In 1813, during the retreat from Russia, some forty soldiers of the Grande Armée who died in the town of Żagań (Lubusz Voivodeship) from an infectious disease were buried in a pit quite far from the town, in the ducal forest, on the outskirts of the road leading to the town of Iłowa. In 1908, the administrator of the duchy of Żagań had the pit marked out with stones and had a monument erected over it, surmounted by a cross on which the year "1813" was inscribed. The monument also bore, on opposite sides, two commemorative plaques, one in French and the other in German. During the Second World War, the site was located near the western sector of Stalag Luft III, but was not damaged; it was, however, dismantled later in 1980. In July 1998, the members of the Polish-German working group in charge of laying out the German plot of the communal cemetery of Żagań planted there a black metal cross as well as a commemorative plaque of which only one half remains. An information panel placed by the Museum of the Martyrdom of Allied Prisoners of War displays photographs of the destroyed monument and presents the history of the site (in Polish, English, French and German).