In the second half of the 19th century the area of the forest began shrinking with the ongoing increased human activity and development.

Following the regaining of the independence, the newly formed Polish Army also wanted to keep this forest as a protection of a garrison with large transport junction.

[4] During World War I, an evangelical cemetery was established in the location of today's Polskie Radio, where German soldiers who died in local hospitals were buried.

[7] In the years 1946–1947, those executed by death sentence in the Central Prison of Białystok, and perhaps also those killed in UB raids, were buried in passages between existing graves and in drainage ditches surrounding the cemetery.

The entire Zwierzniecki Forest surrounding the cemetery was covered with a network of ditches and trenches, which could also be used to bury the remains of convicts.