In September 1939 the town was invaded by Nazi Germany. Early on, the "SS-Totenkopf-Standarte Brandenburg" entered the town to commit various atrocities against the Polish population. The German occupation, both in Chodzież and the whole country, was a period of terror directed against Polish citizens. In one notable example, on 7 November 1939, 44 Polish men, including the town's mayor Tadeusz Koppe and the gmina's wójt Marian Weyhan, were killed on the Morzewskie Hills near the village of Morzewo. Germans carried out mass arrests of Poles as part of the "Intelligenzaktion", who were then imprisoned in the local prison. Local Poles were also subjected to expulsions and deportations to forced labour in Germany, and a transit camp for Poles expelled from the region was located in the town. Hundreds of Poles were expelled already in December 1939. Houses of expelled Poles were handed over to German colonists as part of the "Lebensraum" policy, and as a result, Germans formed 56% of the town's populace in 1943. Under Nazi German occupation, the town under the Germanized name "Kolmar" was made part of Reichsgau Wartheland, and the seat of the county ("kreis") of Kolmar. The "Rynek" (Market Square) was renamed the "Adolf Hitler Square".