Dirt, stench and poverty or… soft sofas and comfortable bathrooms. The conditions of hospitality in Jaruzelski's prisons could be diametrically different. And ... completely random.
On the night of the introduction of martial law - from December 12 to 13, 1981 - mass "political" detentions began. About 5,000 people inconvenient for the authorities were interned in a few days, and 10,000 during the entire martial law. Most of them were oppositionists associated with "Solidarity" and other groups, although for propaganda purposes General Wojciech Jaruzelski also ordered to detain dozens of prominent members from previous communist teams (e.g. Edward Gierek and Piotr Jaroszewicz).
General Wojciech Jaruzelski in a television studio is preparing to read a speech informing about the introduction of martial law. In the background, a caricature by Maciej Miezian (source:public domain).
Oppositionists landed in about fifty detention centers. Some of those arrested during martial law and after it, were sent to prisons with bizarrely high sentences (e.g. in 1982, Ewa Kubasiewicz was sentenced to 10 years imprisonment for distributing a leaflet calling for resistance to martial law; she regained freedom under the 1983 amnesty ). Their lives behind bars were a mixture of nightmares, surprises and comforting moments.
Heaven and Hell
In 2012, there was information that during his 11-month internment in Arłamów, Lech Wałęsa drank 289 bottles of vodka, 158 wine, 238 champagne and 1115 beer (not counting less popular spirits) . Historians from the Institute of National Remembrance remarked that the supervisors of Solidarity and the visitors "helped" the head of "Solidarity" in the consumption of this sea of alcohol, but the disgust and suspicions remained. Is the life of Jaruzelski's political prisoners one great idyll ?! Not. And their memories prove it.
- "Hey, how many bottles for Wałęsa, so that he would not be long behind bars?" - "E, maybe a thousand." Meeting of the Military Council of National Salvation chaired by General Wojciech Jaruzelski. Warsaw, December 14, 1981 (source:public domain).
The prison in Bydgoszcz-Fordon was definitely not a sanatorium. “The Fordon chieftain did not have any particularly bad political intentions. However, her deputy was an ordinary sadist "- recalls the oppositionist Joanna Gwiazda in Anna Herbich's book" Girls from Solidarity ".
We read:“I found out how he treated Ela Wieczorek, a worker from the battery factory. She was petite, nervous, damaged by the chemical fumes in the factory. She had two children. She was in prison with Ania Walentynowicz, who told me that this bastard would come to her cell and beat her with a bunch of keys, and even tried to burn her skin with a cigarette ”.
But it was completely different in the center for internees in Gołdap. It was a modern, comfortable holiday center of the Radio Committee - that is, the head of the Polish People's Republic radio and television. As the inmates recalled, expected to be sent to "white bears" and ended up in a clean two-story building with balconies . Inside, unlocked rooms, soft sofas, separate bathrooms, relatively friendly guards. Some of the opposition activists were furious:somewhere in Poland people are pacified, many are rotting in prisons, and they are on holiday!
Fordon and Gołdap, prison and internment center, were like hell and heaven among the "places" intended for political prisoners of General Jaruzelski. However, as Herbich writes, there were even SSBes in Gołdap. One of the protagonists of "Girls from Solidarity", a security officer blackmailed that either she would become an informer or her son would go to prison with the worst degenerates, accused of terrorism. It turns out that where the opposition did not hit, they had to be able to cope. Both with serious and mundane matters.
Daily schedule
“At first everything was bad, it was cold, there were no walks, no smokers - described the first days in prison in Białołęka, the interned Witold Chodakiewicz. The recalcitrant inmates dreamed not to pass their sentences idly:they wanted open cells, opportunities for self-education.
And in fact, prof. Bronisław Geremek sometimes organized lectures on the excluded in medieval Europe, and Maciej Zembaty sang Leonard Cohen's songs to the guitar in the bathhouse, which served as a common room. However, the authorities had a different plan in mind.
"Their suggestions were as follows:wake up at 7 am, breakfast from 7.30 am to 8am and you can visit the doctor (at least that is what they declared, later they did not comply), at 7pm supper, at 9pm turn off the lights" - describes Chodakiewicz.
Trapped "political" people had to get used not only to the order of the day, but also to the customs prevailing behind bars. To provocation by the prison authorities, trying to confuse political prisoners with the surrounding criminal (for example by suggesting that "Solidarity" is reporting).
For the division into prison and non-elite, to threaten the weaker, to the jail of prison. Or to comments accompanying even physiological activities. Because what can it mean when a person is sitting on the toilet and others shout "Stir, mix or it will burn"?
Cell in a political prison in Berlin. Polish goals looked much worse (author:Denis Apel, license:CC BY-SA 3.0).
“This means running the toilet flushing water the entire time you use the toilet. This helps to reduce the unpleasant smells spreading through the cell "- recalled Jerzy Geresz, arrested in March 1982 in the" Polityczne "collection.
