JANUSZ NEKANDA-TREPKA

Personal data (name, surname, rank, age, occupation, marital status):

Janusz Nekanda-Trepka, senior rifleman, cadet, born in 1920, building technician, unmarried.

Date and circumstances of arrest:

Arrested on 14 June 1941 in Wilno, during mass arrests, without providing any reasons.

Name of the camp (prison – forced labor site):

Deported to Shipunovo in Altai Krai.

Description of the camp or prison (grounds, buildings, housing conditions, hygiene):

I was there an exile, a displaced person, free to choose a flat. Due to the lack of funds, I was forced to use the flat assigned to me by the NKVD authorities, in which hygienic conditions were very poor.

The composition of POWs, prisoners, exiles (nationality, category of crimes, intellectual and moral standing, mutual relations, etc.):

Almost exclusively Poles, mainly intellectuals deported without any sentence and justification. The group was disintegrated, full of internal quarrels, quickly got depressed, except for a small group of villagers, who adapted to the new working conditions.

Life in the camp or prison (daily routine, work conditions, quotas, wages, food, clothing, social and cultural life, etc.):

During the first 20 days, I performed forced labor in a brickyard, where we weren’t informed about the quotas, and after this period, average earnings amounted to 30–35 rubles. This sum was supposed to be enough to make a living. Then, I performed field works, and worked in a forge in a sovkhoz. The earnings were hardly enough to survive.

The NKVD’s attitude towards Poles (interrogation methods, torture and other forms of punishment, Communist propaganda, information about Poland, etc.): Despite the Polish-Soviet agreement, the NKVD authorities did not release us, and didn’t change their attitude until 23 October 1941.

Medical assistance, hospitals, mortality rate (provide the names of the deceased):

Insufficient and reluctant medical assistance, complete lack of medications.

During the deportation nobody died. According to verbal reports of the deported persons from the sovkhoz where I stayed as an exile, during the transport to the south, 25% of deported people from this sovkhoz died, mainly older men. I don’t provide their surnames, as I don’t remember them, but among those who died was, among others, my father – Lieutenant Colonel Władysław Nekanda-Trepka.

Was there any possibility to get in contact with one’s country and family?

I couldn’t get in contact with my home country due to the outbreak of the Soviet- German war.

When were you released and how did you manage to join the army?

Released on 23 October 1941 after long journeys in order to join the army, continuous deportation by our authorities and NKVD authorities to kolkhozes, on 13 March 1942, I joined the 10th Infantry Regiment in Lugovoy.