6, 1816, the capital of the province was moved to Kielce. In 1830, a modern road was completed from Warsaw to Kraków; furthermore, small enterprises were opened in Miechów. During the January Uprising (Feb. 17, 1863), Polish rebels tried to seize the town, but failed. In retribution, Russian soldiers set Miechów on fire, after which its population was reduced by 50%. In 1885 Miechów received a rail connection with Dąbrowa Górnicza and Kielce, due to a station at a nearby village of Charsznica. On August 8, 1914, soldiers of the First Cadre Company entered Miechów, on their way to Kielce. The town remained in Austrian hands until November 1918. In 1934, the government of the Second Polish Republic completed the rail line from Kraków to Tunel, which provided direct connection between Kraków and Warsaw. As a result, Miechów finally received its own train station. World War II First Wehrmacht units entered Miechów on September 6, 1939. During World War II, the town belonged to Kraków District of the General Government. Miechów was an important center of the Home Army. From the beginning of its occupation, Germans terrorized the Jewish population, robbing them of their possessions, kidnapping them for labor gangs, and one night in April 1940, breaking into homes, attacking men and raping women, and then forcing the Jews to burn holy books in a bonfire and to sing and dance around it. In March 1941, Jews were forced into a ghetto which also included Jews from some surrounding villages. They could take only what they could carry into their new residences. In August 1942, 600 sick and elderly Jews were taken to Slomniki where they were held without food and water for several days and then some were shot on the spot and dumped into open pits. Some were sent to labor camps. Others were sent to Belzec where they were murdered immediately. In September 1942, German police units surrounded the ghetto and forced Jews to a field near the train station. Jews from other nearby towns were also taken there. From the thousands assembled, 800 or so men were sent to labor camps. The rest were sent to Belzec in trains coated with lime. These actions were typical of the fate of Jews in towns and villages throughout Poland during the Holocaust. Only a few Miechów Jews survived of the 2500 who lived there at the beginning of