© M H Sloboda 1942

THE WRITTEN DEBRIEFING TESTIMONY OF MIECZYSLAW HERMAN

SLOBODA TO THE BRITISH ROYAL AIR FORCE, FEBRUARY 1942

Mieczyslaw Herman Sloboda (1917-1981) was an officer in the Polish Air Force who arrived
in Britain in early1942 after having been taken prisoner by the Russians, and interred in a
Siberian Labour from September 1940 – September 1941. When Russia joined the allies in
the war against Germany, he was released along with other prisoners, and spent some
months in Russia before he was able to travel to England on a British ship of the Arctic
Convoy, bringing supplies to Archangelsk to aid the Russian war effort, and taking back
Poles such as him to the UK, where members of the Polish Armed Forces were promised
sanctuary by the British Government.

On arrival in the UK in early 1942 he undertook a debriefing with the RAF on being admitted
to the Polish Forces under British Command as a Technical Officer. It covered the time from
when he joined the Polish Air Force to when he left Russia for the UK, and was a response
to a series of set questions which the RAF presumably asked all military arrivals in the UK.

This was a handwritten document in Polish, which was released to his widow Mary Sloboda
on request some years after his death in 1981. It is accompanied by a typed translation into
English by an unknown translator done at some point in the 1980s/1990s.

The transcription here was jointly undertaken in January 2024 by his son John Sloboda and
his daughter Clare McConkey in order that an electronic version might be preserved and
circulated to anyone who might find it of interest.

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Kirkham. Date 4th Feb 1942

1. Surname… Sloboda
2. First names …. Mieczyslaw Herman
3. Date and place of birth…. 18th June 1917 Wadowice
4. Religion…. Roman-Catholic Nationality… Polish Citizenship…Polish
5. Marital status…. Bachelor
6. Parent’s names…. Jan, Agata
7. Education…. Secondary
8. Foreign Languages…. Russian, German
9. Type of military service…. Regular
10. Rank … Pilot Officer army speculation …. Technical Officer
11. Recent attachment in Poland ….. Flying School in Ulez
12. Valid documents …. Solder’s Book No 138 issued by the Command of
Polish Armed Forces Camp in the USSR, in Kotlubianka
© M H Sloboda 1942

1/ I joined the SPP (Officer Cadet infantry School)* on 1st September 1935.
On 1 January 1936. I was transferred, at my own request, to the Technical
Division of SPL (Officer Cadet Flying School)** in Bygoszcz. I was
commissioned in Warsaw on 27th of March 1939, I was then attached to the
Higher Flying School in Grudziadz. At the beginning of April 1939, the School
was moved to Ulez. I held the position of Technical Officer of the School Flight
and - temporarily - junior officer of the technical survey. On 10 September
1939 the school was ordered to withdraw in the direction of Rawa Ruska. I
was appointed deputy commander of the troop train. The train was bombed
and destroyed at embarkation point Leopoldow. I submitted a report on this to
my immediate superior, the commander of the Deblin base. I resumed retreat
by car in the company of two offices from Deblin, I do not recall their names.
The road to Lvov was cut off by the Germans, so we headed towards Luck.
On our way the car broke down and we got separated from the rest.

2/ The news of the Soviet invasion reached me near Luck. As I was unaware
of the situation and did not know in what capacity the Soviet army had come
to Poland, I went to Luck The town had already been occupied by the
Bolsheviks while Soviet soldiers paid not the slightest attention to us, the Jews
and Ukrainians were hostile. The Garrison Commander Colonel Hammerlin
directed me to the artillery barracks where a few thousand infantry, armoured
troops and airmen were gathered. Two days later we were ordered to
surrender our arms. The rank and file were disbanded. Officers were confined
to barracks. After receiving confidential information that we would be
transported to Russia, I escaped. I followed the road to Lvov in civilian clothes
with the intention of crossing the Romanian frontier. I was detained by the
border guard but released after three days. Subsequently, I attempted to cross
the Hungarian Frontier and was arrested by militiamen in Jaremcze. A pass
issued by the Hungarian Consulate was found on me, and this is why I was
imprisoned in Nadworna.

3/ On 1st November I was transferred to the prison in Stanislavovo, on 20

December 1939 to Kherson prison, on 1st April 1940 to Nicolaievo prison,
where I was eventually sentenced to 5 years in a labour camp. On 5th July I
was transported to the Kharkov prison. Next via Moscow, Arkhanglesk and
the White Sea I got to Pechora NKVD labour camp, situated on the Usa river,
© M H Sloboda 1942

150 kilometers from the town of Vorkuta. I stayed there from 12th September
1940 to 12 September 1941.

