1. Personal data (name, surname, rank, age, occupation, and marital status):
Corporal Stanisław Gorczyca, born on 6 May 1900, State Police Officer, married with two children.
2. Date and circumstances of the arrest:
On 19 September 1939, I crossed the Lithuanian border together with all the policemen from the Nowogródek District, and we were placed in the internment camp in Ukmergė, in military barracks. Once the Soviet army had occupied Lithuania we were transferred from the barracks to the Vaitkuskis estate, Ukmergė District. On the night from 15 to 16 July 1940, the camp was surrounded by Russian soldiers, the so-called NKVD. On 16 July in the morning, we were all arrested – about two thousand people – and taken to Russia in sealed freight cars, as enemies of the people.
3. Name of the camp, prison, place of forced labor:
Our first camp in Russia, after we had left Lithuania, was called Kozelsk, Smolensk District – we stayed there until 15 May 1941. The second forced labor camp was located on the Kola Peninsula on the White Sea coast near the Ponoy River. We were transferred there from Kozelsk in June 1941.
4. Description of the camp, prison:
In Kozelsk, we lived in an Orthodox church building and slept on bunk beds made of raw wood and built on a wet concrete floor. Water from the ceiling dripped onto our beds. The building was poorly heated in winter. For the intended 200 places there were 490 of us living there. Every two weeks, we had a change of underwear and had a bath in a temporary bathhouse that we had built by ourselves.
On the Kola Peninsula we lived outside for a few days, on the frozen ground of the tundra. Finally after a few days, we had constructed tents, but we still slept on wet ground, warmed up by our bodies. We washed our underwear by ourselves in salty water, which we also drank and bathed in.
5. Social composition of prisoners, POWs, deportees:
In Kozelsk there were 2,700 people, including 780 military and police officers. The rest were from the Border Protection Corps, Border Guard, gendarmerie, police, and career non-commissioned officers. We were all Poles and we were accused of being counter- revolutionaries, enemies of the people, and fighting communism.
On the Kola Peninsula, there were about 3,000 of us, mostly police and Border Protection Corps officers, and some career non-commissioned officers, members of the Border Guard, gendarmerie, and officer cadets of Polish nationality. We were accused of the same crimes, but had already been sentenced, in absentia, to permanent exile.
6. Life in the camp, prison:
Camp life in Kozelsk, despite threats by the NKVD, was buoyant because of our spirit, because we were all convinced that it would all end soon and we would return to Poland. Daily routine: after we’d been woken up and had eaten a morning meal, we were summoned for interrogation and did some work within the camp. There were no quotas, but there was also no remuneration. Meager food – herring, fish, and [illegible]. Clothes – everyone wore the clothes they had brought from home.
On the Kola Peninsula, we were as hopeful as in Kozelsk, but the daily routine was different: we worked on the construction of an airport and roads, 16 to 18 hours a day, the quotas were impossible to meet, and we were not paid. Food: 200 grams of bread, soup twice a day, meager and thin. We wore our own clothes and short padded jackets distributed by the NKVD.
7. Attitude of the NKVD towards Poles:
The attitude of the NKVD towards Poles was unbelievable, simply mean. They mocked everything that was Polish. They mocked Polish authorities in all sorts of ways and they were vulgar in many respects.
Manner of interrogation: the NKVD summoned us usually at night, and every few hours by day. During interrogations, the NKVD pulled the prisoner’s hair and beat his head against the wall, or placed him facing the wall and then they shot a gun over his head to extort testimony. They also hit people in the stomach and kidneys, or took them outside the camp to the forest, allegedly for execution; then they were brought back, pale of fright. This resulted in several people falling mentally ill, and they were taken away in an unknown direction. Following such interrogations we had a few days off, during which we were forced to attend communist meetings, where propaganda speeches were given and propaganda films were screened. Types of punishment: locking in dark cells, placing people naked in cold water, without any food. We received almost no news concerning Poland, except for what we managed to understand from letters, although we did not receive many of them.
8. Medical assistance, hospitals, mortality:
Medical assistance was very poor. Despite the fact that we had our own doctors, they were not able to treat us due to the lack of [illegible] and close supervision of the NKVD. Eight of the 2,700 thousand people died in Kozelsk and three people committed suicide by hanging, but I do not remember their names – they were mostly officers and we, privates, were not allowed to go to their blocks.
9. Was it possible to keep in touch with the home country and your family?
We had little contact with the home country and our families. In Kozelsk, some people received letters every few months, but on the Kola Peninsula we received none.
10. When were you released and how did you join the army?
Two weeks after the Germans declared war on Russia, all the Poles were taken away from the Kola Peninsula, loaded on ships, and transferred to Arkhangelsk, and from there to Suzdal, Moscow District, where we met colonel Sulik-Sarnowski. On 24 August 1941, having appeared before a medical committee, we were all enlisted into the 5th Infantry Division that was being formed in Tatischevo.