During the Nazi
invasion of Poland in accordance with the secret protocol of the
Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, Soviet forces invaded eastern Poland on 17 September 1939. As the bulk of the
Polish Army was concentrated in the west fighting the Nazi Germans (see:
Polish September campaign), the Red Army met with limited resistance from Polish citizens and their troops quickly moved westward. Tarnopol was occupied as early as 18 September 1939 without substantial opposition from the Poles, and remained in Soviet hands until
Operation Barbarossa. Monuments were destroyed, street names changed, bookshops closed, library collections stolen and transported in
lorries to the Russian archives. The province was
Sovietized in the atmosphere of terror. Families were deported to Siberia in cattle trains, mainly Polish Christians. During the German invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941, Tarnopol was overrun by the
Wehrmacht on . A Jewish pogrom lasted from to , with homes destroyed, synagogues burned and Jews killed indiscriminately at various locations, estimated between 1,600 (
Yad Vashem) In September 1941, the German occupation authorities established
Jewish ghettos in a number of towns including the
Tarnopol Ghetto with 12,000–13,000 prisoners. Death penalty was introduced, and food severely rationed. and in
Podwołoczyska. The Tarnopol ghetto was liquidated between August 1942 and June 1943. The victims were deported to
Belzec extermination camp. Many Jews were denounced by Ukrainian nationalists including shortly before the Soviets took over the area in 1944. A number survived by hiding with the Poles. ==Demographics==