Russian Cemetery Stalag Luft III – Zagan, Poland


Right across the road from the Memorial of “The Fifty”, in honor of the executed POW’s who tried to escape the nearby Stalag Luft III POW camp by digging the famous tunnel “Harry”, lies a military cemetery of Russian origin. It’s neglected headstones and tombs form a sharp contrast to the well kept memorial of The Fifty.

Overview of the cemetery at Zagan Poland
Overview of the cemetery at Zagan, Poland

This cemetery dates back from WWI when around a 110 Tsarist Russian prisoners of war were buried here. A monument with an Eastern Orthodox Cross on top dates from this time. In 1920 another, much larger monument was erected having both Russian and German inscriptions.

Eastern Orthodox memorial russian cemetery Zagan Poland
Eastern Orthodox memorial at the Russian cemetery – Zagan, Poland

During WWII the cemetery was used again between the summer of 1940 and the liberation of the POW camp in Februari 1945. Interred here are prisoners of Stalag VIIIC, with 220 French and approx. 40 Italians.
After the war exhumations were carried out and the cemetery was reduced from 120m length to it’s present size.

Russian cemetery Zagan Poland
Russian cemetery Zagan Poland
Broken headstone at Russian cemetery Zagan Poland
Broken headstone at Russian cemetery Zagan Poland
Large memorial Russian cemetery Zagan Poland
Large memorial Russian cemetery Zagan Poland
Headstones at Russian cemetery Zagan Poland
Nameless headstones at Russian cemetery Zagan Poland
Russian monument at cemetery Zagan Poland
Russian monument at cemetery Zagan Poland
Memorial plaque Russian cemetery Zagan Poland
Memorial plaque Russian cemetery Zagan Poland

Visit the cemetery at Zagan

The cemetery lies hidden along the main road (N 296) and the railroad track. It can be hard to find so use the map we provided. The cemetery is freely admissible.


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1 thought on “Russian Cemetery Stalag Luft III – Zagan, Poland

I am familiar with this nice site and noted the metal plaques stolen off the tomb stones, the Russian Army took the brunt of WW2 and without their action from St Petersberg Stalingrad and the Black Sea the War could have been lost by the Allies. Russians are very courageous no nonsense men and women and are not aggressors contrary to Western Media beliefs. My son and I voluntarily repainted hut 104 relettered the 5o names on Harry Tunnel and this year nearly completed the cleanup of the Mausoleum of the Fifty all done for free. We have the funds and time to do this work, and we are Antipodean. I wouldn,t expect Poles to do this work because they are short of money and it,s the responsablity mainly of the British and Commonwealth who just visit for touristic and some cases family.My hope for the RU names replacement in a form less likely to be stolen and also this is an important tourism site for Lubuskie.
The Russian Donbass is going through hybrid war and from Karkiv right down to Odessa & Transdienistra next to Moldova this is a territory rightfully owned not by Ukraine but by Russia, handed over during confusion and drunkeness Yeltsin,,during perestroika.Two other nationalities have since then been attempting to steal the assets of this area but have failed. The roads from North West to South East have been sabotaged in overnight actions using naptha and hydraulic rams to create huge holes and damages to the transport main axias from west to south east. This makes travelling from say Dnipropetrovsk to Mariupol via Berdiansk seriously difficult and damaging to suspension. So I am looking into the reparations to the Russian Memorial it will look very well if done.

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