1. Personal data:
Section Leader Maria Durda, 37 years old, civil servant (military administration), unmarried.
2. Date and circumstances of arrest:
I was deported on 29 June 1940 from Lwów, having been arrested by the Soviet occupation authorities.
3. Name of the camp, prison, or forced labor site:
At first, the penal colony in Krasnouralsk, later the Nikolsk hamlet, Sverdlovsk Oblast.
4. Description of the camp, prison etc.:
An unguarded, open wooden barracks.
5. The composition of prisoners-of-war, inmates, exiles:
There were fifty people in the barrack: six people were of Polish nationality, and the rest were Jews.
6. Life in the camp, prison:
Life in the hamlet: work during the day was from 6.00 a.m. to noon, a two-hour dinner break, and then work from 2.00 p.m. to 8.00 p.m. We performed field and garden work. In winter we also worked in the woods. Remuneration was calculated on the basis of productivity, and only when 100 percent of the work quota was filled. The quotas were very high, which rendered earning any money impossible.
7. The NKVD’s attitude towards Poles:
The attitude of the authorities towards the prisoners was hostile, as reflected by repeated threats of reopening proceedings in case of failing to meet the work quotas or to obey other orders. Physical violence wasn’t used, as the indirect method of verbal threats was preferred. Due to the small number of exiles, there wasn’t any organized propaganda, except for the general Soviet propaganda spread during various holidays.
8. Medical assistance, hospitals, mortality rate:
We received medical assistance and it was quite well organized.
9. Was there any possibility to get in contact with one’s country and family?
Until the outbreak of the Soviet-German War, I had rather regular contact with my family in the Soviet-occupied territories through letters and packages. As a political exile, I didn’t have any limit on correspondence.
10. When were you released and how did you manage to join the army?
I was released from forced settlement in the first days of September 1941, following the general amnesty for Polish citizens. I chose the city of Krasnouralsk, where I stayed for about two months helping a Russian woman with domestic duties.
Towards the end of 1941 I went to central Asia with the intent of joining the army, and having endured great hardships, in February 1942 I joined the Women’s Auxiliary Service in Guzar.
Official stamp, 2 March 1942