1. Personal data:
Platoon Sergeant Józef Banasiewicz, 44 years old. My last employment was as a forester of the State Forests in the Lubieszów forest district office, forest administration region of Żeleźnica.
2. Date and circumstances of arrest:
On 10 February 1940, I was arrested together with my wife and four children in the township of Lubieszów, district of Kamień Koszyrski. My family and I were driven on foot for twelve kilometers to the train station of Derewek, under escort all the way.
When we finally got there, we were locked up in the school building, where we remained for two whole days. It was terribly overcrowded and stuffy, because the school’s two small halls housed more than three hundred people of both sexes and various ages.
On the third day we were packed into wagons and, with the doors closed shut, sent on a grueling 27-day odyssey to Arkhangelsk. During the voyage we received hot food three times, and bread twice (two kilograms in total).
When we arrived in Arkhangelsk, some one hundred families and ours among them (approximately 580 people) were selected and sent to the “Ujma” brickyard. The housing conditions were very difficult, with three to five families – from 15 to 30 people – allocated to a single flat. Missing windowpanes were covered with rags, but the doors were full of holes and simply could not be repaired. The flats were cold and damp, and when the temperature fell, snow would harden on the walls. They gave us iron bed frames, which due to the lack of space were converted into bunks; unfortunately, we had no straw to line them with. For two whole years we slept on planks. The working conditions were severe, for it was demanded that we fulfill quotas which simply could not be fulfilled. If, however, a norm was carried out – miraculously – it would be raised immediately. When we protested and demanded an explanation for these actions, the camp administration would say that the foreman must have made a mistake. Payments of wages were frequently delayed by up to three months.
We would stand for hours at the office, begging for our monies or an advance. And so it was throughout the entire period of our detention. Sometimes, grudgingly, they would give an advance of two or three rubles; their approach never changed. A family with only a few members fit for work suffered terrible poverty, and people would sell their last items of clothing just to save themselves from death through starvation. We were treated with extreme brutality, as if we were dangerous criminals. For example, if you left the factory premises, you would be punished with arrest for up to three days. This still occurred after the amnesty was announced.
You really had to break your back for hours to get some bread. What is more, everyone had to buy their kilogram of bread in person – even mothers had to come round with their infants, for otherwise the Soviets would not sell them the child’s ration. After the war with Germany broke out, we were given bread ration coupons: those who worked were entitled to 600 grams, while those who did not – to 400 grams. Those who worked in the canteen and had ration coupons for fat could purchase two plates of soup; children were entitled to half a plate, while a wife was not entitled to anything at all.
Even if we were a few minutes late for work, we would be punished by a deduction of 15 – 40 percent of our wages over a few months, or simply locked up in prison. Bronisława Kołtuniecka spent four months in jail only because she had been late for work on a few occasions.
Towards the end of 1941, that is starting from October, there was a terrible famine. People would swell from hunger and collapse with exhaustion. In the last days of December 1941, families with fewer young children departed the settlement at their own expense, while the remainder – 51 hapless families (approximately 260 people) who could not afford such an “escape” – were forced to stay. Towards the end of January 1942 we received generous help from the Representation in Arkhangelsk, which provided us with some clothes and cash benefits, so that on 4 February 1942 we left this plane of starvation and death, however leaving 84 graves – mainly of children – behind us.
In the second half of February, with the assistance of our posts and welfare services in Kuybyshev, we arrived safely in Ariza, where after a few days we were attached to a transport leaving for Persia. Finally, on Holy Saturday, all 248 of us made it to Pahlavi.
I have submitted a report on my detention in the abovementioned settlements, together with a register of those who died and are still alive in prison, to the Polish Representation in Arkhangelsk.