[4] During the German Invasion of Poland, which started World War II in 1939, Wehrmacht soldiers on 13 September took 50 males (43 Poles and 7 Jews) out of homes and ordered them to repair a damaged bridge.

Many Jews in the Piątek ghetto died of starvation and disease due to limited food and severe overcrowding.

In 1942, German police began randomly shooting Jews and in August 1942 rounded them up and shot those who were ill and elderly in the local cemetery.

[6] The most precious cultural heritage monument is the Gothic-Baroque church of the Holy Trinity, which dates back to the 15th century.

The A1 motorway, connecting Gdańsk and Toruń in the north with Częstochowa, the Katowice urban area and the Czech Republic–Poland border at Gorzyczki in the south, bypasses the town in the east.