The city of Piotrków Trybunalski in the years 1915 - 1940 in old photographs
Piotrków Trybunalski was a royal town in the Piotrków Starosty in the Piotrków County of the Sieradz Voivodeship at the end of the 16th century. During World War I, Piotrków, under Austro-Hungarian occupation, again gained the importance of a political center, being a place of particularly lively patriotic activity and recruitment of the Polish Legions. The Military Department of the Supreme National Committee, the Headquarters of the Polish Legions were located here, hospitals and military schools operated here, and the Piotrków printing houses issued thousands of publications that were distributed throughout the occupied country. After regaining independence in 1918, Piotrków, as a district town in the Łódź Voivodeship, lost its former importance as an administrative and political center. During World War II, as a strong center of conspiracy, Piotrków served as the headquarters of the underground local authorities of the Polish Underground State. Already in 1939, the German occupiers established the first ghetto in Poland. In January 1945, the city was occupied by the Red Army.