Ferdynand Bojda, 22 years old rifleman, farmer, a bachelor of Polish nationality.
I was arrested together with my family on 10 February 1940 as a settler and deported to the USSR. We were placed in the Gyrkashor settlement in Komi ASSR. We were given water and bread along the way, and [we got] hot soup twice [during] the entire journey, i.e. [over] 14 days.
We lived in barracks. The lack of soap caused the appearance of lice. There were 95 families—settlers.
The [working] quota was six cubic meters of trees cut per person. Whoever had the money and the strength to work could buy food products. Winter clothes were sold for money.
There was a doctor but without medicine. The dying were sent to the hospital.
We were released in September, but they did not want to let us go. Men up to the age of 40 fled to the army. We reached Tashkent on our own. Next we went to Andiyan. We worked there in collective farms. We escaped the collective farms and made it to Sulukta, to the coal mine. The work [was] heavy. We were called up for the Polish army; we stood in front of a soviet commission. There was also a Polish-Soviet commission. We received the call for the Polish army—we joined the 9th Division in Tashlak.
The elections took place under duress. In the settlement, we were forced to vote for the supreme soviet.
13 February 1943