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At that point General Anders was organizing his army [19] and I decided to join it. We were sent to Kuybyshev [today Russia]. I remember that several hundred of us slept on the station forecourt floor there, and the chaplain, Bishop Gawlina, brought us food.
A few weeks later smaller groups were organized and I and a group of about ten people went to Alma Ata, the capital of Kazakhstan, to the recruiting commission. The commission comprised two colonels, a Pole and a Russian. The Pole, when he heard that I had been stripped of my civil rights for ten years before 1939, quickly calculated the years and said, ‘This citizen was supposed to be inside until 1940, and it’s from then that his sentence of suspension of civil rights commences. That means that until 1950 this citizen has no rights in our country.’ A repeat of what had happened in 1939. The other colonel, a Russian, didn’t understand a word of Polish, but he was sure of one thing: I was not to be trusted.
A few weeks later smaller groups were organized and I and a group of about ten people went to Alma Ata, the capital of Kazakhstan, to the recruiting commission. The commission comprised two colonels, a Pole and a Russian. The Pole, when he heard that I had been stripped of my civil rights for ten years before 1939, quickly calculated the years and said, ‘This citizen was supposed to be inside until 1940, and it’s from then that his sentence of suspension of civil rights commences. That means that until 1950 this citizen has no rights in our country.’ A repeat of what had happened in 1939. The other colonel, a Russian, didn’t understand a word of Polish, but he was sure of one thing: I was not to be trusted.
Period
Interview
Boleslaw Janowski
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