J. KOWALSKA

I was arrested on [illegible] 1940 in Pińsk for being a member of certain associations in Poland and working in an organization during the occupation.

I was incarcerated in the following prisons: Pińsk, Brześć nad Bugiem, and Baranowicze, where they would detain people in a punishment cell and treat them brutally during interrogations, even beating and insulting them. Next I was imprisoned in Orsza, Starobielsk, Kharkov, Smolensk, Moscow [Butyrka], where the interrogation lasted eight months without breaks. I was alone in a cell. They beat me brutally, for I wouldn’t admit to anything. Then another female prisoner who had also been arrested was put in my cell. Later it turned out that she was an informer from Moscow. They took me to Kosów Poleski, where our weapons had been buried, and marched me to Mereczowszczyzna. On several occasions they fired shots over my head. Then the investigating judge got angry because I wouldn’t admit to anything. He hit me in the face, knocking out my tooth. They assembled the following people – my colleagues, who used to work together in an organization – for a confrontation: Maria Czarnocka [?], Mieczysław Sewruk, Jan Krysman, Halina Wdowińska [?], Genowefa Krysmanówna – they were also covered in bruises. During this entire time I was detained in the punishment cell, where I fell ill with a severe lung disease. I was driven to the Krupska hospital, where I stayed for a month. When I returned from the hospital, I was taken for an interrogation to Łubianka. Having returned to Butyrka, I was severely beaten. I had a pulmonary hemorrhage and went back to the hospital.

After I came back from the hospital, my sentence was read out: eight years. I was placed in a shared cell, which made me very happy, for I met other Polish women there. The next prisons: Syzran, Kuybyshev, Petropavlovsk, Omsk, Novosibirsk, Khanty-Mansiysk, and the Kola Peninsula, where we dug ditches by the Ponoy River. I argued with the overseer there. Due to vitamin deficiency I didn’t have enough strength to work, but he told me that I was being insubordinate and reported me to the warden. One night I was taken away to [illegible] south, where I was to be interrogated again. Fortunately, I was released on 2 September 1941 due to the amnesty. I had wounds all over my body and couldn’t sleep with clothes on, because everything would stick to them. On 18 October 1941, I was accepted into the Auxiliary Women’s Service in Buzuluk.

On 17 November 1941 I was assigned to work in Koltubanka as a nurse. On 11 February 1942 I was sent to the 8th Infantry Division in Chokpak, after the liquidation of the 8th Infantry Division. On 20 April I was transported to the Army Training Center in Vrevskoye. On 20 August 1942 I arrived in Pahlevi. On 26 August I was assigned to the Main Civilian Hospital in Tehran. On 7 November I was transferred from Tehran to Quizil Ribat, Military Hospital no. 3.

Official stamp, 9 March 1943