page_title: Tarnowskie Góry
section_title: Modern
hierarchical_section_title: Tarnowskie Góry / History / Modern
caption_attribution_description: Polski: Polska Huta Skarbowa Ołowiu i Srebra w Strzybnicy (Górny Śląsk) Spółka Dzierżawna Tarnowskie Góry SA - pocztówka z czasów XX-lecia międzywojennego
context_page_description: Tarnowskie Góry is a town in Silesia, southern Poland, located in the Silesian Highlands near Katowice. On the south it borders the Upper Silesian Metropolitan Union, a megalopolis, the greater Silesian metropolitan area populated by about 5,294,000 people. The population of the town is 61,422. As of 1999, it is part of Silesian Voivodeship, previously Katowice Voivodeship.
  The Historic Silver Mine of Tarnowskie Góry, a UNESCO World Heritage Site is located in the town.
context_section_description: In the beginning of the 20th century, the source of the silver ore dried out and the mining stopped completely. After World War I ended, between 1919 and 1921 three massive anti-German uprisings took place in entire Upper Silesian region and many of towns residents fought and supported the cause. Soon after the end of the third one, mandated by the Versailles Treaty, the Silesian Plebiscite was held, and an overwhelming majority of the Upper Silesia region voted for integration with newly independent Poland; in Tarnowskie Góry however, 82% of the participants favored Germany in large part due to "imported" votes. In 1922, after over 300 years of Austrian and Prussian domination, Tarnowskie Góry was returned to Poland. In the interwar period the 11th Infantry Regiment of the Polish Army was stationed in Tarnowskie Góry.
  At the onset of World War II in 1939, Polish independence came to an end and Nazi German occupation began. Mass arrests of priests, teachers, intelligentsia and fighters of three anti-German, Silesian Uprisings (1919–1921) took place. The synagogue was burned while German minority enthusiastically welcomed invading Nazi forces. During the occupation, the Armia Krajowa (Home Army, the Polish underground resistance organization) undertook a sabotage campaign against Nazi forces, railroad-transport and local industry. Liberation of Silesia came in early 1945; in order to save the industrial infrastructure of the region, the Red Army opened an offensive supported by massive numbers of troops with minimal use of heavy artillery and air-bombardment. According to witnesses, the entire operation was extremely fast; countless, shoulder-to-shoulder, crowds of Russian soldiers passed through the town in matter of minutes followed by almost complete still. Liberation from the Nazi occupiers came with a great price and Poland once again lost its freedom; although officially a sovereign country, in fact the state was ruled by a puppet regime installed and fully controlled by Joseph Stalin's Soviet Union.
caption: Fryderyk Smelting Works in interwar Poland
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