During the Second World War, about 3,000 soldiers and civilians from 27 countries were buried in the Pobrežje Cemetery.
Between 1941 and 1942, 1,895 Soviet soldiers were buried here, having died in the prison camp in Melje due to inhuman treatment and unbearable hygienic conditions.
In the large prison camp for Allied soldiers, 38 soldiers from Cyprus, France, Greece, Italy, New Zealand, and Great Britain also died and were buried in the Pobrežje Cemetery between 1941 and 1945.
In the last two years of the war, another 682 soldiers from Austria, Belarus, Bulgaria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Czech Republic, Montenegro, Denmark, Croatia, Lithuania, Hungary, Macedonia, Germany, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Serbia, Switzerland, Ukraine, the USA, and 330 civilian victims of bombing were buried in the cemetery.
After the war, the cemetery expanded into the area of the former war graves, and the bodies of some soldiers were exhumed. Therefore, it is not possible today to determine with certainty how many of the deceased still rest in Pobrežje Cemetery and exactly where. Most were reburied in a common burial ground under the Monument of Peace - dedicated to all victims of the war, without divisions, without judgment, only in the name of memory and respect.
The erection of the monument was made possible by:
- Pogrebno podjetje Maribor (Maribor Funeral Company)
- Mestna občina Maribor (Municipality of Maribor)
- Ministrstvo za delo, družino in socialne zadeve (Ministry of Labour, Family and Social Affairs)
- Embassy of the United States of America in Slovenia
- Embassy of the Russian Federation in Slovenia
- Embassy of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
- Dravske elektrarne Maribor
- Nova KBM
- Mariborski vodovod, j. p. (Maribor Water Supply, p. e.)
- Ostroga d.o.o.