Stanislaw ostrowski last president of lviv

STANISLAW OSTROWSKI THE LAST president OF POLISH LEVEL

DAYS OF DISTRACTION – REMEMBER 1939-1941

Aleksander Szumański for KSI

The Lions Battle

To realize the relations in the city before planet War II

1. 400,000 inhabitants, the political and economical situation of the city should be highlighted, which was in any ways the capital of a large part of the country located in the south-eastern part of Poland.

It is different to get into the details of this issue, but it should be stressed that Lviv was the seat of 2 nationalities: Poles and Ukrainians, with the judaic component playing a crucial role, especially of economical importance. The population ratio in Lviv represented about 65% of Poles, 25% of Jews, 10% of Ukrainians.

At the same time, Lviv was the seat of 3 Catholic archbishops: Roman Catholic, Armenian Catholic and Greek Catholic rites. At the same time, Lviv was the seat of 5 academic colleges, 15 secondary state schools and about 60 general schools (primary schools).

The population selected for a five-year period the City Council, consisting of 72 councillors. The City Council elected a city board consisting of the president, 3 vice presidents and 12 jurors.

The municipal board together with the City Council of Lviv formed a self-government body, based on the applicable local government law. This body's activities included the adoption and collection of local taxes, the maintenance of universal schools, social services, including the expansion of housing for urban workers and the unemployed. In addition, the management of the power plant, the gas plant. waterworks and urban life.

In 1934, I was elected the city's first vice president, and in 1936, the city's president. At the time of rumors of the anticipation of a war with Germany, I took over the anti-aircraft and gas defence activities of Lviv. Under no circumstances was the position of the city president political. This task was performed by another factors, based on state laws.

On September 1, 1939, the first wave of bombs, breaking houses, and churches fell. The war has begun. This period was a severe effort for the City Board due to the failure to prepare the city's supply of food to the population in case of siege. The second unexpected issue arose; the influx of refugees from the western part of Poland. There has been a doubling of the population and the request to deploy them and feed them.

On 12 September, troops of German armored cars appeared on the western ends of the city, which would surprise and paralyze the city. fresh supply difficulties began due to the fact that they remained only east and northern routes of supply. due to the desire to spread moral work to a larger body, I created as an advisory body, an ad hoc council, composed of members of the Board of the Municipal Council and experts in economics and nutrition. The ad hoc council met each day erstwhile or twice for meetings. Ad hoc orders were made to regulate the city's life.

On 11 September, the Lvov Defence Command was formed, which was limited to the military origin and erstwhile military organizations. During this period, the crossings of state factors by Lviv towards the east took place. As a consequence of a conference with the voivode Dr. Alfred Biłyk, we decided on 13 September to make a speech on the radio calling for the public to calm down and give assurance to the state and local authorities. I announced my decision: “I am staying with you for a pit and misery.” I must say, with large pleasure, that during the full period of the fighting, the Lviv society behaved exemplaryly in terms of social discipline, bearing dense casualties in the killed and wounded, failure of individual property and public property.

Artillery shells fell more and more densely, destroying private homes, public buildings, and churches. On request and as a consequence of the resolution of the ad hoc Council, a delegation to the Corps Commander, who was at the same time a commander of the front, went on on 14 September to ask for predictions and plans in connection with the further improvement of war accidents. It was thought to me that it was right that creating from an open city, a fortress, could consequence in further demolition of the city's assets and historical monuments. It seemed to me that the prefields of the city, thanks to the layout and terrain conditions, were suitable for shifting the weight of the city's defence into more appropriate sections in terms of tactical and strategical terms. The military situation across the country did not let the city to change its defence system. In this way, defensive fights continued unchanged after 17 September, in which Moscow radio announced a march towards east Polish districts.

The next day, on 18 September, in an interview with the Corps commander, I asked about further developments, this was after the announcement of Molotov's speech. News of the triumph of the army commanded by Gen. Sosnkowski, close Holoski, aroused hope that there might be a reversal of war destiny in our episode.

The russian announcement was equivalent to a knife giving a fatal blow to the back of the Polish army. The consequence of the Corps commander assured me that it was impossible to fight on 2 fronts and that he would surrender the city to russian troops as a Slavic army.

On 19 September, the command of the German troops dropped flyers from the aircraft calling on the Corps commander and me to appear at the established points, to surrender the city to the Germans. In addition to another conditions (determining, for example, the movement of the population) in the event of refusal to surrender, The Germans set day 21 as a day to level the city. So I went to talk to the Corps commander to establish a procedure for the recently created situation. It's been agreed. I don't think either of us is going to make it to the German command. It was decided to negociate to get German troops to let residents to leave the city, if they would like to leave, due to the deliberate bombing.

After sending a negative consequence and informing the public about the German threat, the number of people leaving the city was negligible. It should be added that, apart from the usual shooting of the city from the department and air raids, the execution of German announcements did not take place. As of 19 September, from the north and east sides, on the outskirts of the city, russian tanks and troops stood, steadily expanding their numbers.

On September 21, at 11:30 am, I was invited to a conference with the Corps Commander. I waited a longer time for an interview due to the fact that there was a conference of elder military commanders and chiefs of staff at the time. As officers left the gathering room, I saw sadness and depression in their eyes. I realized that the end of our freedom was coming and the beginning of a fresh russian occupation.

CAPITULATION

At a conference with the commander of the Corps, accompanied by the colonel, later General Bronisław Rakowski and Colonel Antoni Szymanski were our military attache in Berlin, I sat with the deputy commander of the provincial police and with the recently appointed politician of Grodzki. The Corps commander began his speech by not being able to lead the fight on 2 fronts. That he could not go empty-handed against the tanks, and that so "on the request of the City Council" he was going to surrender the Lions army. In defence of historical truth, I powerfully objected to the assertion that any associate of the City Council or members of the Management Board of the City of Lviv had always acted with the thought or plan of surrendering the city to anyone.

I am not afraid about the addition or ability to fight the enemy and my message on this substance due to the fact that it does not affect my later fate.

After a conference that ended around 1st on the night of 22nd IX, I went to the Management Board to inform the Bureau and jurors of the impending misfortune. At 3 p.m., I was again invited to the Corps Commander to establish the terms of the surrender of the city of Lviv to the Red Army. This time I went to a conference with my deputy, Dr. Jan Weryński. I learned that with the cooperation of prof. of Lviv at the University of Louis Ehrlich, the conditions for surrender from the military were laid down. They besides wanted to add the needs of self-government. I decided, as conditions which were written down protocol: maintaining the autonomy of the municipal authorities on the basis of the existing Polish laws, the right to manage and keep hospitals, education, orphanages, old people's homes and all urban social welfare establishments, the management and maintenance by the municipal authorities of all utility plants along with the power plant, gas plant, waterworks and means of communication. I demanded to keep the Polish language as an official, with the approval of Ukrainian as a full-fledged in office, freedom of religion, respect for churches and spiritual orders and houses of prayer of Christian faiths and others.

I left the Corps Command Building at 6 p.m. A Corps commander with an accompanying officer then boarded a car with a white flag in front of the car.

A individual and national disaster began. At 2 p.m., I went to the commander of the Corps asking about the results of the surrender conference. I learned that the terms of the city board had been rejected, blocking the fact that wartime does not let to deal with the authority of anyone another than the russian army. Then I realized that this was the end of our freedom. I asked the commander of the Corps what is he going to do with himself? He told me that he had the right to be in uniform in the city of Lviv. erstwhile I left, to my surprise, I saw a mass of officers, all kinds of weapons and services, from the highest to the lowest levels, gathered in the courtyard of the Corps headquarters. In the number of two, possibly more than thousands, permanent and reserve service officers who marched down Łychakowska Street on the Katyn trail.

There I met my colleagues from the school bench] and doctors who asked me questions about what to do. I said that if I were in uniform, my place wouldn't be here.

SOVIEC INVASION

I went back to the city board. shortly large russian tanks began to arrive on the streets of the city. The infantry came, which occupied all the passages, the stairs, the doors of a large city board building, and made me a moving prisoner, under the defender of an NKWD officer with a revolver in his hand. From the accounts of officials and members of the ad hoc council, I learned that the city is mostly peaceful, only violently disarming soldiers, collecting weapons and ammunition. And here and there are only occasional incidents of assaulting a defenseless soldier, as a manifestation of the most likely "personal" folk revolution.

