Following the joint German-Soviet invasion of Poland, which started World War II in September 1939, the town was occupied by Germany. In October 1939, the Germans executed nine Poles, accused of possession of weapons. On December 23, 1939, the German police carried out a massacre of 48 Poles in the town. Tadeusz Illukiewicz, starost of the Lubartów County, was imprisoned in the Lublin Castle in October 1939, and then murdered in Lublin in December 1939 in a massacre of 10 Poles perpetrated as part of the "Intelligenzaktion". In June 1940, during the "AB-Aktion", the Germans carried out mass arrests of around 500 Poles, who were then imprisoned in Lublin, and many of whom were soon deported to the Sachsenhausen and Auschwitz concentration camps. In 1941, the Jews were confined to a ghetto, and in 1942 they were deported to extermination camps and the ghetto was liquidated. The town was liberated by the Polish Home Army in July 1944.