During the early stages of World War II and the Poland Campaign, Katowice was essentially abandoned by the Polish Land Forces, which had to position itself around Kraków.

[21] Under German occupation many of the city's historical and iconic monuments were destroyed, most notably the Great Katowice Synagogue, which was burned to the ground on 4 September 1939.

The Special Platoon of the Motorized Reserves of the Citizens' Militia (ZOMO) was responsible for the brutal handling of strikers protesting against Wojciech Jaruzelski's declaration of martial law and the arrest of Solidarity trade union officials.

[36] The city's efficient infrastructure, rapid progress in the overall development and an increase in office space has made Katowice a popular venue for conducting business.

Śródmieście, Osiedle Paderewskiego-Muchowiec, Zawodzie and Koszutka form the dense central urban core where most cultural and educational institutions, businesses and administrative buildings are located.

Most Northern and Eastern neighborhoods around the downtown core are more working-class and developed from worker's estates build around large industry such as coal mines, manufactures and steelworks.

Nikiszowiec, a former mine's town, has undergone strong gentrification in recent years, and emerged as a major tourist attraction in the region thanks to its unique architecture and art galleries.

[55] The establishment of mining and heavy industry which have developed for the past centuries has resulted in the unique character of the cityscape; its typical aspects are the red brick housing estates[56] constructed for the poorer working class, factory chimneys, manufacturing plants, power stations and quarries.

During the war, the Nazi occupiers committed severe crimes against the local Roma and Jewish communities, either killing them on the spot or transporting them to concentration camps such as Auschwitz for complete extermination.

Katowice enjoyed a population boom after World War II, driven primarily by internal economic migration from less developed parts of the country.

As of recent years, increased economic activity in the area has stopped outward migration but the negative natural change (more deaths than births) continues to fuel population decline.

The Great Synagogue was burned by the German army the same day, and in the following months, Katowice Jews were deported to ghettos in Dąbrowa Basin (primarily Sosnowiec and Będzin) or directly to various concentration and death camps where most of them were murdered in the Holocaust.

There are two buddhist groups in Katowice: Kwan Um School of Zen, first registered in 1982, and the Diamond Road of Karma Kagyu line association.

[76] The nearby Cathedral of Christ the King (1927–1955, with dome lowered by 34 meters compared to original design) is also neoclassical but with an ascetic, modernist-inspired interior (including a tabernacle and a golden mosaic funded by future pope, Joseph Ratzinger).

Pałac Młodzieży (Youth Palace) became the first major new building completed in Katowice after the war, erected in the socrealist style with elements of late modernism in 1949–1951.

[79] Following the death of Stalin in 1956, and the end of socrealism, Jerzy Ziętek and city authorities commissioned a group of young architects and urbanists to create a project of the new urban design of Katowice.

[80] The project was centered around a grand avenue (current Aleja Korfantego) surrounded by simple, modern blocks and monuments, scattered in distance to each other according to modernist ideals of preserving space and light for the masses.

The situation changed in the early aughts, when several new notable developments were completed: Another wave of architectural revival came after Poland joined the European Union in 2004.

[100] Major international corporations with regional headquarters in Katowice include IBM, Unilever, PwC, Deloitte, Groupon, Eurofins, Capgemini, Sopra Steria, Accenture, Fujitsu, Citibank, HSBC, KPMG, RSM, Baker Tilly, and others.

Later in 19th and early 20th century additional mines were opened: Katowice, Wujek, Eminenz (later renamed Gottwald and merged with Kleofas), Wieczorek, Boże Dary, Staszic and renewed Murcki.

Katowice is the seat of an internationally renowned Karol Szymanowski Academy of Music, whose faculty and graduates created the nationally important informal group called the Silesian school of composers.

It originally opened in 1929, and its radically modern, Bauhaus-style new building was demolished immediately after the Nazis seized Katowice in 1939, considering it too degenerate and too Polish.

[110] Polregio operates commuter trains from Katowice to cities and towns in Lesser Poland and Świętokrzyskie voivodeships: Trzebinia, Olkusz, and Kielce, among others.

Katowice has a direct Express Intercity Premium (high-speed) connection to Warsaw through the Centralna Magistrala Kolejowa, with a run time of 2 hours 21 minutes.

[116] The well-developed network supports over 200,000 cars registered in Katowice, and 49 percent of commuters that drive alone, a high share compared to other major cities in Poland.

After that interchange, the highway loses its access roads due to lack of space in the dense urban area and continues east with four lanes in each direction.

In the Brynów neighborhood, Kościuszki Street continues towards Katowice's city center while NR 81 turns east, to run through the forest towards the interchange with DK86.

[118] Long-haul flights are operated from Katowice to Varadero in Cuba, Bangkok in Thailand, Cancún in Mexico, Malé in Maldives and to Puerto Plata as well as Punta Cana in Dominican Republic.

Tourists can relax playing tennis or squash, doing water sports also sailing (for example—in Dolina Trzech Stawów), horse-riding (in Wesoła Fala and Silesian Park), cycling or going to one of numerous excellently equipped fitness clubs.

Defunct sports clubs: There are 15 honorary consulates in Katowice, of Austria, Belarus, Benin, Bulgaria, Chile, France, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Peru, Serbia, Slovenia and Ukraine.