On that day, a branch with tanks, which entered the buildings of a city power station, shot the manager of the City electrical Plants, Dr Kozłowski. In the evening of that day, I was told that the russian army was carrying out robberies on the outskirts of the city and raping women, on that day, late evening, a russian dignitary with a red star appeared at my house, against whom I protested against murdering workers and against robbery of property and people. I met with the answer that it was a war, “and medicine has not yet found a cure for all pain.”

My apartment, which was in the building of the city board, was covered by the military. I wasn't allowed to leave the office or go to an flat without a defender in hand. The military took distant from me and my associates seals, money containing about PLN 3 million in cash, city archives and another agendas without any confirmation, despite my persistent demand. Around 11 p.m. on 22 September, with the presence of a russian dignitary, 2 individuals appeared. 1 with a red armband, the another unshaven in the clothes of a Polish soldier, with a firearm in his hand, demanding to go to the Corps commander for the conference. I knew the Corps commander was no longer in office. I realized it was a trick to lure me out. Since the city's values were not yet completed, I was instructed to stay put. In this way I most likely avoided the destiny of another social activists. At about 1 o'clock, I was allowed to retire, with instructions to return at 8 a.m.

I realized that working under the barrel of a revolver can neither be fruitful nor long to withstand. I said goodbye to my wife, having a subconscious belief that I would never see her again.

By noon on 22 September, at 10 p.m., the last Council gathering was held. At this sitting, we passed a call to the public, calming, presenting changed conditions. A call to defend society from the movement of inspired scum, triggering a “people's revolution”. A crucial thing for this kind of conduct and a characteristic thing was to open prisons for criminal criminals, as the first gift of “freedom”. By nature, the criminal planet was the second component of panic by the business authorities.

ARRANGEMENTS AND PROCEDURE

At the time of the printing correction “Recalls to the People”, together with the PPS representative, erstwhile associate of the NKVD, 3 russian military officers entered my cabinet. They asked which 1 of us was the city supervisor. After my application, they called me to go with them to General Timoshenko's front commander, who expressed his want to meet me and discuss the work of the city board. When, due to the fall, I reached for the charge, they calmed me down that taking the cover not needed due to the fact that I would be back at work in 15 minutes.

So I went out with them and at the bottom of the entrance I was struck by the interest of these individuals in my car. due to the fact that the yard of the town hall was filled with all kinds of cars, buses, fire trucks, after looking around, I told these individuals that my wife most likely left the car, although I knew well that she did not leave the house. So we went beyond the cut-off of the building, where I was introduced to a field car utilized by the Polish army. I was planted next to a driver who was 1 of the individuals. 2 others were sitting in the back seats, and to my surprise, they pulled the revolvers out of the covers.

When the device was led in the other direction than the front command could have been, and erstwhile the police building at Łąckiego Street was driven into the gate, I realized that I was under arrest. This kind of sneaky grasping of the victim, to then overpower it, was constantly applied, as I shortly discovered, to all.

Under the appearance of the request to start work in different areas of public service, an hr was set for officials to meet, followed by the front door and buildings being covered. There was an arrest and transport to prison. In this way, prosecutors and judges were apprehended, from the lowest to the highest appeal court.

After the car entered the courtyard of the police building, I was held for respective hours against the wall surrounding the yard. It was only after a fewer hours that I was called to the office, where I found two, as it turned out to be “investigative” NKVD officers. The investigation was temporarily not documented, it consisted of downloading individual data, and then on the strategy of municipal government, economical relations and population relations of the city. A 3rd individual in an NKVD uniform was called to the proceeding due to the fact that I did not talk Russian. At the time of the presentation of the population structure, I spoke about the rights and equality of all citizens on the basis of the Polish Constitution and moved the percent national composition of the population, listing Jews. At that moment, I was unexpectedly met with hails of russian dirty expressions and the urge of “investigators” to beat, which ended only with winning with fists before my eyes. erstwhile I protested the method of interrogation and asked by the translator what was the origin of specified misbehaving, he replied that I offend a large part of the population, calling them offensive Jews. So I asked what they were to be called, since it is simply a literary name, utilized in chronicles and writing since the appearance of Jews in Poland, the name utilized by Jews themselves. erstwhile I asked them what I should call them to avoid a violent speech by the judges, I received a brief consequence “Jewrej”.

It did not aid to explain that all nation and all language defines a given society or nationality in its own language, and consequently the sound and spelling are different in different languages.

I could not convince the “investigators” with these arguments, due to the fact that they had elements of strength in their hand, and in the behaviour unprecedented in global relations the brutality and rudeness of the occupier.

After this “interview”, I was sent under defender again in the yard under the wall. After any time, I was introduced to a larger hall of the police building, in which there were collected dozens of NKVD officers, sitting partially on the stools, partially on the chairs, as if they were prepared for a commemorative photograph. 1 of the officers began to indicate me about cooperation of Ukrainian posts, which were to be paid "agents" of the Polish Government. I protested powerfully against insulting Ukrainian Members, assuming that they were elected in a 5 adjective vote, by their compatriots. Their behaviour allowed for the interests of the State and the Polish Government, e.g. erstwhile during the breakthrough hours of our history, they dared to vote in the Sejm, against the adoption of the budget of the military ministry. I thought it was a adequate argument to defend the absent Ukrainians from suspecting them of betraying their nation.

I could not and did not intend to uncover the whereabouts of the Ukrainian MPs mentioned by the “investigator” by covering myself with deficiency of individual contacts outside the cognition of the Sejm area or my work as city president. In turn I was asked – what is the Polish bourgeoisie going to do? I answered evasively: – waiting for its destiny.

Among the laughter of gathered encavists I was challenged: – shortly you will all be in prisons and on gallows.

I was in the yard again under the wall. Shortly thereafter, I was brought to another “investigator” whom I understood due to the fact that he spoke Ukrainian. This young man was primarily curious in the softness of my clothes from Polish material, the smoothness of my underwear, the well-crafted leather of shoes. He was puzzled by gold cufflinks, suspenders for pants, garter for socks, he became curious in economical relations, the property of the average citizen of the city, earnings, housing, nutrition and housing conditions of the average individual and the unemployed, the life of a peasant poor, middle-income and alleged "muck", that is, a peasant seated on respective twelve morgas of land. He listened to all of this with curiosity, without interrupting me, but there was disbelief, which ended the nonsubjective depiction of the relation of being a peasant and a worker, with the cry: - “w”, you lie. The essence, as it turned out, of his indagogy was for a recorded question and my answer. Do I know erstwhile Corps Commander General Langner first told me he was going to surrender the Lions to the Red Army? I declared that after Molotov's speech about classes in the lands of east Poland, on the following day, it is on 18 or 19 September 1939. I signed this statement, after which the “investigative” pulled a military weapon out of the desk drawer, leaving a defender in the hallway, instructed me to take the stairs. Then he brought the building into the basement, and then he locked the narrow passages, and at any point he made me face the wall. He opened the fuse of the revolver, holding me in a tense tension for a short time, which seemed to me eternal. I was looking forward to firing in peace, it was an awareness of a short-lived process that would forever free me from the shame and the request to put up with the conditions of slavery among the so-far unknown rudeness. It was, as it turned out, a desire to intimidate me, break my will, surrender to a dictatorship of violence. Fire didn't happen. I was given, after bringing to the “investigation” office, into the hands of the guard, who this time led me to the prison cell.

The prison, connected with the building of the erstwhile State Police, was built in Austrian times, alternatively for the preliminary interrogations needed, resulting in a maximum of 1 or respective people being built. I was placed in 1 of the cells for 1 person, where there was a wooden bunk without a haystack, pillow or blanket, not to mention sheets, covers, etc. It was a cell in which the window was placed at an elevation of 4 or more meters above the floor. This window allowed daylight and at the same time its narrowness and placement was to prevent the prisoner from escaping.

