WACŁAW JACHOŁKOWSKI

1. Personal data:

Platoon Leader Wacław Jachołkowski, 35 years old, forester with the State Forests of the Kobryń forest district, unmarried.

2. Date and circumstances of arrest:

I was arrested on 10 February 1940 for being a public servant and deported to Russia, Arkhangelsk Oblast, Plesetsk region.

3. Name of the camp, prison, or forced labor site:

I worked in the woods and operated mechanical machines for making sprags, [illegible] etc. in Teremilovo [?].

4. Description of the camp, prison etc.:

The housing conditions were very difficult due to the great number of people per barrack and vermin such as bugs, cockroaches, and others.

5. The composition of prisoners-of-war, inmates, exiles:

The composition of exiles: there were about 165 families, of both Polish and Orthodox religious affiliation. Mutual relations between the exiles were generally good.

6. Life in the camp, prison:

We worked from 10 to 12 hours per day; the working conditions were horrible due to extremely low temperatures in winter and the fact that it was very difficult to get any clothes. The average remuneration was from 2 to 5 rubles per day, while food was very expensive and we had to wait for it in a queue for many hours in freezing cold temperatures.

7. The NKVD’s attitude towards Poles:

The Soviet authorities weren’t particularly kind; they forced little children and elderly people to work very hard and didn’t provide them with warm clothes or shoes. For failing to come to work when it was freezing cold, the elderly were incarcerated in the so-called jail and kept for a few days in the cold and without food, and other laborers, who were over 16 years old, for being 20 minutes late or for failure to come to work – which wasn’t through their own fault – were tried by a Soviet court and punished with a deduction of 25 percent from their remuneration for a certain period of time.

8. Medical assistance, hospitals, mortality rate:

There were some hospitals, but there weren’t any medicaments, and as a result many people died. I won’t mention them as I have forgotten their surnames.

9. Was there any possibility to get in contact with one’s country and family?

I had contact with my country through the letters I exchanged with my family, but it was very limited.

10. When were you released and how did you manage to join the army?

I was released on 22 December 1941 and immediately left, completely on my own, in order to join the Polish army. It was a very difficult journey. In Fergana Oblast, Gortshakovo train station, I was enlisted into the army.

With this I conclude my testimony.

9 March 1943