STANISŁAW STELMASZEWSKI

1. On 22 September 1939, I was interned in Lithuania.

2. [Personal data:]

Corporal Stanisław Stelmaszewski, the son of Józef and Antonina, born on 18 April 1897 in Kutno, constable of the District Police in Grodno, married. Currently assigned to the 104th Transport Company.

3. [The date and circumstances of the arrest:]

On 10 July 1940, I was deported to an internment camp in Kozelsk (Russia) after Lithuania was seized by the USSR.

4. [Name of camp, prison, or place of forced work:]

Kozelsk was the internment camp for politically dangerous, Polish Army officers, State Police, Border Guards, Border Protection Corps, and Gendarmerie.

5. [Description of the camp, prison:]

In this camp, each of us interned lived in fear, because every night the NKVD took one of our cellmates from the block. They would take and deport the interned at night; up to this day we have not heard what happened to them and where they are.

6. [Composition of the inmates, POWs, and exiles:]

In the camp, there were about a thousand officers of the Polish Army and Police, and around 2,000 non-commissioned officers of the Police, Border Guard, Border Protection Corps and the Gendarmerie. We had amicable relations with the officers of the Polish Army and the State Police; between us there was friendship, but also respect for privacy. We only worked in the labor camp.

7. [Life in the camp, prison, etc.:]

Life in the camp was obtrusive. Everyone lived in fear, wondering whether they would be deported at night. The clothing was bad. We mended our own clothes. We did not receive any from the camp, except for one pair of underwear.

8. [Attitude of the NKVD towards Poles:]

The communist propaganda was very noticeable and constant. The NKVD had a bad attitude towards Poles. They organized talks during which they proclaimed that Poland would never rise and that it would be communist and under their rule, and that our government in London was of no importance. Godlessness was everywhere. All of the NKVD officers and the others lied with each word, telling us that they would conquer England too.

9. [Medical care, hospitals, and the mortality rate:]

On 15 May 1941, they sent us, a thousand non-commissioned officers of the Police, to the Kola Peninsula by the Ponoy River. The conditions were horrible there: there was no medical care and starvation was widespread. Although our doctors were present, they had no medication to treat us with. We slept under the open sky. Each of us froze, as it was bitterly cold; almost every day it snowed and rained. The work was 12 hours – with roll-calls, up to 16 hours. Suicides were frequent. I know of five suicides by hanging. The NKVD told us that there was no return from here and they tortured us at every step. Soon, we had enough of life and lived only with the hope that there may be war with Germany, and then we would be able to escape to Finland.

[10. Was it possible to keep in touch with your home country and family? If yes, what contacts were permitted?]

I received two letters from my family from Grodno, dated 19 December 1940 and 22 March 1941. When I was in Kozelsk, we were allowed to write once a month. They did not give us back all the letters [sent to us], since the wife and kids wrote [me] that they answered all my letters.

[11. When were you released, and how did you get through to the Polish Army?]

I got into the Polish Army on 24 August 1941. After the outbreak of the war with Germany on 13 July 1941, they deported us from the Kola Peninsula to Arkhangelsk, then from Arkhangelsk to Suzdal. After the Polish-Soviet agreement, a draft board arrived at Suzdal, and from that time on I was in the Polish Army. On 4 September 1941, I left Suzdal to the 5th Infantry Division in Tatishchevo.

Place of stay, 13 March 1943.