Since the nights became highly cold, and the cold air got through the broken cell window, I went through torture of the pain of all bones and joints. erstwhile I was tired and exhausted from hunger, I fell asleep for a short time, frequently waking up with a groan due to pain. The food that was given was made up of alleged soup, which was coloured water with respective floating fractions of cabbage leaves and respective grains of bud. The bread, delivered in respective 100 grams, completely unsealed, represented a muddy pulp, covered with a hardened shell was uneatable. I received akin food throughout my life in prison, and it is no wonder that I shortly experienced swelling of the face and extremities, especially the lower ones, as a sign of the beginning of water puchlin and avitaminosis. My conditions in the cell rapidly worsened with the introduction of 80-year-old Dr. Kości Lewicki 10), erstwhile vice president of the Austrian Parliament, a prominent typical of Ukrainians, president of UNDO, a well-known lawyer. Out of respect for my age, I gave him a place on his bunk. I was left lying on bare concrete. My tortures, due to the cold, moral, personal, family, national and human experience, seemed unsurpassable to me. Asking the guards to cover or ask the “investigator” for approval to send me any cover from close my apartment, they did nothing.

After a fewer days, I was transferred from this cell to another, larger one, where I found Prof. Stanisław Grabski 11), the head of the D.A.'s department of Józef Brzeski, a juror and typical of the locals of the Lviv Sudhof, owner of the large vodka and liqueur processing plant Adam Bachewski 12) and respective unknown people, innocently taken from the street. surviving conditions may have improved that I found a place on the bunks and a direct crowd of another prisoners reduced bodily suffering due to cold and hunger.

During this stay, through the window at the door, I saw many known people of the public world, the president of the Court of Appeal, the chief prosecutor, erstwhile Minister of Military Affairs Gen. Malczewski 13, who in the 70s of his life was forced to wash the corridor regular with cold water. Cleaning outhouses of the old system, erstwhile toilet shells were not yet known to be flushed with moving water, washing out these outhouses, as well as washing out and taking out stinking buckets with human secretions, was part of the joint activities of tenants of the individual purpose, with peculiar emphasis on late age and level occupied on the social ladder.

REPRESENTATIVE OF THE ‘SECURITIES’

It is appropriate for me to complete this description with pictures of the first encounter with representatives of the alleged "people's justice" who, on the first day of the hearing, straight moved any items from my pocket to theirs. So it happened with an eternal pen, a pencil with a silver frame, with a frame of parliamentary card and small things worth remembering. I had glass left in my case, which I asked a neighbour in my cell, Dr. Kości Lewicki, to hand over my wife, due to the fact that I was convinced that as an old man no uncertainty he was released from prison. It later turned out that he was driving with me in a common carriage in the unknown, that after fourteen months in prison in Lubianka, he was sitting just behind a wall in a neighboring cell. Later, I learned that he was in Butyrka's prison, to which I was transferred, and that he was sentenced to 5 years of a penal correction camp, even though he "scene" assured me with the word of honour that Lewicki had been sent back to Lviv. Another painting during my waiting against the wall in the courtyard of the Police Building: here were brought under strong Bolshevik defender of respective Polish officers. After putting them in the yard, immediately, in front of my eyes, they were deprived of their private property: watches, rings and what any of them might have in the pockets of a uniform or coat. It was an amazing individual search, which I have not yet experienced. At night, the sound of gunshots and the moaning of the murdered was heard. It was russian justice that dealt with the Polish soldier.

I give years, with the impressions of memory blurring, my own experiences, and others, depicting the deficiency of value of human life for the russian strategy or “religion”. This drawing a human individual to the meaning of the number, this drawing to a value lower than the value of a train or milky animal, contains the brightness of individual experiences over the years. Words spoken or written cannot give back a 1000 shades of human survival, sometimes in an hour, a day, a night, let alone weeks and months.

Fortunately, memory blurs out the most horrible, horrible experiences. Returning to them, placing them on paper sheets, only on a fractional scale, can give a large deal of misery to individuals, groups of people, or people, subject to an incredibly inhuman russian thought and a state machine.

In the first half of October 1939, I learned from the “investigator” that I was about to face a national court. I didn't know what it was, what it was going to do. In time, after experience, after contacting the closed element, like me, to the prison, I learned that it was expected to be a demonstration process that would most likely end with a known Bolshevik method of annihilation. However, since the symptoms of avitaminosis with leg swelling continued to increase, I was introduced to a doctor who decided to decision to the infirmary.

To my amazement and joy, I got scattered on wrapping paper, a file of my things, among which were any underwear, socks, handkerchiefs, sweater, and most importantly a coat reflected in fur, which I utilized for trips or hunting. It was like physically making contact with my closest family. The next day, after this event, I was taken to a car and transported to the infirmary in the St. Brygida prison at Kazimierzowska Street. I expected to warm myself up, put myself in a clean bed, get appropriate food, so that the symptoms of increasing awitaminosis would disappear. Meanwhile, I found myself in an empty, giant room, with beds without haystacks, no blankets, no covering. The windows from the 2 sides of the giant hall were devoid of windows, possibly broken by criminals leaving the prison. No doctor, no sanitation, food like the last prison.

After a fewer days, I was transferred to another building, to a tiny cell where I found a severely sick secretary of PPS Kuryłowicz 14), a diabetic and debilitating disorder on the lower limbs. The value beyond the feeling of warmth due to the proximity of the kitchen or any another fire was the ability to exchange thoughts and talk to a man who found himself in a situation akin to me.

Soon, in the second half of October, I was instructed to dress up and take distant the bunch of my things. In the meantime, for 4 weeks in prison, she managed to bring me back a dense gray-haired beard and mustache. After leaving the cell, I was carried out in the yard and ordered to get on the lore, with a ban on moving or turning my head. I hear they're setting individual up in a akin position, at the bottom of the car. Next to me were 2 NKWWDZists, with their weapons in their hand, informing that the desire to escape or communicate with anyone while crossing the streets of the city would end up being shot.

The car moved, drove up Janowska Street, then turned to the side street, crossed Grodecka Street to scope the freight station. With no eyes tied, I watched the lives of the streets of my city. At this time of day, I did not admit the tremendous growth of the population, walking or hanging on overloaded tram cars and buses. 1 could conclude, on the basis of these brief visual impressions, that the population was multiplied by an influx of refugees from the west and even more due to the influx with russian troops of east Mongolian faces. At the train station erstwhile I got out, I could turn my head, and I found that Dr. Lewicki, an 80-year-old old man, was the companion on the truck.

TRANSPORT

We were introduced, each of us to a train, composed of monotonous green colours, truncated prison cars, alleged "tables".

Every prisoner in our carriage is placed 1 in a compartment. The curtained windows, which were only facing the corridor, were almost entirely covered with curtains from a uniform canvas. Since I sat alone in the compartment, I climbed up to the seat, or to the second or 3rd bunk, and could watch traffic for hours in the corridor of the carriage, as well as watching the passing areas, watching the scenery and people passing. I have seen respective Ukrainian MPs from my compartment, including Dr. Celevicz15), UNDO vice president, Lewicki 16), the editor-in-chief of “Diel”, the same name; Poles councillor and board associate Bronisław Skalak 4), and respective others whose names I will leave out, due to the fact that they may inactive be within Bolshevik reach. The sad thing was to perceive to the complaints of Dr. Kosia Lewicki: – that he is innocent, that he was locked up by mistake as an expert in Ukrainian affairs, that he is simply a well-known lawyer in Lviv and that he demands ruthless release. These were the voices of a man broken by age and the experiences of the last weeks, to which he heard only rude, vulgar russian nicknames and mockery in response.

Prisoners like me, sitting in 1 compartment each, were either very crucial criminals, or met with their peculiar honor. I found this due to the fact that shortly a twelve citizens from Stanisławów, different nationalities and religions were introduced into the neighboring compartment, who in a twelve and more filled a compartment of the same size, in which the prisoners sat 1 by one. Later, in Siberia, I was driving in the same compartment where 23 prisoners were staying with me. The train that ran into the evening was dragged for 7 days to its destination. From the windows of my compartment, I watched the passing landscape. After crossing the Polish border, through Żmerenko, there was a visible difference in appearance. On the Polish side the villages and towns were built neatly, though sometimes poor. Next to the huts or houses there were gardens and orchards, pets and birds, neat, well-fed, frequently numerous. People neatly dressed though modestly, children cheerfully, well fed and well covered. On the russian side large uniform areas of fields, forming sowchosis, were conspicuous. The roads, apart from 1 main road, looked desperate, as if never repaired, as though roads from before the 18th century, full of bumps, mud and water. agrarian huts, frequently decaying, patched with different parts incompatible with basic building material. Here and there were houses supported by boxes, houses without windows and windows. People and children were torn off, frequently in rags replacing shoes, tied with strings. fewer pets, fewer birds, here and there pigs resembling the tallness of their legs – hunting dogs, greyhounds. In the cities, the people were dressed as if they had not known each other. They rushed to work or work, with a part of dark bread under their armpits.

