were asked about their professional expertise, education, what work they had done back home and where, and also about their party-political affiliation, to which great attention was paid. The questioner was Russian. He spoke very bad Polish but had an excellent understanding of Polish party matters. We were told to come back in a few days. On 26 October, a large meeting of those who had been listed took place in the bureau courtyard. It was 5 p.m. We were told to be back in the courtyard at 8 o’clock that same evening, ready to depart. Names were called out. Those people got papers, which meant they were going. Around 8 in the evening the courtyard filled up. Everyone, women and children, most of all young people, had luggage. There were whole fam-ilies of refugees and exiles. We walked to the railway station in rows. I was travelling with two comrades. We sang songs. The number of the carriage to travel in was marked on our papers. We travelled in goods carriages. The train left around 10 p.m. We didn’t know where we were going. Some said we were going to Vitebsk, but we didn’t know for sure. We were promised that at the former Polish–Russian border we would be moved to passenger carriages. We passed through Baranowicze. We were given black bread. There were up to 1,500 people on board. The train moved quite slowly. It took us two days to reach Negoreloye277 (the former Polish–Russian border). We stood there for more than a day. We were very well received: with bread, butter, sausage, and as much tea with sugar as you wanted. There were some friction and minor scuffles between refugee families from provincial shtetls. People were upset by their not entirely tactful and decent behaviour, particularly the young people from Warsaw who had so much respect [17] for the Soviet Union and behaved very correctly. The young people […] by the ignorant behaviourof the provincial refugees.
[…] we were called to the cinema, located near the railway station. A special screening was put on for the refugees. The cinema was chock-full of people, including Red Army soldiers and local residents. Speeches were given. Thespeakers were a Pole from Warsaw, a Russian from Negoreloye, and a member of the military, a politruk. We slept in the carriages.
The next morning, some of the passengers wanted to shop in the localstore, but it was closed. We were told that we would get everything we needed
