1. Personal data:
Rifleman Stanisław Szuldiner, born in 1903 in Warsaw, office manager, married.
2. Date and circumstances [of arrest]:
I was arrested on a street in Lwów on 4 July 1940, after I was asked for my passport and I showed a Polish identity card, which was confiscated by the NKVD officers.
3. Name of the camp, prison, etc.:
Since there was no room in the Lwów prisons, I was locked up in the former military barracks at Piotra i Pawła Street. There were about 6000-7000 detainees. From there I was sent by train (in so-called teplushkas) to the NKVD staging point for labor camps for prisoners at Volgolag-Volgostroy, near the city of Rybinsk, Yaroslavl Oblast. Then, we (about 1200 people) were sent back to the labor camp at Parsowo lagpunkt, Yaroslavl Oblast. It was a small camp situated in the woods. The work was logging (lesopoval).
After six months in the camp, I was transferred to the so-called Rybinski Uzel (Rybinsk Hub), where a large canal and four river turbines were being constructed (six kilometers from Rybinsk). The camp had five districts (uchastoks) and was under the supervision of the Volgolag-Volgostroy NKVD. I was transferred several times from one district to another, so I had visited almost all the uchastoks by the time of the “isolation” (the period from the outbreak of the Soviet-German war, that is from 22 June 1941, until the release resulting from the Polish-Soviet agreement), when all Polish people were gathered in uchastok no. 5 (construction of the Volga-Moscow canal).
4. Description of the camp, prison, etc.:
In the camps, we were woken up at 5.00 a.m., and we had obed (breakfast) – watery soup with no fat plus whatever bread we had left over, but almost nobody managed to save any bread, which was distributed in the evening, so we usually had none. 5.30 a.m. – razvod, that is, setting off to work. We formed brigades consisting of four people and were lined up in rows. At the exit, a foreman escorted us and reported the number of the brigade.
Already behind the camp’s gate, an armed guard took charge of the group. Each brigade was escorted by one or two guards. In this way, we set off to work, which was often five to eight kilometers away. At work we were supervised and rushed by foremen, overseers (who gave us instructions and to whom we reported when the job was finished), heads of columns (the camp was divided into a number of columns), work supervisors, and often the camp commandant. They would come on purpose to “sniff around” and make us work faster; we mostly did physical work (90 percent). From 12.00 to 1.00 p.m., we had a lunch break – we were given no food and of course nobody had any bread because it had already been eaten.
We worked from 1.00 to 6.00 p.m. and at 6.00 we were divided in groups of four and escorted “home” (to the camp), where we were counted, still in groups of four, and let in behind the camp’s gate. Then, we had obed – the dinner proper – again some soup that was clear as water, and a bit of groats; sometimes we were also given some herring or pickled cucumbers. 8.00 p.m. – proverka – effective counting of people by lining us all up in rows of four. Since the number of prisoners didn’t always match, we often stood three or four hours during a proverka. Afterwards – otboy, the end of the day – sleeping time. Between supper (dinner) and otboy, we often had to perform various additional works, such as bringing and chopping wood for the camp, digging sewage, cleaning the barracks, and helping out different camp managers. Other additional works were: pumping and carrying water, and working in the kitchen.
The working conditions were very bad: we lacked clothes and suitable tools; we stayed outdoors regardless of temperature and season; we were treated badly, and the work quotas were high, often exceeding the capabilities of a healthy and strong person.
Social life depended on the intellectual standing of the prisoners.
Housing conditions were deplorable, and hygienic conditions were terrible. We were being literally eaten alive by lice, fleas, and bedbugs. Food – depending on the results of your work: from 300 to 700 grams of dark bread, two portions of watery soups and some boiling water (kipiatok).
5. Social composition of POWs, prisoners, deportees:
In the first camp, there were only Polish citizens: Christians, Evangelicals, Orthodox and Jews. Then, we numbered only 2 percent compared to the Russians – prisoners sentenced for criminal or political offences. The latter type of criminals were people with a much higher intellectual standing than the rest. The mutual relations were often unbearable; we were called “Polish lords.” We were treated better by elderly people convicted based on Article 58, point 14 (Russian Act) for so-called counter-revolution. They interacted with us, took an interest in our matters, and often even helped us. Living with others was tough; there was no mutual trust and people constantly harassed each other.
6. Life in the camp, prison, etc.:
As described in point 4. However, as for cultural life, it was mostly about teaching prisoners lessons about work, quotas, etc. The camp authorities were also trying to convince Polish people that we would never come back to Poland, that Poland would become one of the USSR republics, and that we would never see our wives and children again, and after serving the sentence (they thought we would serve the sentences), we would find ourselves new wives as “free citizens.” If we had met 100% of the work quota or more, the remuneration could not exceed ten percent of the normal rates for a given industry, so the money we earned (which we rarely received) was a fiction, because in reality it had no real value – from time to time, we could only buy some shag tobacco for it.
7. Attitude of the authorities, the NKVD, towards Poles:
Their attitude was fundamentally hostile, as if those people were prejudiced against us. They constantly instilled their political doctrine into our minds and tried to convince us that they would soon rule the world. At the same time, they were trying to collect information on the situation in our country. Interrogation methods varied a lot. Mostly, however, people were interrogated by one NKVD official who shouted, beat them, and locked them in dark cells. In this way, he wanted to force the interrogated prisoners to do something or to make them confess to some imaginary crimes they hadn’t committed. Even if it was not proven that a person was guilty, it did not stop them from imposing a punishment. Sooner or later, everyone received a sentence of several years, regardless of the result of the investigation.
8. Medical assistance, hospitals, mortality:
Medical assistance was rather problematic given the low level of professionalism among the management, lack of medications that were needed the most, and poor nutrition. In the initial period, the mortality in the first camp amounted to about four percent. As for the names of the deceased, I remember only Dr. Pisarek from Kraków, Dr. Minder from Kraków, and Attorney Bek, also from Kraków.
9. Was it possible to keep in touch with the home country and your family? If yes, what contacts were permitted?
Initially, we were all prohibited from sending letters. After a few months (until the “isolation” period), we were allowed to send letters to Russia and the home country, but only one or two letters from Poland were delivered to the camp (there were 1200 people). Letters from Russia or the occupied Polish territories were diligently censored, frequently went missing, and were rarely delivered to prisoners. However, with the help of people who stayed in the territories occupied by the USSR, in the so-called Western Belarus or in the Lwów Voivodeship and other areas, we sometimes managed to find out what was happening in the home country or to let our families (who lived under the German occupation) know that we were alive.
10. When were you released and how did you join the army?
I was released on 11 September 1941 and I started searching for my sister, who had been sent to Kazakhstan with her son. She was married to a second lieutenant of the Polish Army. I found her after a few months’ journey, I had some rest (I had become a shadow of my former self), and immediately went to Kermine (Bukhara Oblast) to the assembly point, where I joined the Polish Army and became part of the 7th Infantry Division on 7 February 1942. I would like to emphasize that the NKVD authorities, who were in charge of releasing us from the camps, refused to tell us where Polish troops were being formed in the USSR, claiming they did not know anything about it. Already on 25 September 1941, I found out that Polish troops were being formed in Totskoye, so I expressed my willingness to join the army in writing. As instructed by the head of the delegation in Tomsk, I first looked for my sister and her child, and then I immediately went to Kermine in order to join the army.