1. Personal data:
Gunner Włodzimierz Karpowicz, born in 1910, farmer, married, field post office number 161.
2. Date and circumstances of arrest:
I was disarmed on 22 September 1939 in Konstopol.
3. Name of the camp, prison or forced labor site:
POW camp in Kozielszczyzna; later I was transferred to an ore mine in Kryvyi Rih.
4. Description of the camp, prison etc. (grounds, buildings, housing conditions, hygiene):
The conditions were very difficult. We lived in damp, cold barracks. It was impossible to maintain hygiene, we were plagued by lice and hunger.
5. The composition of POWs, prisoners, exiles (nationality, category of crimes, intellectual and moral standing, mutual relations etc.):
There were over 300 prisoners.
6. Life in the camp, prison etc. (daily routine, working conditions, work quotas, remuneration, food, clothes, social life etc.):
The working conditions were very hard and the work quotas were so high that it was impossible to meet them. In the first days we were given food, and later we received remuneration for our work and had to buy the food ourselves at the canteen, but when it came time for payment, we received so little money that it wasn’t enough to cover all the food expenses.
7. The NKVD’s attitude towards Poles (interrogation methods, torture and other forms of punishment, Communist propaganda, information about Poland, etc.):
They repeated over and over, “there’ll be no Poland, your Poland is lost forever.” 8. Medical assistance, hospitals, mortality rate (give the names of the deceased):
There was some medical assistance, but it was not good.
9. Was there any possibility to get in contact with one’s country and family?
I wrote letters to my family and received answers.
10. When were you released and how did you manage to join the army?
I was released from the camp on 19 August, and I joined the army on 20 August 1941.
Official stamp, 17 March 1943