The area was annexed directly to Germany, and administratively became part of the Third Reich's Reichsgau Wartheland, within the district/county ("kreis") of Kutno. In December 1939 expulsions began in accordance with Nazi Germany's racial and ethnic policies, which aimed to make the town population purely German. People were forced to leave their houses early in the morning with only an hour's notice and could take only of baggage and a small amount of money. Expulsion was very often carried out with violence. People were transported by trucks or wagons and then in sealed trains. The trip was up to eight days long, in terrible conditions. Poles from Kutno were also among the victims of a massacre carried out by the German police in February 1940 near Gostynin (see "Nazi crimes against the Polish nation"). On 14 April 1940, during the "AB-Aktion", most of the Polish teachers from the Kutno district were arrested. Few survived having had left their houses earlier or having been arrested. At least 173 Poles from Kutno and the county either were murdered by the Russians in the Katyn massacre in April–May 1940 or died in Soviet camps.