Editing Chojnice (section)

===World War II and Nazi German occupation (1939–1945)===
[[File:Pomnik przy ulicy 31 Stycznia - panoramio.jpg|thumb|left|Monument to Polish teachers murdered by the Germans]]
During the Nazi German [[invasion of Poland]] [[Wehrmacht]] troops occupied Chojnice on September 1, 1939, in the morning at 4:45 o'clock. This invasion gave rise to the [[Battle of Chojnice (1939)|Battle of Chojnice]].

From the beginning of the [[Occupation of Poland (1939–1945)|German occupation]], German militiamen attacked their Jewish and Polish neighbors. On 26 September 1939 forty people were shot, followed by a priest and 208 psychiatric patients.<ref name="Stargardt1">[https://books.google.com/books?id=7drvCAAAQBAJ&dq=Konitz+wave+of+violence+1939&pg=PT46 The German War: A Nation Under Arms, 1939–45], Nicholas Stargardt</ref> From late October 1939 through early 1940, mass executions were conducted by [[SS]] and the German police as part of the ''[[Intelligenzaktion]]'', an action against the Polish [[intelligentsia]].<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=12PauR6bjrIC&dq=Konitz+intelligentsia+1939+1940&pg=PT118 Witnesses of War: Children's Lives Under the Nazis], [[Nicholas Stargardt]]</ref> In total, by January 1940 900 Poles and Jews from Chojnice and its surrounding villages were killed,<ref name="Stargardt1"/> including parliamentarians, teachers, merchants, postal workers, border guards, priests, farmers.<ref name=mh/> The site of the massacres was the Igły Valley near Chojnice, later also known as the Valley of Death.<ref>Hamerska, p. 58</ref>

[[Hans Kruger]] - a Nazi activist - became a judge in Chojnice, and during his rule executions of the local population followed.<ref>
Funktionäre Mit Vergangenheit: Das Gründungspräsidium Des Bundesverbandes Der Vertriebenen Und Das "dritte Reich" 2013
 Michael Schwartz page 437 Walter de Gruyter 2013</ref> On January 18, 1945, the Germans carried out a single large massacre in the Igły Valley, in which they murdered some 800 Poles.<ref name=mh/>

During the occupation, the Annunciation of Mary church was taken over by Protestants and its interior was devastated.<ref name=znmp/>

The [[Pomeranian Griffin]], [[Kashubian Griffin]] and [[Home Army]] [[Polish resistance movement in World War II|Polish underground resistance organisations]] were active in the area. In 1943, local Poles managed to save some [[Kidnapping of children by Nazi Germany|kidnapped Polish children]] from the [[Zamość]] region, by buying them from the Germans at the local train station.<ref>{{cite book|last=Kozaczyńska|first=Beata|editor-last=Kostkiewicz|editor-first=Janina|year=2020|title=Zbrodnia bez kary... Eksterminacja i cierpienie polskich dzieci pod okupacją niemiecką (1939–1945)|language=pl|location=[[Kraków]]|publisher=[[Jagiellonian University|Uniwersytet Jagielloński]], [[Biblioteka Jagiellońska]]|page=123|chapter=Gdy zabrakło łez... Tragizm losu polskich dzieci wysiedlonych z Zamojszczyzny (1942-1943)}}</ref>