STEFANIA GORCZYCA


Stefania Gorczyca, born on 5 May 1904 in Kamianske (Russia), a housewife by occupation (my husband serves as a major in the Polish Army).


On 10 February 1940, I was deported to the Arkhangelsk Oblast (for an indefinite period of time) because I was the wife of a military settler. I worked there in the forests as a lumberjack right until the amnesty.

On 15 September 1941, I left the settlement and joined the male transports headed for Buzuluk in order to enlist in the Polish Army. They transported us to the Karakalpak Republic. I ended up on Muynak Island in the Aral Sea, where I worked in a fishing factory as a janitor and cleaner.

On 15 May 1942, I joined the (Army) Women’s Auxiliary Service in Yangiyul and was assigned to the 7th Infantry Division. I commenced work as a nurse on 1 August at the Epidemiological Hospital administered by the 7th Infantry Division, and remained there until I was sent to Persia on 10 August. From 14 December 1942 to date, I have been working as a ward attendant in Military Hospital no. 3.

Past diseases: scurvy, dysentery and typhoid fever.