By decision from September 5, 1939, one of the first three German special courts in occupied Poland was established in the town, before it was eventually moved to Piotrków Trybunalski on September 22, 1939. On September 6–8, 1939 the "Einsatzgruppe II" entered the town, and mass searches of Polish offices and organizations were carried out. Already on September 8, 1939, inhabitants of Wieluń were among 30 Poles massacred by German troops in Chechło near Pabianice. Wieluń was annexed to Nazi Germany on 8 October 1939 and placed under the administration of Reichsgau Wartheland. The Germans instigated a reign of terror against the Jewish population of Wieluń, a population that had lived in the city since the 1500s and amounted to around 4,000 people at the beginning of the war. Jews were kidnapped for forced labor with little pay.