Around 40 Poles from Wieluń were murdered by the Russians in the large Katyn massacre in April–May 1940. In June 1940, the Germans expelled around 200 Poles, owners of villas, which then were either handed over to new German officials or converted to German offices. During the German occupation, a transit camp was operated in the town for Poles expelled from the region, who were then either deported to the so-called General Government (German-occupied central Poland) or to forced labor in Germany and German-occupied France or sent as slave laborers to new German colonists in the town's vicinity. The Germans also established and operated a Nazi prison in the town, and looted the local historical numismatic collection, which they sent to a newly established German museum in occupied Poznań. In 1941, Jews were forced into a ghetto. Many were then sent away to labor camps. In January 1942, the German publicly hung ten Jews. Later in the year, the 2,000 Jews still remaining in the city plus others brought to Wieluń were rounded up and confined for several days in a church building without food or whater. Several died there of exhaustion, others were murdered. 900 were then selected and sent to the Łódź ghetto. The rest were sent to the Chełmno extermination camp, where they were immediately gassed. Seventy to one hundred Wieluń Jews survived the war and many returned to the city, although most left soon afterward.