Son of Katyn victom, deported to Kazakhstan 13th April 1940 aged 17 years
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Facts
1-2 million Poles were deported to the USSR for forced labour. The work assignments of the deportees varied from felling timber in the frozen Siberian forests to working underground in deep gold mines, building canals…
1-2 million Poles were deported to the USSR for forced labour.
The work assignments of the deportees varied from felling timber in the frozen Siberian forests to working underground in deep gold mines, building canals in frontier territory, laying railroads, working in cotton fields and factories etc.
“The family system of enemies” were forcibly re-settled in kolhozes, collective farms and villages in Kazakhstan. Exiles in the arctic north had to fell trees and labour in temperatures that reached -60 degrees.
The 200,000 or more of Polish soldiers were sent to gulags. Of the more than 10,000 Polish POWs sent to the gold-mine of Kolyma inside the arctic circle, only a handful survived.
Exiles worked from early dawn to late at night, 7 days a week. The Soviets told them “Those who do not work, do not eat”. Food was often below subsistence levels. Thousands died of malnutrition or starvation.
Living conditions were primitive. People were afflicted by diseases such as typhus, cholera, diphtheria, small pox. There were no medicines.
Daily life and travel was restricted by the NKVD. There were constant interrogations.