Volunteer Waleria Kraczkowska, student, deported on 14 April 1940 to Kazakhstan with her mother and brother. The NKVD sent us to the hamlet of Chernoe, Pavlodar Region, Lebyazhye District.
We were in the middle of the steppe, so the locals were raising sheep. From April to August I tended rams, and in August I left for work on the harvest. The work was hard and the food was very meager. The hamlet where I worked was made up of several dilapidated huts. Three or four families [illegible] children would be crammed into one such hut. The hygienic conditions were terrible. Each hut swarmed with bugs and other insects. There were both Polish and Ukrainian families in this hamlet.
Those who worked received at first 800 grams of bread as remuneration for their work, then 500, and finally even 300 grams. One could only dream about getting some clothes. There were no cultural diversions.
We heard nothing good about Poland. Communist propaganda was rife. We had to attend meetings, as those who didn’t show up were treated as vreditels [pests].
If someone fell ill in a hamlet, you first had to argue with a Kazakh to get a cart to take the sick person to the doctor.
As a result of the above-described conditions, my mother perished there, as well as many other people whose surnames I don’t remember. It was possible to get into contact with the country, but sometimes the parcels would come torn.