In September 1939, following the Soviet Invasion of Poland, Zdolbunow was captured by the Soviet Union, where it remained until the Operation Barbarossa. Its Jewish minority perished in the Holocaust, and in late 1943, Zdolbunow became a shelter for ethnic Polish population of Volhynia, escaping the Volhynian Genocide. On February 3, 1944, the town was captured by the Red Army.