In 1940, the Wehrmacht established a prisoner-of-war camp in the barracks on the edge of the military training ground in Bergen, Lower Saxony, initially known as Stalag XI C (311), and later as Stalag XI B Zweiglager Bergen-Belsen. Most of the prisoners were Soviet soldiers, though the camp also held French, Belgian, Italian and Polish prisoners of war. In October 1944, around 1,000 officers and soldiers of the Home Army were sent to the camp, including female prisoners of war.

Within the camp cemetery there is a plot where eight Polish prisoners of war are buried, including six whose identities are unknown. The burial site is marked by a birch cross. A metal plaque bears an inscription in Polish and German: “Here lie eight Polish prisoners of war / Dr Stanisław Pobłocki * 14 February 1890, Lina, † 11 January 1942 / Dr Roman Bilnik, * 28 January 1891, Zawiercie, † 24 January 1942 / The names of the six are known only to God”.

The second Polish war grave in this cemetery is that of Corporal Elżbieta Głazowska, alias Głazowa, a participant in the Warsaw Uprising (101st Company, ‘Bończa’ Battalion), prisoner of war no. XI B 141525, who died in a camp hospital on 6 January 1945. She is the only one of the victims buried here to have an individual grave, bordered and marked with a plaque bearing her full name and dates of life.

The cemetery was also the final resting place of 142 Italian soldiers, whose remains were transferred in 1958 to the Italian war cemetery in Hamburg-Öjendorf.

In addition, between 30,000 and 50,000 Soviet soldiers who died of starvation, cold and disease were buried in mass, unmarked graves. Today, the camp cemetery is known as the Soviet War Cemetery and forms part of the Bergen-Belsen Memorial complex (located approximately 2 km from the site of the former concentration camp).