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Come the dawn we were taken to the station in Rozyszcze, where cattle wagons awaited us. Inside, along both walls, were two rows of wooden bunks, one on top of the other; in the centre was an iron stove for heating; and in one corner there was a hole with a seat - the toilet - which we screened off with a blanket. The long journey in those wagons proved to be a nightmare. From time to time we were given some hot soup. The children slept on the top bunks and I recall one night we were wakened by our younger sister Ira calling out that she couldn't lift up her head. What had happened was that her thick, long hair, had frozen to the wagon's metal walls. After five weeks' journey we were ordered to disembark at Kotlas near Archangel where sledges again awaited us. Now for a further two days we were transported along the frozen River Vychegda in the incredible cold, indeed so cold, that some infants froze to death.
Journey into Exile
JÓZEF PAJDOWSKI
Osada Karczówka, District Luck