Wadowice : Poland
After the World War I and the dissolution of the monarchy, Wadowice became part of the newly-reborn Poland. The seat of a powiat remained in the town and in 1919 the inhabitants of the area formed the 12th Infantry Regiment that took part in the Polish-Bolshevik War of 1919-1920. In 1920 Karol Wojty?a was born in Wadowice (later known as the bishop of Krakw and Pope John Paul II).
fter the Polish Defence War of 1939, Germany occupied the area and on October 26 Wadowice was annexed to the Third Reich. On December 29 of the same year the town was renamed to Frauenstadt. Initially the Polish intelligentsia was targeted by harsh German racial and cultural policies and hundreds of people from the area, most notably priests, teachers and artists, were murdered in mass executions. Hundreds more were expulsed and resettled to the General Government in order to make place for German settlers. Between 1941 and 1943 a ghetto was established in the city. Almost entire local Jewish population (more than 2.000) was exterminated, mostly in the nearby Auschwitz concentration camp. In addition, the Germans set up a POW camp for Allied soldiers and a penal camp that served as a transfer camp for various German concentration camps. Despite German terror, the Home Army units were active in the area, most notably in the town itself and in the Beskid mountains to the south of it.
