of local Poles who were captured and either executed or sent to concentration camps for rescuing and aiding Jews. Poles who saved Jews in other places in the region were also temporarily imprisoned in the local castle or sentenced to death by the local German court. After the war, an additional 600 Rzeszów Jews returned from the Soviet Union. Almost all of them subsequently left Rzeszów and Poland. People's Republic and present times After rumors of the murder of a Christian girl in the city surfaced, on June 1, 1945, the Polish police arrested all of Rzeszów's remaining Jews and led them through the city amidst an angry crowd, while at the same time looting the homes of the arrested Jews. As a result, more than 200 Jews fled Rzeszów, so that a restoration of Jewish life in the city after 1945 failed to materialize. On 7 July 1945, Rzeszów became capital of the newly created Rzeszów Voivodeship, which consisted of western counties of prewar Lwów Voivodeship, and several counties of prewar Kraków Voivodeship. This decision had a major impact on the city, as it quickly grew. New offices of the regional government were built, and in 1951, several neighbouring villages were included within the city limits of Rzeszów, and the area of the city grew to 39 km2. Before the Polish People's Republic deported ethnic Ukrainians to the western "Recovered Territories" in Operation Vistula, the city was a major base of support for the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists during the Polish anti-communist resistance. In 1971 and 1977, further villages were included within the city limits. In early 1981, Rzeszów was a main center of peasant's protests, who occupied local offices for fifty days, which resulted in the signing of the Rzeszów – Ustrzyki Agreement, and the creation of Rural Solidarity. On 1 January 1999, the city became the capital of Podkarpackie Voivodeship. Its population grew to 170,000, and area to 91,43 km2. In 2004, Rzeszów hosted the Central European Olympiad in Informatics (CEOI). In 2017–2021, Rzeszów's city limits were greatly expanded by including the villages of Bzianka, Miłocin and Pogwizdów Nowy. The area of Rzeszów increased to over 120 square kilometres and more than 188,000 inhabitants. In 2022 following the February Russian invasion of Ukraine, Rzeszów became a "main artery" and hub for resupply of military material being transshipped to Ukraine from a number of countries of the Western