Most of the major cities of pre-war Poland were devastated during World War II. Warsaw, Poznań and Białystok were virtually razed to the ground, suffering under the subsequent marches of hostile armies and the long-lasting Nazi occupation. Meanwhile, Kraków, the biggest and most crucial city of southern Poland, remained almost untouched. How did Kraków make it through the war with hardly a scratch?
On 6th September 1939, Kraków surrendered to the German armed forces without a fight, and 6 days later it was proclaimed the capital of the General Government – a new territory created and governed by Nazi Germany. One of the main purposes of the General Government’s existence was to be the Third Reich’s supply base for agriculture and light industry, so the Nazi army had no interest in destroying its infrastructure. Moreover, Hans Frank, the newly appointed Governor-General, decided to continue some of the pre-war plans for Kraków’s development. In order to justify these plans, the Nazis announced that Kraków was an urdeustche Stadt (Ancient German City), and even founded a pseudo-scientific institute to prove the city's German roots through historical research.