You saw people – prisoners, taken from homes, or from work, spent at the station to follow the same way as we did. After moving to the place, we were put in quite a few cars called the “zornoj voron” which were transported to prison.

LAUGHTER AND BUILDINGS

I didn't know where I was, where I was, until later I found out that the prison where I was sitting is called Lubian and that we are in Moscow. Although I spent the next 4 months in another prison, alleged Butyrki, I gotta admit I don't know what Moscow looks like. The departure and arrival took place in dark cars, and being in prison besides did not let to observe the celebrated russian pier. After holding me for a fewer hours in a separate cell where food was served through a square carved in the door (as dogs were given to us), I went through incredible preparations to spend the next 18 months in prison. The talks were conducted only by whispering with lower prison organs, subordinate to the NKVD. Preliminary preparations were spread over a number of hours overnight. It was pulling generals, thorough revisions, washing of underwear, washing of hair and openings of all parts of the body. In addition, fingerprints were taken, photographs were taken in different positions, with numbers on the chest or shoulders. Cut off precisely all the strings and ribbons from the hat, shoe strings, all the buttons from the pants, vest and jacket. It was all done with the desire to humiliate the prisoner, break his will, defy during interrogation. Conversations and orders were given by whispering, flashing or whistling, an order to keep your hands bound on your back continuously, while at the same time your pants and underwear fall off the walking man, making the prisoner clumsy, condemning your thoughts to prevent ridicule in the event of a wardrobe falling. This does not let attention to another details, places, positions and the like.

The passage through the corridor or through the stairwell is connected with unusual auditory impressions. Here or there you hear a peculiar cmoking or imitation of a forest cuckoo, tapping with a key or another object with a staircase guard. This is to prevent an accidental encounter with another prisoners. If 2 prisoners pass, 1 face the wall. In transitions from 1 level to the other, there are tiny booths in which prisoners temporarily isolate guards. This strategy was carried out in the central prison as Lubianka, as well as in another prisons, to perfection. Although the movement in the NKVD investigation officers' offices is large and even though I was interrogated within 14 months 60 to 80 times, for all this time in 2 cases the guards failed to safe a gathering with an unknown prisoner. The isolation of prisoners is so crucial that even NKVD agents turn their face against the wall to avoid being identified or for fear of seeing the face of a prisoner.

I was thrown into a cell this morning. I found myself in an unexpected environment for me. There were 5 prisoners sitting at the table in their clothes, including 1 in military uniform. Seeing that there was no bed for me, no place to put a wrapper with a underwear, I approached the window in 2 thirds covered with a board, entirely covered with a grate and a net, putting my bundle on his windowsill. My cellmate warned me not to go to the window. I pulled out, went to the table, introduced myself to who I am. I said that as a Pole, I do not talk Russian, and with a alien I talk German and poorly French. It turned out that one, a erstwhile political editor of “Truth, a man of the “faithful Soviet” bachelor of Lenin’s order, a erstwhile russian government delegate to the civilian war in Spain, has been in the investigation for 11 months, but he speaks fluent Polish and German. (Michael Kacow).

When they found out who I was, they were amazed to hear about the war between Poland and Germany and the business of half of Poland by russian troops. Current affairs and developments in Europe were so interesting that I was incapable to know where I was and what my actions were to be towards investigative bodies. Everyone in this room, with a general whose name was not given to me, (he was arrested in the Far East), was a select, professional russian intelligence. any of them, aged, had the chance to compare the present with the time of the Tsarate. There was a Swede, Karlsten working as a specialist in the Kisłoodzk swimming pool. I could besides talk German with him, but there were inactive questions from their side, and answers and stories from mine. Unoriented in prison relations, I was called to the “investigator” after a fewer hours. "Investors" in the rank of captain, Vasil Burakiewicz, spoke Polish. Hence, his knowing with me was not difficult. He was bragging about having Prince Radziwiłl 18 at his hearing.) “The Investigators” asked me: “If you do not talk Russian, what language do you communicate with your fellow prisoners? In my best faith, I said it was so good that 2 of them spoke German. I did not mention the Polish language, previously mentioned by the editor. On the same day, I was transferred from this cell to cell 112, where the Prime Minister of outer Mongolia and “the locks after morie”, i.e. Deputy Commissioner for Maritime Affairs, Chaziajinov, was arrested as a close friend of the shot Jezhov Commissioner 19). Since the cognition of Russian was zero, I realized that it would be essential to learn the Russian language as shortly as possible, so during 1 of the interrogations I asked the “investigator” to supply me with an elementary. After receiving it, after remembering that the Russian alphabet is akin to the spelling known to me in Ukrainian, I learned reading in 1 week so that after a week I could read literary works in that language. I must mention here for the glory of the russian government that he has just introduced in prison the privilege of utilizing libraries and playing chess, checkers and dominoes. This was a real blessing in cases where you were sitting in a band of different people, among whom it was frequently better to stay silent, and even more so erstwhile you were sitting in a cell alone. This allowed me to read, to a large extent, the beauty of poesy and Russian prose. For I have received works of Russian classics, and excellent translations of Shakespeare, Molier, Rolland and many others, and of our Sienkiewicz.

Soon, I was able to communicate with the companions of distress. In this way, I learned that the Prime Minister of Mongolia Amur, a historian, is awaiting jail conviction due to alleged treason by agreeing with the Japanese. Apart from him, the president of the Republic of Mongolia and 9 ministers sat at the same time in prison.

My cell, where 3 beds stood, was on the top level of the prison. It was not quadrilateral, it was cut, and the window was cut in the roof. She had the advantage that the beds with the dreamers were covered with underwear, and a blanket was utilized to cover. In the rooms during the winter the heat was moderate, but sufficient, as the targets were supplied with radiators. The only sad thing was right above my bed, placed above the door a fewer hundred-century light bulb, irritating eyes day and night. You weren't allowed to keep your hands under a blanket while you were lying down. The cold of the night and the thin cotton shirt caused the cold, which reflexively forced you to cover your hands under a blanket. Through the beginning in the door, the guard, erstwhile he saw him sleeping with his hands hidden, struck the iron door, opened the next door, and warned against hiding limbs.

Before the strategy mastered the reflexes caused by the cold, before getting utilized to holding the limbs in the appropriate pose, it was a long time ago, which was the villain of the prisoner, as the peril of interrogations were. Food in this prison, compared to Lviv, was a delicacy. The bread was given 600 grams a day, cut into six equal parts. most likely not just for the convenience of the prisoner, but for the prevention of smuggling of communications signs or explosives. For breakfast half a litre of tea with 2 cubes (a fewer grams) of sugar. For dinner, soup and barley. For dinner, a plate of soup was served, and erstwhile a week a condition of beet with onions, cabbage and peas was served in place of evening grits, which was a delicacy, but did not prevent avitaminoza. shortly my teeth were broken, followed by a glaze like a thimble. I applied to a prison doctor, shouted at me, and announced that no teeth were treated in prison. – "The prison is not a resort, not a sanatorium". 1 time erstwhile I was reading at the table, I felt a feeling full of leg in my shoe. I took off my shoes, both legs were browned swollen, with a tint of blue, which spoke besides far advanced avitaminose. Also, I did not benefit from medical care. I had to make progress. erstwhile another prisoners were being fed tran, hidden behind them, I was putting a spoon on which they did not know that I had any nutritional value. shortly the swelling of the legs subsided.

