When Germany invaded Poland on September 1, 1939, Krakow fell within a week. The city became the capital of the General Government — the Nazi administration of occupied Poland — under Hans Frank, who took up residence in Wawel Castle itself.
The occupation transformed Krakow. The Jagiellonian University's professors were arrested en masse in the Sonderaktion Krakau (November 1939) and sent to concentration camps. Polish cultural institutions were closed, street signs changed to German, and the systematic plunder of Polish art began.
For Krakow's Jewish population (approximately 68,000 in 1939), the occupation was catastrophic. In March 1941, the Nazis established a ghetto in Podgorze, cramming 15,000 people into a few square blocks. The ghetto was liquidated in March 1943 — residents were either murdered on the spot, sent to the Plaszow camp (commanded by Amon Goeth), or transported to Auschwitz-Birkenau.
Oskar Schindler's factory in Zablocie became an unlikely refuge — his famous list saved over 1,000 Jewish workers. The Righteous Among the Nations recognized other Krakovians: Tadeusz Pankiewicz (the Eagle Pharmacy), and numerous families who hid Jewish neighbors at the risk of death.
The Polish resistance (Armia Krajowa) operated extensively in Krakow, sabotaging German operations and maintaining underground cultural and educational life. Krakow was liberated by the Soviet Red Army on January 18, 1945 — remarkably, with its historic center almost entirely intact.
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