The occupation of Dębica by Nazi Germany started on September 8, 1939. The "Einsatzgruppe I" entered the town in September 1939 to commit various crimes against Poles. The Germans created a ghetto for the town's Jewish population, eventually killing most of them either on the spot or in the Auschwitz concentration camp. In the forested hills south of the town, strong Polish underground forces operated, with numerous units of the Home Army ("AK"). It was too dangerous for AK officers to stay in Dębica, thus the headquarters of a local underground district (known as "Deser") were located at a nearby village of Gumniska, located in the hilly area south of the town. Resistance fighters were very active here, often attacking the main Kraków-Lwów rail line, used by German troops. In early 1944, units of the local Armia Krajowa district unsuccessfully tried to blow up a train with Hans Frank, which was passing through the village station at Czarna Tarnowska, some west of Dębica. As a reprisal, on February 2, 1944, the Germans murdered 50 Poles by the rail track in Dębica (also see Otto Schimek).