The city of Wielun is claimed to be the first civilian target of the Second World War. On the same day, on September 1, 1939, as Nazi Germany attacked Gdansk in the north of Poland, the Luftwaffe bombed Wielun killing over a hundred civilians and destroying nearly three quarters of the town. Despite not having any military targets historians claim Nazi Germany decided to bomb Wielun because it was home to a significant Polish community and no German diaspora, unlike other towns near the border.