had a particularly-sightly brick synagogue. During the First World War, the German army captured Lida on 26 September 1915, and both Jews and Gentiles were forced into labour. Soon after the German Occupation ceased in winter 1918, Bolsheviks entered the city and created a strong sense of the Revolution. On 17 April 1919, Polish soldiers entered Lida and committed a pogrom, killing 39 Jews. Lida was captured by the Red Army on 17 July 1920 but was retaken by Polish troops on 29 September 1920. After the Peace of Riga, it was passed to Poland and became powiat (county) centre in Nowogródek Voivodeship. The interwar period was a short period of economic growth for the Jewish community. All aspects flourished, and there were 12 fully functioning synagogues. In 1931, the Jewish population grew to 6,335, and at the dawn of the Holocaust, refugees increased the number to nearly 8,500. In the fall of 1939, the Red Army moved in and annexed Lida to the Baranavichy Voblast of Byelorussian SSR, part of the Soviet Union on 19 September 1939. Once again, the Jews were oppressed, and all cultural aspects of the community were diminished. The Soviets imprisoned surrounding Jews in Lida. On 27 June 1941, the Germans severely damaged the city, and by December, a ghetto was created on the suburbs of Lida in which several families ended up crowding into a single home. On May 7, 1942, the ghetto was sealed, and the next day, nearly 6,000 were taken to a military firing range, where they were shot and piled in ready-made grave pits. About 1,500 educated Jews remained in the ghetto, and the population was added to by incoming refugees. A few groups secretly escaped the city and hid in the forests until the city was liberated on 9 July 1944, but the rest of the community was murdered on September 18, 1943. It was passed to the new Grodno Voblast in 1944. Monuments and attractions Lida Castle was built by the order of the Grand Duke of Lithuania Gediminas for protection against assaults by the Teutonic Knights. The stone foundations were laid in 1323. Parts of the trapezium-shaped fortress were added on up through the 15th century. In the mid-17th century, an army of 30,000 was sent by Prince Nikita Khovansky of Moscow to destroy it, and in the Great Northern War (1700–1721), Swedes came and blew up