Koedriest Monument stands on the spot where the graves of, among others, 24 prisoners of war from the Soviet Union were found after the war. They were part of a group of 101 Soviet soldiers who arrived in Amersfoort on 27 September 1941. 24 of them died within six months in Camp Amersfoort from hunger, disease and abuse. The remaining 77 Soviet soldiers were shot by the Germans on 9 April 1942, which was the second largest mass execution in the Netherlands during the Second World War. The mass grave of these 77 executed soldiers was also located near the camp.

In 1954, a simple shrine was erected on the site of the graves of the 24 Soviet soldiers. It was replaced in 1962 by the current monument, which bears the inscription: ‘To the glorious sons of the Soviet people who fell in the struggle against the German occupying forces in 1941-1945. From the grateful Fatherland.’

Ever since 2012, the Soviet War Cemetery Foundation has held an annual commemoration at the monument on 9 April, the day of the execution in 1942. In the early morning, 77 red candles are lit for the executed prisoners of war and 24 white candles for the men who had already died in Camp Amersfoort.