Between July 1944 and February 1945, 800 prisoners were murdered by Germans in a branch of the Stutthof camp located in a railway yard in the city; today a monument honours the memory of those victims. Other victims of German atrocities included 23 Polish children murdered between December 1944 and February 1945, and 24 Polish forced labourers (23 men and one woman) murdered by the Schutzstaffel (SS) on 7 March 1945, just before the Red Army took over the city without any serious resistance on 8 March 1945. In fear of Soviet repression, up to 1,000 inhabitants committed suicide.