1. Personal data:
Corporal Tadeusz Graybner, 36 years old, industrialist, married.
2. Date and circumstances of the arrest:
I was arrested for the first time on 6 October 1939 in Kuty, while I was attempting to cross the Polish-Romanian border, but I was released after three days. The second time was on 28 October 1939 in Kołomyja, while I was approaching the border – released after eight hours. The third time – as Tadeusz Grabowski – on 3 November 1939 by the Cheremosh River near Kuty.
3. Name of the camp, prison, place of forced labor:
The prison in Kuty – 15 days. The prison in Kołomyja – 37 days. Stanisławów – four days. Odessa – nine months. Kharkiv – 10 days. Then I was imprisoned in the Ostrovnoy camp in the Arkhangelsk Oblast, Yertsevo railroad station.
4. Description of the camp, prison:
The conditions in the prisons in Poland were horrible in every respect due to overcrowding. It was much better in Russia. It was noticeable that the life of a huge number of people depended primarily on prisons, so they had to guarantee suitable living conditions to their workforce who supplied almost all work centers. Acceptable food, hospitals, protective vaccinations, bathhouse every 10 days with obligatory disinfection of clothing.
In the labor camp – wooden buildings, secured against cold in an acceptable manner, heated in winter. The real plague was the masses of rats and bedbugs, although they were exterminated quite radically. Acceptable hygiene. Once again you could see that they needed their workforce to stay fit. Therefore, doctors and medical help were available mainly for those who performed the duties imposed on them. The fate of the so-called invalids, that is, the group of people who didn’t work, was much worse. We were allowed to frequently wash our underwear and we were obliged to go to the bathhouse every 10 days, but if you wanted to use it more often, you could.
5. Social composition of POWs, prisoners, deportees:
There were about two thousand people in the camp. Ten percent of them were Poles – mostly from the middle social class, but there were also lots of criminals. As for Russians – all the different peoples – a huge portion of them were counter-revolutionaries who were the most cultured; the intellectual level was generally balanced. There was also a small percentage of thieves and murderers – they were considered the best group by the camp authorities, had their full trust, and were sentenced to not more than three years, while the counter-revolutionaries were sentenced to 15 years or more. There were about a hundred women, mostly prostitutes. As for social life, it was very rare in the camp, and tended to be seen among the Russians. Poles failed in this respect, although in the prisons they were in much better shape. They simply lacked fortitude. Poles preferred to follow the line of least resistance and preferred to keep a standard beneath the Russian counter-revolutionaries rather than stand higher than them. Unfortunately, exceptions were very rare. Apart from this, the Polish Jews, who were undeniably the worst group, ruined our reputation. There were cases when Poles who were foremen of certain Polish work brigades, in order to keep their positions (foremen did not work), not only informed the Soviet authorities about (usually imaginary) talk concerning the Soviet regime that took place at work or about imaginary escapes, but also – when they failed to meet the quota, they ordered them locked up in a punishment cell, in a building without windows, while the temperature was 30 degrees below zero, and the people were sometimes really ill.
6. Life in the camp, prison:
In the prison, apart from NKVD interrogations and minor conflicts with our supervisors caused by conversations held through windows, our life was quite peaceful. Work filled the entire day at the camp. In winter, we went to work and returned to the camp at night. The work was very tough, especially for inexperienced people (felling trees). High quotas. Pay was at the absolute minimum. Food – here again, there was a significant difference in the way profitable and unprofitable human resources were treated. For this reason, we were divided into groups and some people received (until the outbreak of the war) pretty good food and were allowed to buy more in the store, at state prices, while others – less physically capable – vegetated. Those who were completely weak starved.
The same happened with clothes. Good workers received good and warm clothes, worse workers wore rags in the cold and suffered frostbite.
From time to time there was a Soviet film or play performed by an amateur theater. The propaganda would always spoil it. There were also a few books, but the club was only accessible to leading workers and thieves, who always managed to be first.
7. Attitude of the NKVD towards Poles:
Right from the beginning it was obvious that the fundamental issue was to deport as many Poles from the country as possible. Hence the kind of alleged crimes did not matter at all. However, some types of crime were given special treatment. In my presence, Tadeusz Bijowski from Kołomyja, suspected of carrying out an attack on an electoral office, was beaten with a piece of rubber from a carriage wheel, with wire wound around it, and had handfuls (literally!) of hair pulled out. I don’t know of any other incidents of torture. The propaganda was limited to making people hate everything that was Polish, but in a way that was so stupid and trivial that I doubt that it could have convinced anyone. In general the level of intelligence of the average investigating judge was very low. You could safely claim that our court janitor would display greater skill in this field. When I was arrested I had three documents, each of which featured a photograph of me but with a different name, yet nobody ever interrogated me because of this.
8. Medical assistance, hospitals, mortality:
In the prisons in Russia, medical help was satisfactory and hospitals were quite good. The camp surgeon was excellent. Generally, the conditions were acceptable. Mortality was low. There were a few cases [of death] among the Poles. I don’t remember the names.
9. Was it possible to keep in touch with the home country and your family?
Other prisoners wrote letters and received answers, or even packages. I wrote many letters, but I believe they were not sent, because my name was on a special list. Therefore, I received no answer.
10. When were you released and how did you join the army?
I was released on 19 November 1941. Following 40 days of traveling, I reached the south and got a job at the MTS in the town of Oltiariq as a turner (I could not get to the army). On 10 February 1942, the Soviet draft board told me to appear before a board in Margilan. On 24 February 1942, I was enlisted into the Polish Army.