Volunteer Stefania Bojarska, born in 1922, occupation: – I was deported as a so-called “free deportee” [deported to a location other than a forced labor camp] on 29 June 1940.
From the station in Maksymówka in the commune of Zbaraż, Tarnopol voivodeship, we were transported to the Yakutia Republic, to the Aldansky District, settlement of Neryungri. During the winter we worked in the forest, while in summer we toiled in the gold mine. The norm was 7 cubic meters, for which they paid 3.5 rubles.
The camp was located in the taiga, and comprised a dozen or so wooden barracks. The hygienic conditions were bad. The prisoners, all Poles, numbered four hundred. Their intellectual level was on the whole mediocre, however mutual relations were good.
An average day began at six in the morning, and we would work in the forest until five in the afternoon. The working conditions were difficult, and the wages poor; the food was passable, but the clothing bad.
People were friendly and cultured towards each other.
The attitude of the authorities and the NKVD towards us was very hostile. You would be locked up in the punishment cell for any transgression. There were no interrogations, they only registered us. Communist propaganda: meetings, talks and lectures, during which they tried to convince us that Poland would be no more. Praying was forbidden. There was no information about Poland; we could only conjecture what was going on.
Medical care was poor, and the nearest hospital was 80 kilometers from the settlement. Mortality rate: people would die mainly of heart ailments. I know that three men, one woman and twelve children died. I do not remember the surnames of the deceased.
The exchange of letters [with family members in Poland] was good until the [Russian- German] war broke out.