1. Personal details (name, surname, rank, field post office number, age, occupation, marital status):
Cannoneer Salomon Montag, 39 years old, farmer, married, FPO number 111.
2. Date and circumstances of arrest:
I was taken prisoner by the Germans on 17 September 1939 in Szkło (near Lwów). After that, along with the German unit, I was taken to Amtitz in Germany. On 26 February 1940, I was released from the prison camp and came back home (Lwów Voivodeship). On 7 March 1940, I was arrested by the Soviet Border Guard on the Soviet-German border in Łukawica (near Rawa Ruska).
3. Name of the camp, prison, or forced labor site:
The prison at Rawa Ruska (two weeks);
The prison at Lwów (two weeks);
The prison at Chersoń (Soviet Ukraine, six months);
The prison at Starobilsk (four months)
The camp in Czibiu.
4. Description of the camp, prison etc. (area, buildings, housing conditions, hygiene):
In the prison in Chersoń they kept us in brick buildings in the city. There were about 250 people in each of the cells.
When we arrived in Czibiu, they left us in the woods and gave us saws and axes in case we wanted to build ourselves houses. Sanitary conditions were worse that one could imagine. There were neither medical assistance nor medicines. There was only one medic in the whole camp and the only medicines he had were iodine and aspirin.
5. Composition of POWs, prisoners, exiles (nationality, categories of crimes, intellectual and moral standing, mutual relations etc.):
There were prisoners of different nationalities in the camp. They tried to accuse every prisoner of the espionage, counter-revolutionary activities and so forth. The truth is, they deported us for working against the Russians. As for the morale – at first our spirits were very low, but in time, as the news was reaching us, we got better. Mutual relations among the prisoners 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 used to work from early morning to late evening. The work was hard and quotas were set high, only by being clever could we meet them. Those, who didn’t meet them, after they got back to the camp, were locked up in cold solitary confinement for the night. When it comes to remuneration, they promised that if someone managed to fill over 100 per cent of the quota, would be paid extra, but no one could do that. As for the food, we used to get one thick slice of bread and (depending on the quota one met) some soup or coffee. But half of us were bruised due to the lack of vitamins. And as for clothing, we only had what we had managed to take from Poland.
Social life was agreeable.
7. The NKVD’s attitude towards Poles (interrogation methods, torture and other forms of punishment, Communist propaganda, information about Poland, etc.):
The NKVD authorities were very hostile towards Polish people – they used to insult Poland and Poles. Interrogations took place at night only. They started by persuading us to expose friends (acquaintances) who spoke ill of Russians or did something against them. They tried offering bread, cigarettes, and when that didn’t work, they started to torment the interviewee, beating and kicking him. They distributed communist propaganda using movies, lectures, readings etc. The only information we received about Poland was what the NKVD was telling us - that there is no Poland and never will be any.
8. Medical assistance, hospitals, mortality rate (provide the names of the deceased):
There was hardly any medical assistance either in the prisons or the camps. I’ve heard about hospitals there, but I’ve never been in one. Due to the malnutrition, low temperatures, lack of doctors and medications, the mortality was high. But I don’t know the names of any deceased.
9. Was it possible to get in contact with one’s country and family?
No, it wasn’t.
10. When were you released and how did you manage to join the army?
On 23 August 1941, we were released and sent to Tock [Totskoye], where the Polish Army was gathering.
Staging point, 18 March 1943