Conducting for questioning was frequently abusing the heart and forces exhausted from the deficiency of a prisoner. The interrogation frequently took place in various ways. possibly to blur the anticipation of knowing about the prison agenda and the NKVD investigative officers' offices. An investigative prison rebuilt from the erstwhile Industrial and Commercial Chamber was connected to a immense ten-story building in which the NKWD offices were located. On occasion, after bringing the elevator to 1 of the 2 lower floors of the prison, the prisoner was moved through a narrow corridor, connecting to the main building, and then the pursuit began up the stairs on the 8, 9 or 10th floor. Always with your hands on your back, rushing your arms with a hug or a severe poke.

HEARINGS

In this way, they arrived in the investigation area in a state of fatigue or exhaustion due to shortness of breath accompanying the weakened heart muscle. During this state of exhaustion, the hail of various questions upon which immediate answers were requested immediately fell immediately. Interviews were usually held at night. When, at 10 p.m. or 11 pm, it was allowed to sleep, after undressing, erstwhile I was glad that I had passed the gathering with the “investigator” that day, the door opened, the defender came in, whispering about the first letters of the name. erstwhile he heard them, he approached the next prisoners, thus asking their name, then abruptly he turned to me, ordering me to assemble as shortly as possible for questioning.

Night interrogations were for a weakened prisoner for many reasons boring, exhausting, breaking his will to resist. The auditions were sometimes peaceful, sometimes connected with screaming, with threats. I missed the happy, demeaning human dignity of beating. In addition to the constant interrogations concerning the detailed details of my life, the household conditions, the residence of brothers and sisters, they peculiarly closely included my work as a doctor, a university professor, a associate to the Sejm, the president of the city and a Superior or a associate of professional and political organizations. Taking care of the kind of work required, besides, a description of the structure of each department with which I had the Stability. In addition, at the bottom of my interview, I was put in a cell without a window, with mediocre ventilation, where I had to prepare written reports on the subjects of members of the Government of the Republic of Poland with the president at the head, and on political issues, specified as Ukrainian issues in Poland and others. During the following hearings, they sought to spit and insult a typical of my people, accusing me that I did not mention critically to them, I do not want to confirm that Piłsudski20) was a German spy, and the president of the Republic, Prime Minister Składkowski 21), or Minister of the Kwiatkowski Treasury 22) were paid agents of capitalist powers, especially hated by the Bolsheviks of England. A number of another questions were raised that I could only know briefly, in general. erstwhile I did not know the details of peculiar areas of state life or economical life, I was accused of saying that I did not want to tell them that I was hiding everything from them, that everything I said was a lie, which deserves the punishment of wiping me off the face of the earth.

When I declared in December 1939 that I did not know the structure of the School hotel in detail, an irritated investigator led me to the warden named Piotrowicz, who was excellent in Polish language and knew very well about Polish relations. The warden warned me that if I lied to them, they would apply to me the means that would compression the fact out of me. During this time the officer who led my investigation left and then Piotrowicz pulled out a book which in miniature corresponded to the English edition: “Who is who”.

First, he asked me if my résumé was consistent with the content given, demanded an explanation of any vague phrases for him, and then demanded that I mark with a pencil the people I personally know about public life. From my contact with the prisoners, I was aware that the names of friends were frequently linked to their imprisonment. I utilized the method of emphasizing the names of people known to have died or lived in the territory of western, comparatively mediate Poland, or people of very old age, which I might have expected to be incapable to carry out. After I marked respective names, Piotrowicz took from me this book, exclaiming: – Ostrowski, I inform you, do not mislead the russian power, due to the fact that you will regret it.

As far as the charges against me are concerned, they afraid partially my past as a soldier who, to the degree of captain of the doctor, was active in fighting against the Red Army. It was for nothing to explain that it was my work as a Pole, as a citizen of the state, upon which the Red Army invaded. I was considered a citizen of the USSR from birth. Further allegations afraid my political work, they believed that as an MP I was a associate of the Government and I was liable for 2 members of the Government for all alleged abuses of communists, the people, the worker.

I was accused of being the head of the city, and I was allegedly the commandant of the State Police. They did not aid to explain the difference that existed between self-government and government, and that in a modern country administrative and political factors are differentiated, and different areas are dealt with by separate bodies established under the respective state laws. I was accused that in 1936, during the unrest caused by unemployment, erstwhile a provoked or accidental shooting of 1 of the strikers occurred, I, as the municipality's superior, was ordered to shoot an unarmed mob, and respective twelve workers were killed by my expected order. This, and on nothing-based charge, was not only about human sacrifices, but was peculiarly trying to charge me with the charge that in this way I paralyzed the communist revolution, which was to spill from Lviv across the country. The next charges were in the direction of bullying Ukrainian workers, whom I accepted to then release them in the heaviest time. It has not been helped by my translation that the collective body, which is the municipality with its businesses and departments of road, sewage, cleaning work in the removal of seasonal snowfalls, is not a place for private economy, it is not a individual farm. I explained on the basis of the Act on the function and tasks of the head of the municipality, which is under the control of the Municipal Board, the Municipal Council, the public opinion, the public and the Government, and that any activity, especially in means and expenditure, is based on an yearly budget adopted and corrected by the commission and plenary of the Municipal Council, and approved by the State's supervisory authorities, thus accepting workers or day workers could only be based on the amounts adopted in the budget. With the admission of seasonal day workers ends with the end of their request to occupy them, or erstwhile the amounts fixed in the budget are exhausted.

Another charge was that I was a Polish nationalist and that I was hunting the Lions. It did not aid to explain that Lviv had been Polish since the mediate Ages and that there was no request to hunt it, due to the fact that the percent of the population indicated undoubtedly who was in the majority of national. I besides tried to prove that I personally had an influence on the factors that were cooperating and adopting the budget and good relations with another nationalities, since there were crucial sums in each budget for religious, cultural, social, both Ukrainian and judaic purposes. I was held liable for my wife, who, according to the indictment, was to be an even more fierce Polish nationalist. I was accused that in the schools of Lviv, the children of proletarians did not receive due portions of milk and another foodstuffs. Meanwhile, the school-age kid care committee, whose honorary superior was my wife, besides included as members, representatives of Ukrainians and Jews, and representatives of parents of school children, regardless of their wealth or earnings. This committee, which carried out a collection, voluntary and based on the fixed amounts of the budget of the municipality of Lviv, was intended to feed the mediocre children of the Lviv proletariat. I was further accused of being the enemy of a worker. It did not aid to explain to me that I introduced mute! in all areas of urban work, in public utility facilities for day workers wage increases and clothing and household allowances. It besides did not aid to explain that we carried out during my office the expansion of labour settlements, which were a blessing to many urban workers, and that we expanded colonies for the unemployed. The charges, which were frequently the subject of all-night discussions, were repeated frequently with manic stubbornness, through many nights. These allegations were many, concerning the lives of my public, e.g. they were a stone of images of a folk state, that I received the parades of the Polish army in the company of the voivodes as a typical of the Government, and the Commander of the Corps. It was up to the charges that I had dinner or supper with the voivode or a associate of the Government, due to the fact that it was working against the interests of the peasant and worker. Many specified charges were cited and not worth quoting. An crucial charge unknown in the Western planet is the charge that I was connected with the life of the Polish and global bourgeoisie, and that so I was guilty according to the USSR Penal Code, for which the prison was threatened to be shot up.

A likewise absurd charge was the alleged "organization", i.e. my service in the Polish army, punished with russian Code by prison punishment for destruction, inclusive. For a long time, there was besides talk about the allegations of espionage due to my remaining at the city president's station erstwhile the city of Lviv entered and was seized by the Red Army. This allegation besides repeated erstwhile another group of investigators were investigating, I was shown a weekly or monthly magazine, in which correspondence with Lviv, as if I were the city president with the City Council, decided to surrender the Lviv to the German troops. It did not aid to explain that as the president of the city I was a typical of the local government origin and as specified neither I nor anyone from the municipal council could and had no right to give Lviv to anyone. I was accused of speaking untruth in the proceeding that the Polish people were the enemy of the Germans. “You can see from the russian paper that you are a fascist, that you are an enemy of the Polish people, that you wanted to betray your country.” It has not helped my translation that this correspondence is based on a lie, that it is biased and that in my conduct it may prove that I did not appear at the call of the commander of the German army to talk about the surrender of the city of Lviv.

