1. Personal data (name, surname, rank, field post office number, age, occupation, marital status):
Gunner Józef Kamiński, coach-builder, unmarried, field post office number 163.
2. Date and circumstances of arrest:
I was arrested on 10 February 1940 for working on the estate of Prince Radziwiłł.
3. Name of the camp, prison, or forced labor site:
Following the terms of the court sentence I was deported to Arkhangelsk Oblast (Jewgiel [?] hamlet); on 28 March 1940 I was transferred to Kena, and on 30 May to Witianin [?].
4. Description of the camp, prison etc. (grounds, buildings, housing conditions, hygiene):
In the woods, in barracks, on pallets without any bedding. The barracks were full of all sorts of vermin (bugs, cockroaches) and infested with lice, and we didn’t have any soap. There were many diseases (scurvy, malaria).
5. The composition of POWs, prisoners, exiles (nationality, category of crimes, intellectual and moral standing, mutual relations etc.):
There were Ukrainians and Poles. The intellectual standing was high, and the moral standing was very high. Mutual relations were good.
6. Life in the camp, prison etc. (daily routine, working conditions, work quotas, remuneration, food, clothes, social and cultural life etc.):
In winter we loaded timber onto carts, and in summer we sawed boards. In winter we worked from 3.00 a.m. to 8.00 p.m., and for eight hours in summer. The food was extremely bad, and I wasn’t issued any clothes. Social life was very good.
7. The NKVD’s attitude towards Poles (interrogation methods, torture and other forms of punishment, Communist propaganda, information about Poland, etc.):
The NKVD was hostile towards the Poles.
8. Medical assistance, hospitals, mortality rate (give the names of the deceased):
The lack of any medical assistance resulted in a great number of deaths.
My father, Bolesław Kamiński, 65 years old, from lack of food;
Lieutenant Antoni Pietraszak, 40 years old, from scurvy;
Dębkowski, 50 years old, from scurvy.
9. Was there any possibility to get in contact with one’s country and family?
I had contact with my family by post, and I received an answer to every letter.
10. When were you released and how did you manage to join the army?
I was released on 17 September 1941. I reached the army by my own means.
Official stamp, 15 March 1943