In September 1939, during the German invasion of Poland, which started World War II, German troops massacred a group of Polish boy scouts from Ogrodzieniec in Tucznawa, and also carried out executions of Poles in Ogrodzieniec (see "Nazi crimes against the Polish nation"). The town was afterwards occupied by Germany and annexed directly into the Third Reich until 1945. German occupiers planned to change its name into "Bonerburg".