For a fewer hours an investigator with the stubbornness of a maniac told me to admit that I was a fascist and that I betrayed my people to the German fascists. I resented akin slanderous innuendos, adding that correspondence was deliberate, malicious. I was given an explanation that the russian writing is simply a state document, written by a correspondent who is an authoritative of the russian Union.

When I was exhausted by a long dispute, I lost my temper erstwhile the investigators told me for the hundredth time that the russian paper was not lying, I said: - if you have specified documents, then sr...

The hail of russian folk culture fell on me from my place, in the form of violent insults with the announcement of punishing me with a punishment after receiving the approval of Commissioner L. B. (Beria)23. I learned in a stream of sentences spoken by the investigator that I am a prisoner of the commissioner who brought me from prison in Lviv. For the next fewer nights, I was inactive being interviewed. Fascism and devotion to Lviv Germany were no longer discussed. I thought the threat of the punishment had passed, that I would avoid the plague my fellow prisoners threatened me with. After a fewer days, before dinner, the guards called me to audition, but I'm expected to bring a towel. It was suspicious, I followed him, I was put in a separate cell with a stone floor, with a narrow bench. Around the cell in the hallway, the windows were open. Since it was a period of strong frosts reaching up to 40 degrees below zero, it is clear that immobility, cold, supply 3 times in a cup of water and 300 grams of bread, were a large torture for the devastated organism.

I have put forward a summary of the charges, without citing the dates on which they were made, would otherwise have spread my study inexplicably. However, I must return to the presentation of another characteristic phenomenon. Investigator Borakiewicz, who knew the Polish language, testified to me in December 1939 that he did not see the intent of continuing his investigation, that he considered the survey to be completed and that he would make a motion for his superior authority. I asked him what my destiny would be based on his interrogations. He gave me the answer: – You will work, not explaining whether it is meant to mean work on the outside, or in the labour camp. On December night I was summoned to a dignitary in the rank of general in the presence of my investigator and chief Peterovich. The general in front of my case file began to invent from me liars who misled russian power with their testimony. He besides accused me of not addressing many things that I request to know precisely as an MP for the Sejm and president of the city of Lviv. In particular, he was curious in the PPO case, which he says was not mentioned in the investigations, and which the organization, as a secret organization, allegedly had long-established targets to fight the russian Union. He accused me of my silence in various matters and of pretending that I did not know many things, it was conscious of me, and in the event of not explaining the details he asked in the investigation, I accuse me of criminal rota or life labour camps. He said then a crucial sentence: – Remember that the court in the russian Union is us (NKVD).

I do not know whether the allegations raised so far in the investigation of the subjects were directed against me or against investigators of officers who did not rise the issues in the investigation.

It's just that I've never been led to a erstwhile investigator again. On the another hand, I was questioned by branch III investigators. The investigation was conducted by a elder officer and his assistant to a lesser degree, and began with an indagogy on the Polish Military Organization, of which, apart from the general things commonly known, I could truly say nothing.

A re-examination of the generals began and reopening from the beginning of the full investigation, starting with a survey through all another points carried out in the erstwhile investigation. It was crucial that the investigation resumed by the demolition of protocols conducted by the erstwhile investigating officer. I had the impression that they were destroying their evidence due to the fact that they had copies stored, or that it was evidence of mistrust for the predecessor in the investigation. During this second period of investigations, which lasted for months, they tried to give me the request to save my own skin by confessing to guilt, by showing up, by giving fresh light condemning everything that was related to my past and the people who were at the head of the Polish state machine. I turned down akin suggestions in advance, explaining that I could not spit on people and things I was closely active with. Already at the end of December 1940, I found myself in a hall where there were six russian political prisoners and 1 of the Finnish army's lieutenants (taken prisoner with the full squad, with an officer at the head, following the completion of the war effort at the time of setting the border between Finland and Russia). The number of prisoners was frequently variable, expanding to 9 and 12 in the same cell, most likely depending on the density of the prison arrested. The prisoners met allowed, by listening to their conversations, to make a image of the lives of russian citizens and russian systems. Talking to people who had small to lose was frequently honest and allowed me to gather news about the strategy and life of the citizens of the USSR. At that time I met 3 Poles, in which 1 was intelligent with the diploma of the University of Lviv, the boy of a pharmacist who was a neophyte. This young man was arrested for betraying the religion of his ancestors and belonging to the organization of the Jews of the Catholic religion. The second, a medical student, in the rank of a corporal, whose father Georgian, after the Bolshevik coup stopped in Poland and to the degree of a lieutenant colonel doctor, made a September campaign. The father was arrested for betraying his people and the country of Georgia, and the boy born in Poland from the parent of Poland, incapable to talk Georgian, was arrested as liable for his father's guilt. I can't say much about the 3rd one, due to the fact that he was in the cell for a fewer days. In the fourteenth month, I found out that in a neighboring cell, he was taken with me, UNDO president Dr. Lewicki's Bone. Shortly after, I was transported to another prison called Butyrki, where I sat for 4 months. I spent 3 months in a cell where 2 or 1 prisoners stayed. There were respective interrogations in this prison, they were alternatively formal. During 1 of the hearings, I asked the investigator:

– If there's a lawyer in your area from Lviv, Dr. Lewicki's Bone, I'm asking you to get me back the glasses I might request at work. After 10 days, the investigator returned my glasses to me, ensuring that Dr. Lewicki's bone is leaving for Lviv. I expressed my joy for this, in the belief that it would be better for him to lay his bones among his own, on his own land. shortly I stated, on the basis of my cognition of grunting, coughing and old-fashioned treading, that Dr. Lewicki's Bone was in the same tower of Pugaczów, in which I was placed. Later, while driving by train to Siberia, I learned from a russian thief that he was sitting in Butyrki in the infirmary together with Dr. K. Lewicki, who had already had a conviction of 5 years of correction camp.

After 3 months in the Butyrkis, I was transferred, along with my bundle and my linen, from my cell to another building called "Spec Corps", in which I was placed alone in an extended cell with quite a few daylight, with a button for an electrical light signal, which entitles me to walk to the exodus at any time. It was a unusual cell. Apart from the only pleasance I utilized at any time, i.e. an outhouse, for a period of my own sitting, I was not subjected to a haircut of my beard, even though I had been cut off all 10 to fourteen days in Lubianka and in the Pugaczów Tower. I had no right to a regular stroll, which had previously taken place at different times of day and night, and lasted 15 to 20 minutes. I had no right to usage the library. So it was a unusual cell. As I later learned, it was a "death goal", from which 1 leaves alive to a labour camp or dies from a bullet to the back of the head passing into the afterlife.

Prior to coming to the alleged "death goal", the investigator called me, handed me a file of files, which were protocols of interrogating me, or written reports on topics previously asked me by the investigator. There were besides statements from another people, any of whom were traveling with me in the prison car, and 1 study of an unknown individual, Wasyl Kozicki, who, on the date of September 21, 1939, reported that I was firing seasonal Ukrainian workers. All these papers, consisting of the alleged "devil" or court case, were submitted as the alleged "finding the case" and had to be signed in person, signed by the same and approved my arrest, all against me, and accepted the allegations or statements of strangers. I knew from others that I might not have signed the deed. This would be tantamount to starting a fresh investigation, but that the arguments to convince me that the NKVD's allegations were correct would be linked to the physical abuse of me, which I preferred to avoid. That's why I signed the final investigation without hesitation, knowing that it would have no effect on the outcome, as it did not affect the arrest itself. Despite nineteen months since my arrest, even though I was inactive not called to the hearing, after 4 weeks of isolation in the alleged “spec Corps” 1 night I was commissioned to assemble, after which with things I was brought to the area where 300 or 400 prisoners were gathered. After undergoing a separate detailed search, destroying the solid parts including cigarettes and crushing them to dust, I got into a larger phase cell, where I met 2 Polish permanent service officers – an interview, who had been on death row for 3 to 4 months recently, waiting each day for a shooting. I met the Finns, an officer, and 2 officers from the squad, who was to conduct a fresh Finnish-Soviet border. I besides met eleven German communists, any of whom were members of the abroad committee of the communist authorities in Moscow. 1 of them was a associate of the Reichstag, the another was a associate of the Prussian Landstag. German communists made the impression of sworn Marxist ideologists. erstwhile asked if they knew how many people were in russian prisons or labour camps, they powerfully claimed that they had not known anything about these atrocities. After a fewer days in this cell, I was brought back to any building where I met quite a few prisoners. Segregated on the basis of the letter, they passed to another wing through the corridor where, as I said, an NKVD officer was sitting at the desk.

