1. Personal data:
Senior Constable of the State Police, Józef Kazimierczak, born on 6 December 1897, married.
2. Date and circumstances of arrest:
Interned in Lithuania, from 19 September 1939 to 12 July 1940 in the camps of Połąga and Wiłkowyszki, no forced labor. I was imprisoned in a camp in the USSR from 12 July 1940 to 8 July 1941.
3. Name of the camp, prison, or forced labor site:
I performed forced labor in the USSR in the camps in Kozelsk, Kolski Peninsula, and Arkhangelsk.
4. Description of the camp, prison etc.:
In the Lithuanian camps, food, housing conditions, grounds, and hygienic conditions were all good. The buildings in which I lived together with other internees were wooden, and in winter they were well heated with stoves. The interned soldiers were distributed among the buildings in a rational manner.
In the Lithuanian camp of Połąga, there were approximately 6,000 interned soldiers and policemen, and in the camp in Wiłokowyszki – approximately 4,000.
In the Soviet camp in Kozelsk the housing conditions and the distribution of soldiers were very bad: on average, 150–300 people lived in one wooden house, so one soldier had no more than 30 centimeters of sleeping surface at his disposal. At the same time, in the brick buildings (in the Orthodox church) there were up to 500 soldiers, and both the housing and hygienic conditions were in a deplorable state.
The camp in the Kolski Peninsula defies description in terms of the conditions in which the other soldiers and I had to live. I slept in the open air for two weeks, because it was impossible to get into a tent; some soldiers slept in tents, and some in the open air.
5. The composition of prisoners-of-war, inmates, exiles:
There were approximately 6,000 internees in the Kozelsk camp. In the camp in the Kolski Peninsula there were about 2,000 Polish soldiers and policemen. At first the state of our moral standing was very depressing.
6. Life in the camp, prison:
Life in the Soviet camps: working 12 hours per day without rest, no remuneration for work, food – from 60 to 150 grams of bread per day and twice a day some smelly fish soup and unsweetened tea. The soldiers were issued some clothes and shoes, but they had to wear some of their own as well. There was neither educational nor cultural life.
7. The NKVD’s attitude towards Poles:
The NKVD was very hostile towards Polish soldiers and called them bloodsuckers. Interrogations were carried out exclusively at night, after 9.00 p.m., that is, after the evening roll call. We were asked why Communism had been fought against in Poland, and told that the USSR would punish us severely for that. They were telling us that Poland would never be restored and that we shouldn’t think about it. The NKVD demanded that the policemen denounce their informers, and promised that those who complied would be released from the camp and go home to their families.
8. Medical assistance, hospitals, mortality rate:
In the Lithuanian camps, the medical assistance was good and deaths very rare. In the Soviet camp in Kozelsk the medical assistance was bearable, and in the Kolski Peninsula there wasn’t any at all. Many soldiers died in the camp in Kozelsk, including Antoni Bieszczad, a former policeman from the Stołpin district.
9. Was there any possibility to get in contact with one’s country and family?
On 1 November 1940, the Soviet authorities in the Kozelsk camp gave us permission to write one letter to our families per month, and letters from our families were checked by the NKVD and then delivered to us.
10. When were you released and how did you manage to join the army?
On 8 July 1941 I was released from the camp in the Kolski Peninsula, USSR. I returned to the camp in Suzdal, where I appeared before the Polish draft board, which deemed me fit for service and sent me for active service in the staff platoon of the 5th Division of the 15th Regiment, with which I was to commence on 24 July 1941 in Tatischevo. On 26 February 1942 I was assigned to the 10th Division in Lugovoy.
On 27 March 1942 I left with a reconnaissance unit to Iran, Iraq, and Palestine.