1. Personal data:
Sergeant Nicefor Malinowski, [illegible], sergeant of the State Police, married, three children.
2. Date and circumstances of arrest:
11 February 1940, in an internment camp in Wojtkuszki, Lithuania. The whole camp had [been] arrested by an NKVD squad and, after a thorough search, deported to USSR.
3. Name of the camp:
Interment camp in Kozelsk, the Kola Peninsula, and Suzdal.
4. Description of the camp:
Kozelsk: marshy grounds, monastery buildings and brick Orthodox churches – wall and ceiling paintings battered, all buildings old, with signs of deterioration and sloppily renovated so that the whole camp gave one the impression of a ruin. 500 people were placed in one of the churches. Hygienic conditions were bearable.
The Kola Peninsula: horribly muddy wasteland, you fell knee deep while walking. People were living in tents or without tents, on the wet ground. Terrible hygiene – no underwear to change, no laundry, no baths, soldiers plagued with lice.
Suzdal: same as Kozelsk.
5. Composition of prisoners:
Of Polish Nationality, category of offense: serving in the Polish Army and [Polish] state institutions. Moral and intellectual standing, high, mutual relations, friendly.
6. Life in the camp:
Forced labor for 12 or 13 hours a day renovating roads. Remuneration wasn’t given, rations – usually fish soup twice a day. Bread was often handed out in 68 gram rations. Clothing – quilted jackets and shoes – often with holes. Social life was good. In Kozelsk and Sudal, communist propaganda films were often shown.
7. The NKVD’s attitude towards Poles:
Hostile. Interrogations more than once or even more than dozen times. Non-commissioned officers, Border Protection Crops officers, intelligence officers, Border Guard and State Police were ordered to expose informants and confidants and various classified information under the threat of being executed or of having their families deported. They were intimidated with beatings, interrogations took place at night and lasted a couple of hours. As for Poland, politruks [political workers] always claimed the country would perish, criticized the Polish government and denied that there was a Polish government in London.
8. Medical care:
Although Polish doctors were in the camps, they couldn’t provide efficient medical assistance due to inadequate housing conditions and lack of medicines. There were a huge number of deceased, I don’t recall all their surnames. The following of my colleagues died: senior constable Władysław Kucharski and constable Edward Jodećko, from the State Police. In the Kola Peninsula all the internees were in such terrible conditions that they thought they would die of starvation, and the local civilians thought so too.
9. Was there any possibility of getting in contact with one’s country and family?
In Kozelsk alone, from 7 November 1940 until 15 May 1941, some prisoners were receiving letters from families and everybody could write letters, even though not all of them were sent. Often the NKVD men would show correspondence from families to the internees, [promising to give it back] on the condition of collaboration, and if met with refusal, the letters wouldn’t be delivered.
10. How did you get into the army?
24 August 1941 I was accepted into the Polish Army by its military commission in the Suzdal camp.
Official stamp, 1 March 1943 r.