4/ I was first interrogated in Stanislavovo by a second Lieutenant in the NKVD.

He asked about my occupation and that of my close relatives, my military
service, family wealth, reasons for trying to get to Hungary, my attitude
towards the USSR. My answers were as follows. I study at the Polytechnic.
My father is a retired non-commissioned officer. I was never in the army. My
family was not wealthy. I tried to cross the frontier in order to get to France
and join General Sikorski‘s army. My attitude towards the USSR is unfriendly
because it helped Germany to crush Poland. A similar interrogation took
place in Nicolaievo. I was questioned by an interrogating inspector who had
the rank of Major. Additional questions were: who had helped me in my
attempts to escape to Hungary, and had I belonged to any underground
organisations. I answered that I did it on my own, and that I belonged to no
underground organisations whatsoever.

5/ no

6/ a/ Mr Kohman, retired first class Warrant Officer from the light cavalry battle
group (who had been in Pilsudski’s legions, a converted Jew) who was with
me in Nicolaievo prison said “I am neither a Paul, nor a Catholic”. He called
some of our prison inmates “Polish redcaps”. He often asked to have
confidential talks with NKVD offices. This usually resulted in our being
summoned for interrogation where we were accused of being officers or
having worked for the Second Division***.
b / In Kherson’ prison Dr Okular from Zywiec and General Staff Colonel
(whose name I do not know but who used the pseudonym Professor
Andreasik) had an argument which developed into a fight. This incident was
caused by Dr Okular’s behaviour, behaviour unworthy of a Pole.
For example, he tried to persuade us to write a humble petition to the Soviet
administration asking for our lot to be made more bearable and for our living
conditions to be improved. Afterwards, Doctor Okular insulted Professor
Andreasik, called him a German spy, and threatened he would do his best to
ensure that Andreasik rots in a Bolshevik jail.

Notes

* SPP (Officer Cadet Infantry School) - Szkola Podchorazych Piechoty

© M H Sloboda 1942

* * SPL (Officer Cadet Flying School) - Szkola Podchorazych Lotnictwa

* * * Second Division - Polish Intelligence Service

© M H Sloboda 1942

Sloboda

Technical Pilot Officer

1 / I ran short of money on my way from the corrective labour camp to Buzuluk
where the Polish army was being formed. I had to stop travelling in order to
earn money to enable me to continue my journey. All this happened in the
region of Kazan. There are no specific working hours for Kolkhoz (collective
farms) workers. They work all day and are required to fulfil the quota
(piecework system). Daily pay is around 10 roubles. There are nine working
days, the 10th is a holiday, but this is not always observed. Sometimes
workers have not a single day off for a couple of months. Workers’ shared
dwellings are basic but relatively clean. Food is bad. The daily allowance is
800 g of bread and two meals; lunch consisting of soup and groats or potatoes
with a bit of meat and dinner consisting of soup and a glass of milk. Food
costs around 4 roubles daily. There is no tobacco, vodka, clothes, paper,
haberdashery, or sugar. After I had joined the Polish army, I rented a room
from 15th of November to 1st December 1941, in Chkalovskaia region
(Oblast’). Homes are usually kept very clean. Food can be obtained from two
sources: cooperatives, public canteens and the free market. Official prices are
low, but food is rationed: 600 g of bread for working people, 400 g for those
not working. Official price for 1 kg of bread is one rouble. Fats and sugar are
not available. Meat, butter, milk, potatoes can only be bought on the free
market at the very high price; 1 kilogram of lamb cost 25 roubles, 1 kg of
butter - 100 roubles, 1 kg of potatoes - one rouble, 1 litre of milk - 4 roubles. A
skilled factory worker who earns 170 roubles per month cannot afford
shopping at the free market. On delivery days, as there is not enough food,
everyone tries to reach the shop first - otherwise there will be not enough for
him. This is how notorious queues are formed. Queues are the scourge of
Soviet citizens, even though they have got used to them over the years. Long
queues can be seen everywhere, sometimes starting at 3 am. This is a
paradox I cannot understand: official propaganda uses every pretext to appeal
for more efficient, better organised work while millions of working days are
wasted daily for queueing alone. There is total lack of clothes and shoes.
There is a limited amount of vodka. However, living conditions in this area are
bearable, while they are quite hopeless in the Arkhangelsk area. Before
leaving Russia I lived in a workmen’s quarter near Arkhangelsk. People work
eight hours daily in a sawmill. They live in huge plain tasteless wooden
barracks. Homes are cramped and crawling with bugs, yet people tend to
© M H Sloboda 1942

