With the 1939 Invasion of Poland, which started World War II, the town was occupied by Germany on 7 September 1939 and directly incorporated into the Nazi German Reichsgau Wartheland until the end of the war in 1945. The Polish population was subjected to various crimes, including arrests, expulsions and deportations to Nazi concentration camps. The Germans established and operated the Stalag XXI C/H prisoner-of-war camp for Polish, French, British, Italian, American and Norwegian POWs in the present-day district of Komorowo, a Nazi prison, and a forced labour camp for Jews. Notable Polish sculptor and painter Marcin Rożek, who lived and worked in Wolsztyn, was arrested by the Germans and then imprisoned in the Fort VII in Poznań and the Auschwitz concentration camp, where he died in 1944.