“After lowering the lid, I carefully wash my hands under the tap. This is one of the cardinal duties of the escort:the hand that touched the penis must be washed immediately. ”
"Just that you never think of putting your little one in the washbasin," warned in turn a friend from the cell. Because then the sink would be "overwhelmed" and no cleric could use it anymore! Oh, a prison life that the oppositionists had no idea about in the wild.
And what about the women imprisoned in Grudziądz, in a prison for recidivists? There was no sewage system at all. There were huge 20-liter cauldrons in the cells, and the prisoners had to empty them every day ...
A painful waiting
The food in internment centers and prisons was usually terrible. A typical breakfast - as described by Zbigniew Gluza, arrested in March 1985 - was grain coffee and a four-centimeter-thick slice of bread - crumble with margarine. After lunch and dinner, inmates could develop gastric ulcers. They waited with hope for packages in which such inaccessible delicacies as sausage and chocolate could come.
There was plenty of time to read books in between meals. Unless, of course, you already got them, because in prison nothing happened immediately. “When I came, I didn't even have a chance to write a letter. For the first time, I got everything from the tutor, then wait "- said the imprisoned oppositionist Barbara Fabiańska.
You had to wait for literally everything:the library, tutor, governor, tea, hot water. Requests written everywhere. A request for a needle, a request for scissors, a request for a doctor, a request for something from a magazine ... And waiting again - she recalled. The unproductive hours were overwhelming.
The problem with the doctors was especially painful. “In Mokotów, if you sign up for a doctor's appointment on a certain day, you will be seen after the agreed time. In Białołęka, to get to the dentist you have to heal for three nights, ”recalled Włodzimierz Kowalski in“ Polityczne ”. And there were also more serious problems.
Photo Laski Diffusion / East News Uwolnic political! - occasional stamp made by interned activists of "Solidarnosci" in the detention center in Strzebielinek, 1982. Graphics from the archives of the website www.strzebielinek.pl.
"I had a compulsory visit to the gynecologist. We all suffered from trichomes there. In Darłówek there was unbelievable dirt in the sanitary facilities, the bedding was poorly cleaned. We had one basin for the entire floor. No wonder an epidemic soon broke out. We got some antibiotic ”- Joanna Gwiazda recalled in
Sanitary conditions were not everywhere as in Gołdap, where inmates had bathrooms with showers. Sometimes you only had to wash yourself well with a cup of warm water, and three such cups could be considered a full bath ...
What if someone did not like the prison schedule and the cleanup of the prison? Tadeusz Wypych, imprisoned in Mokotów, did not leave the yard on time. Penalty:"thermos". After many years, Wypych remembers him in these words:
This is a cell built in a cell, with soundproofing inside. No screams come out of there. A large, thick plexiglass pane covers the outer window; behind the same plexiglass in the niche above the door there is a light and a TV camera.
Besides, there was nothing in the cell. The floor, four walls and me naked. I was there for 24 hours. It was cold, it was impossible to sleep. I was freezing - so gymnastics for a quarter of an hour, then walking in circles, if possible on the surface three meters by three ... The time was incredibly long, this day seemed to be a week .
Entertainment in the reserve
The prison in Olszynka Grochowska, known as the "Kamchatka", was also associated with severe conditions. When Ewa Heynar-Skowrońska, arrested in 1986, found herself there, she unexpectedly realized that there were some "luxuries" to be had there as well. Here, once a week, a TV set was brought to the cells of a dozen or so prisoners. The first time he hit an oppositionist ... "Friday with Pankracy".
A "comfortable" bunk in the Stasi prison in Berlin. In Poland, internees often slept in similar "luxuries (author:Vincent de Groot, license:CC BY-SA 3.0).
Television, or rather television broadcasts from the memorable World Cup in 1982, also turned out to be important for the activists of "Solidarity" imprisoned in Warsaw's Białołęka district. About their reflections (whether to support the representation sent by a state under martial law or not?) And observations (looking for "Solidarity" banners in the stands during the report) a documentary film "Mundial. A game for everything. ”
Anyway, in Białołęka, the opposition was killing time in a really ingenious way. “We produced countless amounts of devotional solidarity. There were stamps made of linoleum, decorative envelopes with the inscription Polska walczy ”- recalled the interned Piotr Ikonowicz. - " It was such a rarity, wanted outside the walls. Even the keyboards often asked me to give them for friends. This is what our cheeky patriots excelled in. We had such nationalists of the Melak brothers. They cut these Virgin Marys and crowned eagles beautifully. It was some kind of occupation:linoleum engraving, then imprinting. Souvenirs from our reserve. ”
Bibliography:
- Anna Herbich, Girls from Solidarity , Horizon 2016 sign
- Jacek Indelak, Girls from one cell , "Newspaper. Journal of the Polish Diaspora in Canada ”, 27 December 2006.
- Mundial. A game for everything , dir. Michał Bielawski, Unlimited Film Operations 2012.
- Political , Karta Center 2010.
- The world behind bars. Everyday life, conditions for goals , PolskieRadio.pl, December 12, 2011.