1. Personal details (name, surname, rank, age, occupation and marital status):
Cannoneer Leopold Lachtaj, 20 years old, bachelor.
2. Date and circumstances of arrest:
On 26 April 1940, Tuchla station (after I jumped out of the wagon near Tuchla, two of the railway police caught me), followed by arrest and a short investigation in Ławoczne.
3. Name of camp, prison, place of forced labor:
I spent five and a half months in prison in Stryj.
4. Description of the camp, prison:
After serving time in prison in Stryj, they deported me to the Middle Channel labor camp near Kandalaksha, then they brought me to KAZ (a labor camp near the former one). Rocky terrain, we lived in tents and barracks, housing conditions could have been worse, cold, little food (no form of personal hygiene was possible in the first gulag).
5. Composition of prisoners-of-war, prisoners and deportees:
Poles, Jews, Russians, Ukrainians from Carpathian Ruthenia. [They were serving time,] for every possible reason. Relations among the Poles were good. But our thieves would try to tear the last shirt from everyone’s back.
6. Life in the camp, prison:
No wages, food for work, poor clothes in the worst state, especially lack of footwear. The Poles helped each other as much as they could.
7. Conduct of the NKVD towards the Poles:
Methods of interrogation: beating, not allowing us to go anywhere, even to the toilet. They called us at night for interrogation, deprived us of sleep, they shone huge lights into our eyes. In prison, they would throw us in the cell in a shirt and long johns for whatever reason they could think of. Interrogation while threatened with revolvers, grenades or the whole family being shot.
8. Medical assistance, hospitals, mortality rate (names of the deceased):
The Polish doctors did what they could, whatever was in their power. In the Middle Channel Władysław Zwierz, a doctor from Warsaw, did as much as he could at night. They wanted to cut off my frostbitten fingers themselves, but he promised that they would heal, and they did.
9. Was there any communication with homeland and family? If so, how was it?
I received letters and help at the camp until the outbreak of the war with Germany.
10. When were you released and how did you join the army?
I was released on 10 September 1941 in Kanin Nos. After traveling for five months, I reached Chardzhou, and from there to Krasnovodsk, from where we sailed to Pahlavi—a Persian port. I joined the army on 27 March 1942.