Testimonies – Soviet Forced Labour

Describing how the Russian teacher could not get the children to sing on Good Friday. The children knew instinctively that this was not done.

Maria describes the way they had to live when they arrived at the kolkhoz.

Maria tells how her mother took to fortune-telling in exchange for food during the winter months, thereby allowing them to survive.

Describing how she helped her 3 sisters in the cotton fields, in order to earn more soup and bread.

Jozefa explains how she only learned in recent years about how her father died – he was one of the deportees that was on the ship that was sunk by …

Jozefa describes conditions in the Gulag and the family members who died there.

My arrest, prison in Minsk, sentence to 5 years hard labour, deported to Sevzheldorlag, a penal labour Gulag camp, release on amnesty and journey to join and fight in WW2-Italy.

Tadeusz describes the work they completed at the camp in Siberia, and the how they made their way out after ‘amnesty’.

Halina describes how she would pick berries and then sell them in the nearest town, in order to earn money to buy some food for the family.

Halina describes the German settlement that was located near their village, where she would go to exchange some of their belongings for food.

Halina describes the work she did, as a 12 year old, at the collective farm in Uzbekistan.

Dioniza describes the work that the adults and the children did at the camp.