keep clean. The pretty decent public bath is everybody’s blessing. Medical
care is insufficient because of lack of medicines. A worker’s ration consists of
600 grams of bread and soup twice daily (and even so this is only a soup in
name). Entertainment; every second day, a propagandist film in the club and,
alternatively, a dancing party. Meetings are often held in order to discuss work
results and to improve efficiency. Apart from that workers are trained in civil air
defence.
2 / In the Arkhangelsk area workers’ weekdays consist of the following
activities: eight hours factory work, later in the evening - a propagandist
meeting, cinema or dancing party. A day off is much the same.
3 / The objective of the civil authorities is to see that citizens fulfil their duties
towards the country, i.e. that they work, work and work. Also, that they fulfil
not only 100% but 150% or 200% or even more of the quota. Arriving late for
work is fined and missing one day of work is punished with many years
imprisonment. The NKVD controls all spheres of life, it is all powerful. The
following incident is typical of the authorities’ attitude towards the people.
During our stay in Arkhangelsk some of us did not always eat in the canteen
we were allocated to but gave their food to the local people. This meant a lot
to them. Soviet authorities forbade this, saying that they did not want the
civilians to know what the soldiers ate; they were afraid that this might cause
discontent. People complain about the overall poverty and the methods used
by the NKVD. All regulations are accepted without protest, the reasons being
the fear of the NKVD and inertia so typical of the Russian temperament
(Russian: ‘there is nothing you can do’).
4 / Most administrative posts are held by party members, mainly Jews and
Russians. (While some years ago one was liable to five years imprisonment
for using the word ‘Jew’, now there is a strong anti-Semitic tendency even
among officials).

Administration of justice is, in fact administration of injustice. Trials are a farce.

Denunciation is enough to sentence the accused for ‘disloyalty’ to 5, 8 or 10
years imprisonment, even though there is no proof. The court no longer
proves the accused person’s guilt: it is the accused who has to prove his
innocence. This is rather a difficult task for someone who has been accused of
spying, hatred for the Soviet government or being dissatisfied with it. A son is
imprisoned because his father was a kulak. Crimes such as theft, murder and
embezzlement are punished leniently: two or three years in an ITL. An
unprecedented fact took place after the Soviet-Finnish war: thousands of
released prisoners of war were sentenced to 8 or 10 years imprisonment in
the Soviet Union for the very fact that they had been taken prisoner by the
Finns. Yet another example: in prison I met a deaf-mute man who had been
© M H Sloboda 1942

sentenced for ‘propaganda hostile to the Soviet state’ as well as twelve year
old boys who boasted about already having spent two years in jail. The
number of prisoners is estimated at 30 million (sic!) by prisoners themselves,
and the NKVD officials in formal conversations give the number as 10 million. I
believe that 20 million would not be an exaggeration. Conditions in the prisons
and camps where I was held were appalling. Cells were overcrowded so that
sometimes half of the prisoners were seated while the other half slept and
then vice versa. Lice in incredible numbers. Interrogation was conducted by
inhuman methods (not only used on us, but also on the Soviet citizens):
knocking teeth out with butt-ends of guns, keeping prisoners standing until
their legs are swollen, keeping them without sleep and keeping them in
penalty cells. In labour camps, the life of a prisoner had no worth, and
particularly the life of political prisoners; they are not killed only because in
camps they will ‘kick the bucket’ anyway, but before the die they can work a
little for the country. If, during a march from one camp to another, a prisoner
becomes weak and delays the march, he is killed without compunction. Prison
and camp authorities steal prisoners’ personal belongings which are taken for
safe-keeping and never returned. Disease, hunger and hard labour are
decimating people. When I was in the camp, I stayed two months in the so-
called ‘hospital’. It was a huge windowless shed where some five hundred
patients were lying on bare bunk beds made of logs. There were patients with
tuberculosis, scurvy, malaria, dysentery, frost-bitten limbs etc... They were all
gathered together in one place, which created ideal conditions for the
exchange of bacteria (spread of infection). Appalling filth and stench, not to
mention lice. The mortality rate was 10 – 15 people per day. One can imagine
the conditions in the labour camp itself if the dream of every prisoner was to
get into this ‘hospital’; and in order to be let into this paradise many of them
would deliberately allow their legs to get frost-bite or drink foul water so that
they would get dysentery. Outside the camp, medical care for the population is
equivalent to our Health Service (Kasa Chorych). But there has been a
shortage of certain medicines since the beginning of the war, I came across
very sick people who were ill in bed at home without any medical care at all.

5 / The supply of goods to towns and villages is badly organised like

everything else in Russia. To give an example: in some areas there is a
surplus of tobacco (Tashkent), in others there is no tobacco at all. In the
south, tons of watermelons rot; in the north the lack of fruit and vegetables
causes scurvy.

