Słupca is a county town located on the Wrzesińska (Września) Plain, 70 km east of Poznań.
As you are on or by the road between Strzałkowo and Słupca, it is worth your time to pay a visit to the prisoners-of-war cemetery from the period of WW1 (1914-1918) and the Polish-Bolshevik war (1919–1921).
A POW camp was set up there in 1914 on a marshy area confiscated by the Germans from the dwellers of Słupca. Mainly the Russians were kept there; hence, the Orthodox cross towering over the cemetery today. Once the monument was renovated, an inscription in German was fixed on it, reading “They have as well offered their lives to their Homeland.”
A total of 506 people were buried there. As the Polish-Bolshevik war started in 1919, the former camp buildings were reused. Some 8,000 Bolshevik soldiers were reposed there, defeated by hunger, cold and contagious diseases (with 60-70 persons dying per day in the winter of 1920/1921). The camp was liquidated on 31st August 1924.
