During WWI, a POW labor camp was established here, with prisoners mainly from Russia and Serbia working in the local quarry and iron factory. Around 4 000 of them died under the harsh condition.

Initially, the deceased soldiers were buried in the forest cemetery. In 1926, the Yugoslav government founded a Mausoleum near the cemetery, and most of the soldiers remains were exhumed and re-buried in the mausoleum. Remains of numerous Serbian soldiers buried in other places in the Czech Republic and even from abraod were also exhumed and reburied here. In the Netherlands, neutral during WW I,  over 200 000 POWs from both sides were interned. In 1938, most of the remains of the Serbian soldiers died in the Netherlands were transfered to the mausoleum. 

Todaym the remains of around 7 800 Serbian and almost 200 Russian soldiers are burried in the mausoleum.

The cemetery also is the last resting place for several Italian POWs. Thier remains remained in the cemetery on request of the Italian government.