Radomsko dates back to the 11th century. In 1288, Duke Leszek II the Black brought
Franciscans to the town, and in 1328, King
Ladislaus the Short funded the construction of the
Gothic Franciscan church. In 1382 and 1384, congresses of
Polish nobility were held in Radomsko, during which Princess
Jadwiga of Poland was chosen as Queen of Poland as the country's first female monarch. It was probably Radomsko where an agreement was concluded under which the future king of Poland
Władysław II Jagiełło married Jadwiga, hence founding the
Jagiellonian dynasty. Further clashes between Polish insurgents and Russian troops took place in Radomsko on March 14 and June 24, 1863. After the fall of the January Uprising,
anti-Polish repressions, including
Russification policies, intensified. Polish political prisoners were then released. The next day, the Germans carried out executions of
Poles in the present-day districts of Bartodzieje, Folwarki and Stobiecko Miejskie.
Polish underground resistance was organized already in October 1939. In March 1940, the Germans carried out mass arrests of 60 Poles in the town and county. In April 1940 a
Nazi ghetto was set up in the Przedborze district for local
Polish Jews. Over 120 Poles from Radomsko and the area were murdered by the Russians in the large
Katyn massacre in April–May 1940. During the
German AB-Aktion, 53 Polish teachers and school principals were arrested on 11 June 1940, and further mass arrests of Poles were carried out in August 1940 and in 1941. or in the Kopiec district and nearby villages. The ghetto was liquidated in two stages during
the Holocaust. The first deportation action took place in early October 1942 with prisoners sent aboard
freight trains to the
Treblinka extermination camp. On 12 October, approximately 9,000 Jews were deported. A small group of Jewish
slave laborers was allowed to stay. They were sent to Treblinka in January 1943. Radomsko was declared
Judenfrei. In retaliation, the unit of
Armia Krajowa ambushed and shot the Chief of Gestapo Willy Berger and his deputy Johann Wagner on 27 May 1943. The German pacification action took place on 3 August 1943 in
Rejowice. The settlement was levelled; some AK soldiers were captured and brought to Radomsko. The Nazi prison in Radomsko, located at the historic
Ratusz, was attacked by AK on the night of 7–8 August 1943; and the prisoners were rescued. The attack was led by
Porucznik Stanisław "Zbigniew" Sojczyński. There are multiple known cases of local Poles, who were persecuted by the Germans for
rescuing Jews. To eliminate the "Polish bandits" in the vicinity of Radomsko, some 1,000
SS and Wehrmacht soldiers were called in by the German administration. The battle was fought on 1 June 1944 near Krzętów, against about 80 AK partisans led by Florian "Andrzej" Budniak. The German army, unfamiliar with the local forest, lost 250 men and retreated. The second battle was launched on 12 September 1944 near Ewina. It was one of the biggest battles of the
Polish underground in World War II, fought for several hours. The 3rd Brigade of
Armia Ludowa (PAL) with 600 partisans, stood against the German force ten times larger. The losses of the enemy were estimated at 100 killed and 200 wounded. The Polish losses amounted to 12 killed partisans, 11 wounded, and several missing. The battles earned Radomsko the Nazi German nickname of 'Banditenstadt', meaning 'the City of Bandits'. In 1944, during and following the
Warsaw Uprising, the Germans carried out deportations of Varsovians from the
Dulag 121 camp in
Pruszków, where they were initially imprisoned, to Radomsko. Those Poles were mainly old people, ill people and women with children. In the following weeks, the communists increased repressions and arrested about 150 people associated with the
resistance movement. In May 1946, the communists sentenced 17 participants of the action from April 1946, including 12 to death. Those sentenced to death were brutally murdered, and then their bodies were thrown into a well near the
Pilica river. The Culture Center and the Regional Museum were opened in 1967 and 1969, respectively. From 1975 to 1998, Radomsko was located in the
Piotrków Voivodeship. In December 1981, the communists imprisoned eight local
Solidarity members. The local people gathered and tried to stop the transport of the arrested activists, however, they were still interned by the communists in
Sieradz and then
Łowicz. ==Transport==