1. Personal details:
Corporal Antoni Rekowski, 42 years old, married.
2. Date and circumstances of arrest:
16 June 1941, in Lithuania. I was arrested as an internee and taken away by the Soviet authorities to Russia and placed in the camp.
3. Name of the camp:
Barnaul.
4. Description of the camp, prison, etc.:
Rolling terrain, wooden buildings, living and sanitary conditions were tolerable.
5. Composition of prisoners, captives, deportees:
In the camp there were the internees from Lithuania and Latvia, that is, officers, non-commissioned officers and private soldiers, and also civilian officers from general administration.
6. Life in the camp, prison, etc.:
We were working every day in various companies. The work was hard, 12 hours a day and a night shift; remuneration was low, food was poor, we had only our own clothes, but camaraderie was good.
7. The NKVD authorities’ attitude towards the Poles:
The NKVD’s attitude was bad, they were threatening us with jail, etc.
8. Medical care, hospitals, mortality:
Medical care was available. The physicians were mainly Poles who had been deported. The hospital was in the town.
9. What kind of contact, if any, was there with your family and country?
There was no contact.
10. When were you released and how did you get to the army?
I joined the Polish Army as a volunteer on 26 March 1942; it was the 10th Infantry Division in Lugovoy.