Janina Perkowska, 21 years old, unskilled, unmarried, working as an orderly at the Military Hospital no. 3.
Arrested on 12 May 1940 in the district of Wysokie Mazowieckie, Białystok Voivodeship, for working with the POW [Polska Organizacja Wojskowa – Polish Military Organization]. Brought to the Białystok prison, I stayed there for four months. Conditions in prison were very difficult due to the size of the cell compared to the number of people, vermin, very meager food, and some extremely unpleasant types.
After staying in Białystok prison for four months to complete the investigation, I was transported to Minsk. They used all kinds of methods to force us to testify: insults, threats, often physical violence. The guards’ attitude was very often extremely hostile: shoves, harassment, etc.
Conditions in the Minsk prison were incredibly difficult: no air, no light, vermin abounding, sleeping on [illegible]. An insufficient amount of air was let in with a fan. The sentence was read to me in December 1940, condemning me to five years in the Gulag. The journey there was in railway cars that were literally packed with people. Dry bread and herrings – not enough cold water. On the way, a stopover in the prison in Sverdlovsk – no room, not only to sleep, but also to sit down.
The camp where I arrived directly after the prison was a transit point, as it was called. Women’s barracks next to men’s, the worst scum from the streets of Soviet cities, filth, vermin, no air, cold. The guards’ attitude – unfriendly, even hostile.
After a month, we are sent to the camp in Okmoleńsk [Akmolinsk]. An unusually clean camp – a camp for women, wives and daughters of the men arrested in 1937. Immensely high quotas, mostly unattainable, especially after a nine-month stay in prison. Very meager food, in insufficient amount; in particular, a lack of basic nutrients: vitamins, fat, carbohydrates.
Hostile attitude of the authorities: attacks on Poland, Poles, etc., during special compulsory meetings.
I work at the general works, as they are called – with a shovel, at the mill, tilling the soil. Work at the hospital – difficult, immensely high quota. Low mortality among Poles during my period of work, the mayor of Czortków and Judge Pawluk from Pińsk died. I know nothing of other occurrences.
Release by virtue of the amnesty. On 14 September 1941, departure for Almaty, for a kolkhoz. Hard work, bad living conditions, very meager and insufficient food.
Upon first hearing news about women being enrolled into the Polish army, departed for Guzar and joined the WAS. After completing a paramedic course, assignment to the paramedic company where I’ve stayed ever since. Work at the hospital in Guzar, Ward II, in Pahlevi in the Evacuation Hospital no. 1, and in the Military Hospital no. 3 as an orderly.