Corporal Franciszek Przybyło, 29 years old, bricklayer, unmarried.
On 19 September 1939 I was taken captive by the Soviet Authorities in the township of Sarniki [?]. On the same day we were marched under escort to Kamianets-Podilskyi. We spent seven days on the road, hungry and cold, shoved about by the escort; those who couldn’t walk were sent to the hospital. Having arrived in Kamianets-Podilskyi seven days later, we were loaded onto wagons and brought to Poland, to the town of Żytomierz. There we were forced to build a road, and they promised that after we finished we would be released home. We were quartered in some barracks, and food was terrible: salty fish for the first and the second course.
At first medical assistance was bearable, only when our officers who were doctors left did the hygienic conditions deteriorate; the sick were sent for labor, as a result of which there were many cases of death. From Żytomierz they sent us to Skole, and from there we were deported to Starobilsk. The journey was very tiresome, as 75 people were crammed into a 15-ton wagon. Food was very meager, for 75 people we received two kilograms of bread, a piece of salty fish per person and a bucket of water. The journey took 22 days; the conditions couldn’t have been worse due to the lack of space, air and water.
During a bombardment of our transport by German planes, many tried to hide in a field, but they were shot by the Russians. Among them was my friend from tarnowskie voivodeship, a man named Dziomek, and Piotr Pietras from Ostrów Wielkopolski.
After we had arrived in Starobilsk and the Polish-Soviet agreement had been signed, Colonel Wiśniowski came and they began to organize the Polish Army.