During World War II, the town was occupied by Germany from 1939 to 1945. In late 1939, local Polish priest Stanisław Malinowski was deported to the Soldau concentration camp and then murdered there. Local Polish teachers and a school principal were among Polish teachers and principals murdered in the Mauthausen concentration camp, and local disabled people were murdered by the Germans in a massacre carried out in February 1940 in the nearby village of Ościsłowo. Local Poles were also subjected to expulsions.