occupied by Germany, and afterwards, in 1918, Poland regained independence and the town was reintegrated with Polish territory. World War II During the invasion of Poland, which started World War II, in September 1939, Gąbin was raided by Germany. Eugenia Sikorska-Dąbrowska, sister of Polish wartime leader Władysław Sikorski, was fatally shot by the Germans, while she was saving children. German troops entered the town on September 17, 1939, and the German occupation began. The Polish population was subjected to various atrocities. Germans immediately carried out mass arrests of local Polish intelligentsia, activists and officials, who were deported to the Mauthausen concentration camp and murdered there. Germans also carried out massacres of Poles in Gąbin itself, notable examples include an execution of 20 Polish refugees from Pomerania on September 19–21, 1939, an execution of six farmers from nearby villages of Czermno and Strzemeszno in the Gąbin forest in November 1939, a public execution of 10 Poles near the local church on June 15, 1941. Expulsions of Poles and deportations of mostly young Poles to forced labour to Germany were carried out throughout the war. The Germans also burned down the local synagogue, dismantled the Gothic Revival church, which was erected shortly before the war, and destroyed the Polish Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. Despite such circumstances, the Polish underground resistance movement was active in the town. Many Poles from Gąbin were also among the victims of the Katyń massacre. History of the Jewish community From its earliest days, Gąbin was a town of craftsmen of various trades, and its population contained a sizeable number of Jews. Competition and conflict between Jewish and the non-Jewish tradesmen is noted as early as 1576 when Sigismund III issued a decree prohibiting Jews from buying leather from the local peasants, allowing them to purchase leather only at the town market after completion of the morning mass at the town’s Catholic church. In 1582, a decree from king Stephen Báthory further prevented Jews from buying hides and tallow in the town or its vicinity. During subsequent years, Jews were harassed at times, and forced to live in designated parts of the town, called the “quarter.” Jews generally represented approximately half the population of the town. For example, in 1808, the town’s population consisted of 577 Jews out of a total population of 1,183. The census of 1827 counted 1,472 Jews out of a total population of