Poland was partitioned again at the onset of the Second World War . The Nazi German forces entered Kraków on September 6 , 1939 . The residents of the city were saved from German attack by the courageous Mayor Stanisław Klimecki who went to meet the invading Wehrmacht troops . He approached them with the call to stop shooting because the city was defenseless : " Feuer einstellen ! " and offered himself as a hostage . He was killed by the Gestapo three years later in the Niepołomice Forest . Kraków became the capital of the General Government , a colonial authority under the leadership of Hans Frank . The occupation took a heavy toll , particularly on the city 's cultural heritage . First , during the infamous '' Sonderaktion Krakau '' 184 professors and academics of the Jagiellonian University ( including Rector Tadeusz Lehr-Spławiński among others ) were arrested at the Collegium Novum during a meeting ordered by the Gestapo chief '' SS-Obersturmbannführer '' Bruno Müller . President of Kraków , Klimecki was apprehended at his home the same evening . After two weeks , they were sent to Sachsenhausen concentration camp on the other side of Berlin , and in March 1940 further to Dachau . Those who survived were released only after international protest involving the Vatican
Sonderaktion Krakau
Sonderaktion Krakau
History of Kraków