1. Personal data (name, surname, rank, age, occupation, marital status):
Gunner Roman Kamiński, 30 years old, notary trainee, unmarried.
2. Date and circumstances of arrest:
28 November 1939, while crossing the border to Hungary.
3. Name of the camp, prison, forced labor site:
29 November 1939 – stable buildings near Jaka [?] outside Broszniów.
30 November 1939 – 21 December 1939 – a three-room house in Nadwórna.
21–25 December 1939 – prison in Stanisławów.
1 January 1940 – 19 August 1940 – prison in Odessa.
21–28 August 1940 – prison in Kharkiv.
2–6 September 1940 – temporary camp in Arkhangelsk.
5–25 November 1940 – temporary camp in Kozhva.
25 November 1940 – 4 March 1941 – settlement [no.] 47 [and] 41, Pechorlag [Sevpechlag].
4 March 1941 – 10 April 1941 – hospital.
11 April 1941 – 31 August 1941 – work at a hospital, section II.
4. Description of the camp, prison:
We were transported to the destination point in the forest. Logging occurred for five days, then the setting up of tents. Living conditions – terrible.
The shared house in Nadwórna – dirty, small, 120–150 people cramped in three little rooms. Hygiene was below criticism. The prison in Stanisławów – building designated as prison, overcrowded with prisoners (800 in a common big room), horrible hygienic conditions. Odessa prison held 14,000 people – living conditions were hard, 12–20 people in single cells, barely enough food to sustain us. Similar conditions were in Kharkiv prison. Hygienic conditions terrible, too – lice and bedbugs. In labor camps: very hard housing conditions (so-called palatkas), and hygienic conditions were like in prisons.
5. Compositions of prisoners, POWs, exiles:
Poles, Czechs, Carpathian Ruthenians – Ukrainians. [Exiled] for crossing the border, alleged disobedience to local authority, exploiting peasants by the so-called lords, political work, etc. Many members of the intelligentsia, as well as workers and farmers from Carpathian Ruthenia. Poles were harassed by other nations. Poles and Jews usually stuck together, Ukrainians were of hostile attitude.
6. Life in the camp, prison:
Life in both the prison and the camp was hard. Polish people were harassed at every turn and accused of espionage. Work was extremely hard, and – as for a longer stay in prison – beyond ability. Required quotas were unattainable, causing food restrictions. Working time throughout the whole month – until the job was done completely. Work: logging and railway construction.
7. Attitude of the local NKVD towards the Poles:
Extremely hostile, involving torture methods known to us from the old Russian times.
8. Medical assistance, hospitals, mortality:
Medical assistance was only theoretical, just to meet the demand of having it. There was a permanent hospital, available only for the gravely ill.
9. Was there any possibility to contact one’s country and family?
No contact at all.
10. When were you released and how did you manage to join the army?
I was released on 31 August 1941. Initially I set off in a group, but then on 25 September 1941 I went to Buzuluk on my own.