during following few decades, many new factories and businesses opened including: paper mill, iron foundry, printing shop, brewery, soap factory and natural gas production plant. During that period, the town square and two main streets were paved, gas lighting illuminated the town and a sewage system was installed. "Górnośląska Spółka Bracka" (The Upper-Silesian Brotherhood Cooperative) was organized with its headquarters in Tarnowskie Góry; (this revolutionary institution functioned as an insurance company for miners and covered the entire Upper Silesian region with 17,821 initial members). In 1857 the first railroad, leading to Opole, reached the town and eight years later Warsaw–Vienna line cut-through as well. Throughout the next few decades, because of its strategic location, the number of railroad lines grew rapidly, and by the end of the 19th century Tarnowskie Góry was well on its way to becoming the second largest marshaling yard in Europe. Poles smuggled large amounts of gunpowder through the town to the Russian Partition of Poland during the January Uprising in 1863. In 1873 a new county was formed in the area with Tarnowskie Góry as its capital; a hospital and court building were opened soon after. Modern 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 September 1939, Poland was invaded by Germany and Nazi German occupation began. On September 6–8, 1939, the Einsatzgruppe II entered the town to commit various crimes against Poles. Mass searches of Polish organizations, offices and houses, and 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.