1. Personal details (name, surname, rank, age, occupation, marital status):
Second Lieutenant Jan Szczepan Pędzich, 29 years old, teacher, unmarried.
2. Date and circumstance of arrest:
In November 1939, I learned that the Polish army was forming in France. Also, I got confidential information that there was a secret organization in Lwów that helped volunteers to cross the border. I contacted the organization and on 14 November 1939 I left Lwów with five Poles, whom I was supposed to lead to Pacyków, where we were to meet a guide from the organization and then get to Hungary. In the night of 16 November, I lead the four people (one of them, hesitating, stayed in the valley) to the guide. During the night, the guide, called Bonesz, led a group of 30 people to the Hungarian border. He left us around three kilometers away from the border. As we marched on, someone shouted that they saw Bolsheviks. We went deeper in the forest. Some wanted to get some rest, but I didn’t agree, and with two other people I went on through the forest. At dusk we got lost. After the night had passed, we went on and came across a large Bolshevik patrol. They mistook us for Hungarian Rusyns, because we were going down from the Polish border. It was on 17 November 1939.
3. Name of the camp, prison, or forced labor site:
I was imprisoned in Nadwórna, where the interrogations took place. During my interrogation they kept asking me three questions: Who sent me, who led me and why was I going to join Sikorski? One of my people, whose Hungarian entry permit was found, admitted everything out of fear. I and the others explained ourselves saying that we were looking for a job. We were taken from Nadwórna to Kharkiv. They didn’t interrogate me anymore. Right after France was defeated, they started our trial (troika [Special Council of the NKVD]).
I was sentenced to five years of forced labor, and my friend, who pretended to be a Rusyn, was sentenced to three years. In July, a mass transport of Poles, along with the most despicable Russian people, passed through Moscow, Arkhangelsk and Tuva to get to Pechorsky labor camp, where we then built a railway leading through the taiga to Vorkuta. The conditions in the prison in Kharkiv were tolerable.
4. Description of the camp, prison etc. (grounds, buildings, housing conditions, hygiene):
The prison in Kharkiv was called Kholodna gora. It was a giant prison complex adapted from monastery buildings. At first we had some medical aid, but later on it stopped. Navy captain Hubert, a long-term employee of the Ministry of Military Affairs, died in Kharkiv.
The working conditions were as bad as they could be. Let’s take the example of food: the soup for dinner, meant for 253 people, was made of 11 kilograms of oat groats without any grease. Housing: barracks and tents in winter, and in the first weeks of autumn, branch huts.
There was almost no medical aid. Anyone not wanting to go to work was beaten with a stick or tied up to a sleigh and dragged to the place of work.
5. The composition of POWs, prisoners, exiles (nationality, category of crimes, intellectual and moral standing, mutual relations etc.):
There were all nationalities from Europe and Russia in the camp. Older Russians usually, but not always, displayed a decent attitude toward Poles. Younger Russians were hostile toward “Polish lords and fascists”.
6. Life in the camp, prison etc. (daily routine, working conditions, work quotas, remuneration, food, clothes, social and cultural life etc.):
Life in the camp was a never-ending routine of work. I worked from 10 to 14 hours a day. During a year in the camp, I had three free days. (I don’t count my three-month long treatment in the hospital.) The remuneration was very low. The quotas were set very high so that they would be impossible to fill and so that people could only get the worst food and remuneration. I earned 7 to 12 rubles. Stronger people could earn from 25 to 30 rubles a month. We were not given any clothing as long as we still had our old garments, no matter if they were ripped or not. When it was given, it was only so that the work would not to be slowed down or interrupted. There was no cultural life at all. During the year there were two harmoshka [accordion] concerts and mostly propaganda.
7. The NKVD’s attitude towards Poles (interrogation methods, torture and other forms of punishment, Communist propaganda, information about Poland, etc.): The attitude of the NKVD toward Poles was hostile, although sometimes you could see some inconsistencies in their approach. In order to get people to confess, they relied on propaganda and prompted people with the illusion of a happy life in the USSR. During the first interrogations they asked me questions completely unrelated to myself, aiming to know more about the general situation in Poland, for example: Was Marshal Piłsudski a dictator? What political and social organizations do I know about? etc.
8. Medical assistance, hospitals, mortality rate (give the names of the deceased):
During my time in the labor camp there was a high mortality rate. Out of 25 people from my brigade, 15 died. I remember some of the names: a.m. [?] major Prużywalski from Warsaw, second ensign [officer cadet] Mostek from Kraków, Posz from Stanisławów.
9. Was there any chance to get in contact with one’s country and family?
Contact with the country and our families was completely broken off. In theory, one could write to people in the USSR. Practically, it was impossible.
10. When were you released and how did you manage to join the army?
I was released on 1 September 1941, on the basis of the Polish-Russian agreement. After I was released, there was no space in Buzuluk and so the whole transport was sent to Karakalpaks, to a kolkhoz. From there it was later taken back, but I still had to work in the kolkhoz. It wasn’t until the 7th Infantry Division was formed that I was drafted into the army.