjected to deportation. And so was I along with my family. On 10 February 1940 we were taken to the Vologda Oblast, Birakovsky [?] region, Ozierenovsky "forestpoint".
During our trip into exile the NKVD, in order to whet our thirst, fed us with herrings. Then they gave us no water. This was a kind of torture designed to stimulate the mortality rate among us. They tormented poor women and children in this way, giving vent to their sadistic impulses.
Upon arrival at our destination, we were lodged in dirty and cramped barracks. There was no room for us to sleep. Until the amnesty, my family and I lived on the edge of subsistence. Because my wounds hadn’t yet healed, the Bolsheviks referred me to the Medical Board in order to determine the type of work I was fit to do. I was deemed to be a partial invalid. In order to support myself and my family, I worked as a janitor and a street cleaner.
Following the outbreak of the war between Germany and the Soviet Union, I was accused of supporting the enemy and dismissed from work. We saved ourselves from starving to death by selling up our belongings.
Once the amnesty was proclaimed I joined the army as a former non-commissioned officer. But I didn’t manage to set my family free from the Bolsheviks’ clutches. The Soviet authorities pretended to be willing, in accordance with the agreement [they had concluded with the Polish government] to offer all assistance to Polish exiles. In reality, however, they jumped at every opportunity to sabotage it, hindering our attempts to join the army and to extract our families from Russia.
6 March 1943