Weiler Wissembourg French national war cemetery

During the war, 3.4 million Russian soldiers were captured, of which 1.5 million were held prisoner in Germany. In the spring of 1915, the German authorities agreed the assignment of prisoners of war to the war kommandos to alleviate labour shortages. In Alsace, several thousand Russian prisoners were made to work on drainage, wood cutting, road building, as well as agriculture.

Working conditions were hard and the mortality rate among these men is estimated at 7.3%. During the war, almost 100,000 prisoners of war perished in Germany.

In addition, through agreements between France and Russia, some Russians joined the Western Front to supplement the ranks of the French army, who suffered significant losses in 1915. In 1916, four Russian elite brigades were formed, containing 45,000 men in total. Two were sent to Macedonia on the Salonica front, while the 1st and 3rd Brigade were deployed in Champagne, where they fought their first battles in 1917. With the political tensions and the Russian revolution, these unites were taken off the front lines. Some mutinied and were imprisoned in Algeria. Others formed the Russian Legion to continue fighting alongside France. At the end of the war, this battalion, which only had 1,600 men, was appointed the Russian Legion of Honour.

In 1916, in the village of Weiler, located east of Wissembourg, the Germans established a prison camp where daily life was of the most basic standard.  Some barracks and a hospital were also built to house the Russian prisoners captured in particular on the Western Front. The Weiler national war cemetery is now the last remaining evidence of the existence of this camp, about which few records exist.