JUDGMENT AND CARA

When after the departure of many prisoners yet came the turn and on me, I had to stand before the above officer, who, after checking my name, my father's name and name, and age, declared to me that on the basis of “personally sabbatical” this is an eyewitness judgement by a squad of three, I was sentenced to 8 years of a reformatory labour camp as a “socially suffocating element”, that is, a socially dangerous individual. I took this message with a loud ironic laugh. The amazed NKWdzista asked me: “Why are you laughing? I said that I enjoyed this judgement without a trial, which could have ended with a conviction not for eight, but for 20 years. That's what I got my attention to: – You better not gag people. Those 8 years are adequate to rot in a labour camp and survive. It's an extra year.

Before entering the last, staged cell, items were taken from prisoners. I besides received braces, shirt sleeves, socks garter, but lost: gold watch, gold cufflinks, purse with Polish silver coins. I didn't protest or ask for gold items, it would be pointless, especially since I was never given confirmation of the items taken. The next day, we were taken out in closed carriages outside Moscow, where we were loaded into cattle carriages with 3 or 4 bunk bunk bunk bunk bunks on each side. I managed to put it on the top bunk, right by a cruel small window, so I had the ability to view the landscape, the ability to watch trains going 1 way or the other, and many things, and many people.

The train itself to Siberia lasted respective weeks and life with prisoners, mostly criminals, would require a separate discussion, as an issue of hostility to political prisoners. Criminal prisoners had peculiar privileges everywhere, and in the camps, later I found out, they were managers of individual departments of work including “educational including”. In short, the criminal element, as an component acting against the individual, alternatively than the collectiveity of the state, is privileged in the russian penal code. He has separate privileges in prisons and labour camps. After 5 years of prison camp, they were convicted of murder. For breaking and entering for 1 to 3 years, It was an component that constantly emphasized: – I. sack (me thief) not fascist. This attitude of the penal code to the criminal planet caused the planet to be perfectly organized and to be a 3rd force alongside the NKVD army, which, thanks to terror, held the society of cities and villages in its clutches.

The attitude of criminals was inherently hostile to political prisoners and resulted in frequently depriving, like stealing shoes, sweatshirts, trousers, not to mention coats or furs. Sometimes there were fights, which frequently ended bloodyly, depending on each other's strength and time to watch the massacre of NKVD organs.

After respective stops in phase prisons, short-lived, I was put in prison and a tiny group was sent to a prison camp in Krasnojarsk. There I met my fellow countrymen who had been doing various works for a long time, and the camp was immense and nested thousands of prisoners. At the time of the disinfection and bath, upon arrival at the camp, any individual in a doctor's coat asked who the wellness individual was. I volunteered. He said to come to the infirmary in the evening. After my area was appointed, a swarm of bootlegs and a coat were stolen overnight. My shoes are gone. My coat was returned after a fewer hours. News of the theft in a unusual way rapidly got past the gates of the quarantine camp, as 1 of the countrymen delivered me another shoes the next day. I was very grateful to him and happy due to the fact that walking barefoot on stones in the camp, and after a needle in the woods would be unbearable. However, even though I was assigned to an outpatient work, since the dawn brought me with the remainder to the alleged “provider” (checking), after which I worked respective kilometres of the march back and distant to spend a day working in the woods, or robots in the field, to go for a fewer hours to the outpatient work after returning and consuming a modest drinker and pupak. After 3 weeks, the telegraph order “GULAGU” (the main board of the correctional labour camps) came to the camp's command, the order to send me to the “ READER STROJU”. With respective another prisoners, I was joined to the railway transport with which, after being separated from each destination station, after passing a number of phase prisons, I stood in the capital of Burjat-Mongolia in Ulan Ude. From there, after crossing a railway respective 100 kilometers, after being in the central distribution camp, I was assigned to the camp as a doctor. The camp where I stood at the end or mid-June was a recently launched camp. From this camp prisoners were going for road robots, and mostly for forest robots, but the branches of this camp located elsewhere had excavations of hard coal, elsewhere tungsten and molybdenum. In this camp, as a doctor, I ran the infirmary and infirmary in the evening after the prisoners returned from work. The work was a blessing to me, allowing me to forget the experiences, and it was not time to think about the past. The relation between the prisoners was very correct, for the position of the camp doctor frequently decides to keep the sick or exhausted work. most likely thanks to these correct relations, I owe that erstwhile after the news of the Majski-Sikorski deal came, and just after the beginning of the German-Russian War, they addressed me with a proposal to join a secret organization that would take power after the coming revolution in the Soviets. I thanked you for your trust, but I powerfully refused to participate, considering that the russian government's disputes were among russian citizens. I exclude this as inspiration or provocation by the NKVD, for in this case I would undoubtedly be held liable for concealing the game from the camp authorities.

Twice in writing I asked the authorities of the camp to apply to me an global Polish-Soviet agreement on the release by the alleged amnesty of Polish citizens. After the first letter I received a answer from the chief of the labour camp; “You are the prisoner of Moscow and only she can fire you. If you are not fired, you will die here.”

I received no answer to the second letter, so I gave up counting on liberation. Finally, in November 1941, about 11 o'clock or 12 o'clock in the night, I was instructed to assemble and after about 20 kilometre of open lore riding, happily only a tree of the fire-fired diesel motorcycle, I travelled about 200 kilometres with a break a fewer hours at any NKVD facility, having become as it turned out in the central camp “ READY STROY”. It turned out that it was a disposable facility for all of Buriacka Mongolia, and possibly beyond, with the task of extracting the hands of prisoners of all kinds of natural materials, building factories and mill plants, and increasing land for the economical needs of extended camps.

After sending me to the headquarters, I was sent to a peculiar “wife”, a alleged criminal behind wires, which housed dangerous criminals, carrying out crimes of execution or rape, theft of public property, or rebellion. Among those people with nothing to lose, they placed me. Since I had experience and knew how to proceed, I presented the alleged old barrack with food gifts and any tobacco. That's how I found myself in his care, he made a place for me, and it protected me from direct attacks from others. My problem was that in the morning after the first night of sleep in the barracks, a thick beam fell out of the advanced bunk “accidentally” which stopped not on my head, but near. In the morning, I was forced to go to forest or road robots. I protested against this order, citing the order of the “GULAGU” , appointing me as a camp doctor, and requested to be escorted to the doctor due to my sick health. I met a Korean doctor who worked with me for a fewer days in the infirmary in Krasnojarsk, and he stopped me to aid him in the infirmary, but I went back to prison camp overnight, Only a fewer days later, the deputy camp chief came to me, and he explained to me that he knew nothing about me being a doctor, that I would never be sent to a penal “zone” that frequently threatens to lose my life. That they would immediately put me in a barracks for method workers who sleep on haystacks, have blankets, better food, etc. Indeed, this cognition has already been found among method workers. It was a immense barrack, lit with electrical light, having a floor, well-heated, with beds established on 2 sides of the barrack, with tiny gaps between the beds, and placed me close a “stage”. He turned out to be my friends on the march stage. The burglar, or the fatter thief of the camp's repeater, who knew in advance where he was going and what a bitch held his post in the camp. On this example, let alone others from hearing, I found that there is simply a coherent, strong bond between the criminal, criminal and NKVD world. Both these seemingly opposing worlds complement each other, keeping millions of people in the USSR in penalties, discipline and fear.

AMNESTIA

From a Korean who had messages from a free chief doctor in the camp, I learned that I was brought to the camp for release, based on amnesty. But I'm expected to pretend I don't know anything. In a fewer days I was told to shave, cut, offered to replace the worn-out clothes of the camp (fuffs, shoes, etc.) with fresh clothes, started to show kindness to the camp commander. I showed up in his office, but I only found his deputy. On the negative answer to the question whether I know why I came to them, I received a announcement from "SUB SIGILLO" that I would be released. The warden of the camp should not know that I have been informed due to the fact that present the warden is busy on business, I should come by the next day, but that I gotta study to a camp photographer who is expected to supply me with 3 photograph IDs.

