The closed down cemetery was established for the burial of the Hungarian home-defending heroes and the Russian Tsarist soldiers, who were killed in the Battle of Debrecen on 2 August 1849. Then, during World War I and World War II, it was enlarged to its present size to cater to the burial of the military heroes and victims of various nationalities.
A separate cemetery was established in 1915 for the victims of the epidemic that had broken out in the nearby Russian POW camp. It was enlarged in 1917 and in 1925 to cater to the burial of the soldiers of various nationalities who were killed in Debrecen during World War I.
The only operating religious cemetery – the Jewish cemetery – in Debrecen was established in the first half of the 19th century. In the jewish cemetery resting places for the Hungarian soldiers who fell during the revolution of 1848/49, the military heroes of World War I. and II., the heroic labourers of World War II., as well as grave signs and monuments of the victims of Holocaust can be found.