The World Wars
The city again suffered damage during World War I. In 1918 it again became part of independent Poland. In the 1930s, due to the massive public works project known as Central Industrial Area, Sandomierz began to grow quickly. It was projected to become capital of the Sandomierz Voivodeship, and local authorities planned fast development of the city. The Greater Sandomierz was to turn in the 1940s into a city of 120 000.
In September 1939, following the German invasion of Poland, the city was occupied by Germany and made part of the General Government. The Jewish population of the city, consisting of about 2,500 people, perished during the Holocaust, mostly in the death camps of Bełżec and Treblinka. The city was captured and occupied by the Soviet army in August, 1944.
No major industrial development took place in Sandomierz during the communist era, thus preserving its look of a charming, small city full of historical monuments among unspoiled landscape.
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