The next day, I came to the warden, who looked and acted like a Pole. He only spoke Russian to me. He told me that thanks to the agreement between the 2 states, courtesy of Marshal Stalin, on the basis of his amnesty, I am now a full citizen of the USSR and am released from the camp today. I am to go at the marked hr after receiving the appropriate documents, after exchanging everything for the fresh ones I need, to pay for the 500 rubles road, and the next day I will go to the place of the halt of the aircraft from where they will deliver me to the railway station on the Vladivostok-Moskwa line. I don't know what face I made erstwhile I was appointed a citizen of the USSR erstwhile I felt like a Pole. It was all the more unusual for me that the Mojski-Sikorski Agreement was to be concluded between 2 countries, and it seemed to me that erstwhile I was released by the alleged amnesty, I became a citizen of the Polish state. Without saying a word to this proposal, I replied to the second one, that I have the right to choose to go to the russian army as a staff doctor with a halt in capital cities only or to the forming Polish army, I chose to go to the Polish Army, based on a tiny cognition of Russian.

He asked me if I read fluent Russian. I said I read comparatively well, but only printed. At this point, the warden ripped out a part of paper that he instructed me to read and store so as not to lose it. I understood that the writing was meant to not burden my memory. However, from the way the warden behaves and the mystery of his movements, I assumed that he was directed by a secret towards the sitting next to his deputy's another desk. For this purpose, I have long read a card, the content of which in the Polish sense was as follows: “When you arrive in Kuybyshev, call the chief commandant of the NKW the telephone number... and call for a call from Comrade Borisov.” erstwhile I read the card besides long, the impatient warden asked me why I was stalling. I replied that I read everything but the name of this companion. tense warden after any hesitation, looking at me, looking at his deputy, yet threw out words with anger: – Borisov. I had any pleasance in proceeding the name of my companion in the appropriate way and the malicious satisfaction that the name was besides known by the deputy chief of the camp “ READER OF THE STROY” as a thank-you for earlier informing me of his intention to release from captivity. With a card in my pocket, with a paper of "accession" (identities) and a clue to the presence in Kujbyshev, I returned to the camp to get to the airport the next day, where transport aircraft were landing delivering food for the vast camps of the vast " READER OF THE STROY". A plane ride was expected to be a diversion for me after the methods of closed travel in large areas of the USSR. I was just laughing at the fact that in a wooden booth on an incidental snow-filled airport, I was offered insurance from an accident of respective 1000 rubles for the price of 1 or 2 rubles.

When I boarded inside an airplane where there was no bench, only the metallic structure of the aircraft, I clinched behind the bays, sitting closest to the compartment where 2 pilots were sitting, fearing that insurance could open the level or the doors of the aircraft and that life insurance could be carried out. After about 2 hours of flight, we landed at any airport, from which I was guided to a tiny ignition. I bought a ticket to Kuybyshev for a 100 rubles and waited patiently with another free citizens for the train. I got on a long-distance train I had to get off in Ufa.

POLISH WAR

At the station, in an unknown city, I saw a soldier with a Polish band on his sleeve. I was happy due to the fact that late on the train, erstwhile I waited to get off, due to the fact that I was assured that the train was going consecutive to Kuybyshev, a happy militiaman scolded me for delaying and took a travel ticket. At the rally station in Ufa, headed by a captain or major of the Polish army, in a tiny ground-floor pudding, there was a difference in heat compared to external temperature. There were comparatively tight doors and windows that did not let wind to be swept. I went there for a fewer days, paying a visit to prof. of the University of Lviv Parnas 24), who and his wife were taken to Ufa. From here I went with a group of volunteers to the Polish army, to Kujbyshev. Already in Ufa I knew that Kujbyshev was the seat of the highest russian authorities and embassies of the Polish Government. At the embassy, I met prof. Stanislaw Kot 25), who was immediately given a card with a command order to call the NKVD Commandant and stated that I had no intention of communicating with Comrade Borisov in the presence in the Polish Republic.

Prisons, surviving in a labour camp, moral experiences must have affected my appearance, as Ambassador Kot ordered me to stay in Kuybysheva for a longer time to gain strength. It was in Kuybyshev, in a state akin to mine, many of my countrymen. Among another things, the father of the Jesuit, prof. Fr. So I took advantage of the ambassador's proposal and received a referral to the show hotel where I got an eighth or tenth bed in the room. I was amazed that I was appointed a bed where the sheets hadn't been changed in a while, and under the bed was someone's open suitcase. I asked my roommates whose stuff. I found out it was Alter 26) or Erlich 27), both arrested from this area a fewer days ago. I understood that the interstate agreement, the amnesty, Stalin, and the "multiple constitution" of the russian Union do not hinder the re-closure or even the shooting of citizens of another state. This fact ordered me to be vigilant in the proceedings and I would have given much if I could be in the ranks of the forming Polish army immediately. According to Ambassador Kot, my appearance required a long remainder at the hotel. However, after a fewer days of stay, I was approached by a lady, dressed in chic fashion, sitting at a desk on each level of the hotel, asking on what basis I sit in Kujbyshev. I explained that I had a certificate of release from the camp and that on the basis of the referral of Ambassador Kot, I had a seat at the hotel. I was informed that I must have a Polish or russian passport issued, otherwise I must leave Kujbyshev. Sensitized by Alter and Erlich's tragedy, I went back to the embassy, where I presented a request from the NKVD and requested immediate dispatch to the forming army or passport.

I got my passport immediately, glued the image , which the photographer of the central camp in “THE READER OF THE STROY” will give me, and I presented with large pride to the woman from the NKVD. I was amazed to see the rush of the addition, but she mentioned that the Polish passport was not enough, “because NKVD's approval to stay in Kujbyshev is inactive required. She added that we would go to the photographer, bring 4 copies, then go to the NKWD office, giving an address. I rushed to the photographer again, then for 3 or 4 days I bullied him for the edition of the images, and erstwhile I yet received them, I appeared in the marked office. NKWToday as major, he gave me a yellow form to fill out. After I filled it out, I gave him the paper. Major, after reading it, he addressed me with a saying: "What are you fools doing here? You say you request a passport abroad, and in the form you compose that you are going to the Polish army. I denied that I wanted to go anywhere abroad, I applied to the Polish army and I intend to go there soon, only by order of Ambassador Kot, due to the fact that I am exhausted, I was detained at the hotel, and the authoritative there commissioned me to effort for a passport and then for the right of residence in Kujbyshev, and for that intent I came here. “What do you mean?” asked the major. Any of you dare to ask for the right to reside where the highest russian authorities reside? By 24 hours you will leave the hotel and Kujbyshev, otherwise you will gotta deal with the NKVD... and before you go to the place of the forming Polish army, you will immediately go to the NKVD office, the street ... where you will be given the right to leave for Buzułuk, where your command stands. I realize the Major's threat. But I didn't have the strength to go to another NKVD office. Scattered, I slipped through the streets of a snowy, ice-cold city, going straight to the embassy asking for a paper to go to the Polish army. Ambassador Kot was outraged by the NKVD's position towards me as a Polish citizen. I explained that trying any action is unnecessary, due to the fact that whether here or in the army, I will be able to rest, only in an atmosphere of peace and trust, I will be able to gain strength and rest. I don't want to, and I can't live under the impression of the threat of closure and the fear of the origin from which I was freed by Providence. With obstacles I reached Buzułuk and on 19 December 1941 I was admitted to the corps of doctors of the Polish army and the territory of the USSR.

In the Polish environment, in the recently formed Polish army - now I have just encountered back, in circumstantial conditions – civilization and “politics” – theoretical, technological and ideal.

I was among the witnesses of political changes, both in form and content, but I was so happy and full of religion that I did not think of any further and unexpected individual problems, as well as my people. I've come with a tiny bag of necessity for a negligible state of possession. I was hoping for development, selection and triumph of the right cause.

The pursuit of freedom, equality and social justice has been established within me.

I was hoping that we would not succumb to organization passions or intolerance and that the eventual would be clear with the goals achieved. Meanwhile, we're inactive on our way...

Documents, sources, quotations:

"Zesszyty Lwowski", London 1973

http://www.lwow.home.pl/Biuletyn/ostrowski.html