In one town shops are full of barley coffee, spoons and slippers but a needle
cannot be bought at any price. In another town, 100 kilometres distinct, there
© M H Sloboda 1942

are needles in abundance but people have to drink just plain water and there
is such a shortage of spoons that people steal them from the canteens. Then,
if you eat in a canteen you have to pay a deposit for the cutlery, several times
higher than the price of your meal. There is a shortage of foodstuffs – crops
have not been harvested from vast areas. There are not any shoes or clothes
at all. Tobacco and vodka are in limited supply. There are new restaurants in
Arkhangelsk, Moscow, Kuibyshev, to which only foreigners, senior NKVD
officials and high ranking officers have access. Everything is available there.
Prices are high – cost of living – 50 roubles per day as a minimum.

6 / ………………………………………………..

7 / Transport is atrocious. Trains are overcrowded. They are twelve or more

hours late – that is normal. Waiting rooms are overcrowded with people who
have not been able to get on a train sometimes for a whole week. Trams in
towns are overcrowded. I did not come across any private cars.

8 / After 1940 secondary and higher education has to be paid for. There are
grants not available to everyone. The standard of education is low. For
example, a Soviet doctor gives patients only ready made medicines. A doctor
who is able to write his own prescriptions is called a ‘Professor’.

9 / ………………………………………………….

10 / The older generation is religious – especially in the countryside. The

government and the military fight against religion. Young religious people are
exceptions. Morals have a particular meaning; there is much freedom in erotic
behaviour. Stealing is widespread among the poverty stricken youth in towns;
I have not come across it in the countryside.

11 / I heard the following views: a Sovkhoz official who assessed quota said:
‘We are waiting for the Germans to come as for salvation’. A conscripted
soldier: ‘At the first opportunity I will let myself be taken prisoner. What am I to
fight for and what am I to defend?’ On our way to Arkhangelsk we were visited
in our carriage by regular artillery Captain and a 2nd Lt (from the reserve), a
grammar school teacher by profession. It turned out that the Captain was
religious and that he was dissatisfied with the present form of government. He
said that he came to see us to get to know what we think – ‘because here, you
know…’ (and he made a dismissive gesture). Then he asked about life in
Poland and on parting with us he said: ‘I am, greatly impressed by your spirit. I
know that you will fight well. Do fight for Poland, but for Poland as it used to
be, without any changes’ (he obviously meant changes towards the extreme
© M H Sloboda 1942

left). At the beginning everybody took for granted that Germany would win.
Now this certainty is shaken (I am talking about civilians in the countryside).
The Soviet propaganda ridicules the German authorities and announces that
the German army is dispirited; it describes German cruelty in the occupied
territories and devastating economic policies in the invaded countries. It also
describes the heroism of the Red Army and appeals to the people to work
beyond the front line and help the Army (e.g. by collecting warm clothes). It is
not Communism, but the present form of government that is unpopular with
the people, Lenin is worshipped. While he was still alive there was a time
everyone lived well (the time of the NEP – New Economic Policy). Any change
of government can only come about through a ‘palace revolution’, if one can
use this expression. The people are much too terrorised and much too inert
for any massive revolution to be possible. As a result of the Polish-Soviet
Pact, the Soviet authorities are benevolent towards the Poles, although things
do not always work, possibly because of bad organisation. People, especially
the poor in the villages, are very friendly. One can notice that the authorities
are not satisfied with the slow and meagre amount of help coming from the
Great Britain and the United States. General Sikorski has become very
popular and is held in high regard.

12 / The appearance of soldiers is good. The food they get is poor. It

happened several times during our journey to Arkhangelsk that Soviet soldiers
picked up scraps of bread which remained on tables in canteens. Soviet
troops fight still because of rigid discipline and pressure from the NKVD.

13 / I did not notice any hostile propaganda. It is almost impossible. After the
war began private radio sets were confiscated. Now outlets are centrally tuned
to receive Soviet stations only.

14 / ……………………………………

15 / ……………………………………

16 / ……………………………………

17 / ……………………………………

18 / ……………………………………

19 / Of the people I remember: Mieczyslaw Debicki, an engineer from Warsaw

has died (formerly employed in the Government Engineering Works) and Mr
Romuald Skobejko from Warsaw was killed when he tried to escape from a
labour camp.
© M H Sloboda 1942

20 / …………………………………

21 / …………………………………

22 / …………………………………

I enclose two books and a photograph of five people soon after their release
from labour camp, taken in the town of Kotlas on 28th September 1941.

Sloboda

Pilot Officer

I gave information about people acting to the detriment of the Polish state in
questionnaire No 1.