1. Personal data (name, surname, rank, Field Post Office number, age, occupation, marital status):
Gunner Stanisław Hajduk, 35 years old, blacksmith, married; FPO number 163.
2. Date and circumstances of arrest:
29 April 1940, for crossing the demarcation line.
3. Name of the camp, prison or forced labor site:
I was sent on the basis of a court sentence – I was tried on charges of espionage and was sentenced to three years of labor in a forced labor camp. From 29 April 1940 to 28 February 1941 I was held in the prison in Grodno, and from 10 March to 24 September 1941 I was in a forced labor camp at an ore mine.
4. Description of the camp, prison etc. (grounds, buildings, housing conditions, hygiene):
It was in the taiga, in dense forest: we slept on pallets with no bedding. The hygienic conditions were below par, everything was lice-infested and diseases were rife.
5. The composition of POWs, prisoners, exiles (nationality, category of crimes, intellectual and moral standing, mutual relations etc.):
In the camp there were only Poles doing time for theft, battery, and making patriotic speeches. The intellectual standing was average, but the moral standing was very high. Mutual relations were very good.
6. Life in the camp, prison etc. (daily routine, working conditions, work quotas, remuneration, food, clothes, social and cultural life etc.):
We moved stones in wheelbarrows (in ore mines). We worked from 6.00 a.m. to 1.00 p.m.; the work quota was to transport eight wheelbarrows from the tunnels. Clothes consisted of a wadded jacket and quilted trousers. Social life was good, but cultural life was very limited.
7. The NKVD’s attitude towards Poles (interrogation methods, torture and other forms of punishment, Communist propaganda, information about Poland, etc.):
The NKVD’s attitude towards Poles was hostile.
8. Medical assistance, hospitals, mortality rate (give the names of the deceased):
Medical assistance was poor, and the mortality rate was very high.
9. Was there any possibility of getting in contact with one’s country and family?
We could write to our homeland once every three months, in Russian. I received only one answer to the letters I was sending.
10. When were you released and how did you manage to join the army?
I was released on 24 September 1941, and reached the army by my own means.
Official stamp, 15 March 1943