The war cemetery of the town of Stargard Szczeciński in Western Pomerania, built in 1914, initially received the Tsarist soldiers who died in the surrounding area at the start of the First World War, and later Russian, Serbian, Romanian and Portuguese prisoners from the town's prisoner-of-war camp. The cemetery was enlarged during the Second World War, with 369 additional burials of prisoners from Stalag II D in Stargard and Oflag II C in Dobiegniewo, among whom a majority were Soviets (132), but also French (68, prisoners of the Stalag), Poles (56), Yugoslavs (55), Italians (22), Belgians (15), Moroccans (13), Britons (7) and one Dutchman. Their names are inscribed on thirty metal plaques mounted on the fence surrounding the cemetery. In 1950, the remains of some of the French, British and Italian soldiers were exhumed at the request of their relatives. In the 1950s, the remains of other soldiers buried in the surroundings of Stargard, Pyrzyce and Choszczno were transferred here. In all, the cemetery holds 5,004 burials of prisoners from both World Wars.
The imprisonment of the French (and Belgians) in Stalag II D, created in September 1939 and which previously held mainly Poles, dates from May and June 1940. In the following years, soldiers of other nationalities were imprisoned there (Soviets, Italians, Yugoslavs, Canadians), before the camp's liberation (in mid-March 1945 by the Red Army). Living conditions there were better than in the Stalags farther south.
Several monuments, distinguishing the soldiers by nationality (Polish-Soviet, Soviet, French, Russian and Italian monuments) and by religion (monuments to the Muslim and Jewish Soviet soldiers), were erected in the cemetery at various times. The French monument, erected during the period of the Vichy regime, is the first of the cemetery's national monuments to the memory of the prisoners of the Second World War. At its centre is carved a Gallic francisque, defined in 1941 as the personal emblem of Philippe Pétain, beneath which one can read "1939-1940", then on its lower part: "The French prisoners of war of Stalag II D to their comrades who died in captivity".
The upkeep of the cemetery falls to the Voivodeship of Western Pomerania, which has delegated this task to the municipality of Stargard Szczeciński. For some years now, the municipality, together with the Council of Municipal Public Services, has been replacing certain deteriorated gravestones. This work is funded by the Voivodeship of Western Pomerania and by the Council for the Protection of the Memory of Combat and Martyrdom.