Kamil Weber
Archival and Historical Review, Vol. X, 2023, pp. 209-224
https://doi.org/10.4467/2391-890XPAH.23.010.19249Countless Polish soldiers died in Soviet camps. Main causes of death included mass executions, terrible living conditions, and the brutality of the Soviet security service officers. Many soldiers owed their survival to the sudden political shift resulting from the attack of the Third Reich on the Soviet Union. Before that happened, though, they had to struggle with difficult circumstances and endure forced labor in camps in the Far North. The account of second lieutenant Tadeusz Michalak sheds light on the harsh reality of prisoners’ lives. He described his own military career — participation in the September campaign, detention camps in Lithuania, the horror of Soviet imprisonment, and joining the so-called Anders’s Army.