Rifleman Marian Dziadkiewicz, 30 years old, teacher, unmarried.
On 13 January 1941 I was arrested at the school for not letting hołowi sib rady [?] tyrannize there. From 13 January to 16 March 1941 I was incarcerated in the prison in Łuck. On 16 March 1941 I was deported to a forced labor camp in Kuybyshev.
The prison in Łuck was overcrowded. People slept almost one on top of the other. Lice swarmed over our bodies like ants.
The labor camp in Kuybyshev occupied a large premises. A new industrial town, Bezymyanka, was being built by the hands of the prisoners. The pace was frantic, as we built military equipment factories. 40 percent of the machines, which they began to bring from the occupied territories, were Polish, and they were little used at that. In one uchastok [region] there were approx. 15,000 prisoners, and there were some twenty or maybe more uchastoks. The prisoners lived in barracks, approx. 500 people to each; the hygiene was below par.
The prisoners were from all parts of Soviet Russia. As for the types of crimes, they ranged from petty theft to political cases. Russian prisoners looked down on the Poles.
The daily routine in the camp was as follows: wake-up at 4.00 a.m., setting off for work at 5.00 a.m., half an hour dinner break, returning from work at 7.00 p.m. – as a result we worked fourteen hours. Sometimes we had to work also at night. Then the hourly schedule was the same. The work quota was so high that on average, when working honestly, one could meet only half of it. As a result we received very meager food and people moved as if sleepwalking, and of course any payment was out of the question. We didn’t have any breaks from work except for 1 May, which was our only day off.
The NKVD functionaries were hateful towards us, and they always mocked Poland and the patriotism of the Poles. Interrogations were carried out not only with the use of hands, but also other tools. They told us to forget Poland and praised their system, and persisted in instilling it in us.
The medical assistance existed only in theory, because a lot of sick prisoners were forced to go to work; this was applied universally, not only to the Poles, but regardless of nationality.
Our letters reached the Soviet occupied territories, but under strict control. Sometimes one had to wait three months for a letter, or the letter wasn’t delivered at all.
I was released on 2 September 1941 when the amnesty for Poles was proclaimed. On 4 September I joined the Polish Army in Totskoye.