During the retreat from Russia, in 1812-1813, many soldiers of the Grande Armée died of wounds, illness or exhaustion at the hospital of Chojnice. The 543rd regiment of the Grande Armée had indeed established a hospital and a temporary camp there. They were then buried in a cemetery created for them outside the town, near the present-day Igielska Street. This area was purchased by the Prussian authorities in the 1880s, to build a complex of national welfare institutions, notably a shelter for minors. Between 1885 and 1945, the cemetery therefore served the employees and pupils of the institution. The last funeral took place in 1946. The cemetery, like many German cemeteries of the region, was liquidated in September 1982. Few traces of it remain. Its existence is today commemorated by a plaque, on which one can read, in Polish: "Napoleonic soldiers and pupils of the educational establishment".