Personal data (name, surname, rank, age, occupation, marital status):
Tadeusz Lenczewski, platoon leader, aged 30, farmer, married; military post no. 137.
Date and circumstances of arrest:
I was arrested on 21 June 1940 for being a member of a secret organization fighting the USSR in Rzędziany, Białystok Voivodeship. On that day, at 2.00 a.m., seven NKVD officers with machine guns and a dog came, woke me up and urged me to get dressed in 5 minutes and to leave with them. I was put in a car, where I was told to lie face down. I was taken to a prison in Białystok and thrown into a dirty general cell (during the transport I was beaten and tortured). I was sentenced in absentia to eight years of hard, forced labor in labor camps. During the interrogation, they were beating me, shooting from behind, ordering me to put my fingers between the door and squeezing them, putting me in a wardrobe for two to five hours, where I could not make a move. They were trampling on me and kicking me. They told me to take off my shoes and stepped on my toes. I was purposely given salty meals, but no water to drink – all that for me to confess and give up the others. During the examination, apart from beating and torturing ruthlessly, they also swore at me: “You Polish bastard, Poland is gone, has already died and will never raise again, vsekh vas vyrezhem [we will slaughter you all], will destroy your government, our Soviet system will be established”, etc.
Name of the camp (prison – forced labor site):
Prison in Białystok and Minsk – work site: Ivdel´, Sverdlovsk Oblast.
Description of the camp or prison (grounds, buildings, housing conditions, hygiene):
In terms of hygiene, the prison in Białystok was tolerable. The prison in Minsk was overcrowded with prisoners. Dirt, bugs, and lice. Forced labor site. Hilly, wooded area. Rooms for prisoners – cramped, dirty, dark, and unheated barracks. No bunks, we slept on dirty ground. No hygiene. A huge number of lice and bedbugs. No bathing and underwear change.
The composition of POWs, prisoners, exiles (nationality, category of crimes, intellectual and moral standing, mutual relations, etc.):
Various nationalities, mostly Poles. Mainly political prisoners. Polish prisoners were mostly intellectuals, other were workers or farmers. The intellectual level of other nationalities was extremely low – they often stole from one another. Disciplinary or order violations were shifted upon Poles. The coexistence and relations between Poles were good. Between Poles and other prisoners – bad, as Poles were teased and ridiculed.
Life in the camp or prison (daily routine, work conditions, quotas, wages, food, clothing, social and cultural life, etc.):
The daily routine was as follows: wake up at 5.00 a.m. Work started at 6.00 a.m. with checking our presence. Even those who were sick were sent to work. Work in quarries, at timber drafting, tree felling, construction of a railway line, etc. Working conditions were poor – no elementary tools, assistance, or proper management. Quotas impossible to meet, e.g., 3 cubic meters of stones to be transported 150 meters away within one working day. Monthly earnings from 5 to 15 rubles. Due to our inability to meet the quotas, food was provided on average in the form of 500 grams of bread; in the morning thin soup with groats, in the evening the same – daily ration. Clothes – the same that we wore while we were arrested (worn and torn, shoes without soles). Due to the exhaustion caused by work, social and cultural life was impossible.
The NKVD’s attitude towards Poles (interrogation methods, torture and other forms of punishment, Communist propaganda, information about Poland, etc.):
When investigating Poles, they applied cruel and sophisticated tortures. They beat us using chairs, boards, or other sharp tools on the head or all over the body. Penalties for orderly or insubordination offenses were applied very often, e.g., a dark room with a cement floor and water or solitary confinement, with limited food – 200 grams of bread and a liter of water once a day. Compulsory meetings were held, at which the communist system was glorified and the state regulations in Poland were ridiculed.
Medical assistance, hospitals, mortality rate (provide the names of the deceased): Medical assistance was poorly organized. Despite obvious diseases, they tried not to release Poles from hard work. In serious cases, i.e., fatal diseases, prisoners were sent to the hospital, from which they never returned.
Was there any possibility to get in contact with one’s country and family?
The prisoners received letters and parcels from the home country, but they were delivered only if the prisoner met the quota. The letters and parcels were always inspected and communication with families was hindered.
When were you released and how did you manage to join the army?
I was released from the forced labor camp on 27 November 1941 and got to the Polish Army at my own expense in Lugovoy, Kazakhstan, on 27 February 1942.
Encampment, 4 March 1943