MICHAŁ GRABOWSKI

1. Personal data (name, surname, rank, age, occupation and civil status):

Corporal Michał Grabowski, born in 1920, Field Post Office no. 163.

2. Date and circumstances of arrest:

I was arrested on 23 June 1940 for crossing the border.

3. Name of the camp, prison, place of forced labor:

Ukhta forced labor camp (Krutaja), where I worked as a brick maker.

4. Description of the camp, prison, etc. (grounds, buildings, living conditions, hygiene):

The camp was located by the Izhma River. Next to the camp there was a bath, where we were allowed to bathe and had our clothes disinfected once a month (the place was bloody infested with lice the size of hazelnuts).

5. Social composition of POWs, prisoners, deportees (nationality, category of crimes):

The camp had 800 inmates, mainly Russian criminals who were doing 10 years of forced labor. They treated us Poles like animals, threatening us with knives so as to rob us of our clothing. And the guards didn’t react to their behavior at all.

6. Life in the camp, prison, etc. (the course of an average day, working conditions, quotas and norms, food, wages, clothing, mutual relations, cultural life):

Life in the camp was difficult to endure – if you failed to go to work, they would immediately throw you into the punishment cell, naked (and then you would get only 300 grams of bread). People collapsed of exhaustion and hunger. The immorality of some people is impossible to describe.

7. Attitude of the authorities, NKVD towards Poles (methods of interrogation, torture, punishments, Communist propaganda, information about Poland):

The attitude of the authorities was [illegible], and they interrogated us regularly. Their methods of torture were taken right out of the Middle Ages and [illegible]; I know that they killed one Stanisław Szulc from Bielsko.

8. Medical care, hospitals, mortality rate (provide the surnames of those who perished):

There was no medical care. I remember that engineer Kwolik from Lwów and one Zbigniew Bojko died from exhaustion in these terrible conditions.

9. Was it at all possible to keep in touch with the home country and your family? If yes, then what contacts were permitted?

There was no way of keeping in touch.

10. When were you released and how did you get through to the Polish Army?

I was released on 1 September 1941 and enlisted in the Polish Army on 8 March 1942, being assigned to the 7th Infantry Division.

Official stamp, 15 March 1943