In the later times of the Polish Defensive War of 1939 the town was shortly captured by the Red Army. However, on October 12 of the same year the Soviets quit and gave the area to the Germans, because of the Nazi-Soviet Alliance. The town was named Sudauen and was made a part of the German Reich's East Prussia. Laws and terror led to the making of some rebellion groups. Although most of them were destroyed by the Gestapo, by 1942 the area had one of the strongest ZWZ and AK networks. Almost all of the city's once 7,000-strong Jewish people were murdered in German concentration camps. On October 23, 1944, the city was captured by the Soviet 3rd Belarusian Front. The fights for the city lasted for a few days and killed almost 5,000 Soviet soldiers. 