In 1939 he asked Pope Pius XI to accept his resignation due to age and failing health, but the pope refused. After the death of Pius XI, he repeated his request to the new pope, Pius XII on 19 June 1939. In anticipation of the upcoming war and at Józef Beck's instigation he withdrew his resignation. During World War II, while Primate August Hlond was in France, Sapieha was the de facto head of the Polish church in jurisdictions directly annexed by the Third Reich (primate Hlond was represented by Walenty Dymek, auxiliary bishop of Poznań) and was one of the main leaders of the nation. One of the most important organisations to which he belonged was the National Council of Welfare, created on the model of Caritas. From the war's start of the Nazi occupation, he was an independence activist, working with the Polish government-in-exile. In August 1944, Sapieha was forced to operate the Polish seminary in secret because the Germans began killing seminarians whenever they found them. He moved his students (including the future Pope John Paul II, Karol Wojtyła) into the Bishop's Palace in Kraków to finish their training during the Nazi Occupation of Poland. Sapieha's biographer, Jacek Czajkowski describes the circumstances of the archbishop being invited by Governor Hans Frank to Hitler's birthday party in April 1942. He told the German official: "No! They are not going to change anything, but they will take a photograph of me and write that a Polish bishop arrived at Hitler's birthday party with best wishes. Tell him I will not come." Another such anecdote recalls when governor Hans Frank ordered the archbishop to hand him the keys to the Wawel Castle. Sapieha replied: "But don't forget to give them back to me when you will be leaving Wawel." In March 1945, he initiated the publication of Tygodnik Powszechny. He was created Cardinal-Priest, of the title of "Santa Maria Nuova", on 18 February 1946. On 1 November 1946 he conferred priestly ordination on Karol Wojtyła in the chapel of his episcopal residence. After the Kielce pogrom he reportedly stated that the Jews had brought it upon themselves but then provided aid for the affected Jews. According to witness, he and the church complained there were too many Jews in the government.