Stamp of SMT No. 48240, the Supreme Soviet Military Tribunal in the GDR
Shot in Moscow…
The German victims of Stalinism at the Donskoye cemetery in Moscow 1950-1953
The Donskoye cemetery is located in the southwest of the Russian capital Moscow. In the early 1990s, it became known that there were mass graves of around ten thousand victims of Stalinism.
Since then, the Russian human rights organization Memorial has been trying to clarify the fate of the people who were executed by the Soviet secret service in Moscow between 1935 and 1953 and buried in the cemetery. Those executed came from all parts of the Soviet Union and its sphere of influence. According to Memorial, the largest group of foreign victims in the years 1950-1953 were Germans. The fate of 928 German victims was clarified in a German-Russian research project. The results of these many years of research work are presented in the exhibition.
Who were the people murdered? Why were they persecuted and executed? How did their mortal remains end up in the Donskoye cemetery?
The exhibition explores these questions. It shows exemplary fates of victims and tells the story of their families, who were in the dark about the whereabouts of their loved ones for decades.
Chapter overview
Chapters 2 to 4 of the exhibition document the persecution and the victims’ journey from Germany to the Soviet Union. Chapters 5 to 9 use selected biographies to provide information about various groups of persecuted people, while chapters 10 to 12 focus on the execution of the sentences, the burial at the Donskoye cemetery, the years-long search by relatives and the research project.
1. Exhibition Shot in Moscow…
In the 1990s, mass graves from the Stalin era were discovered in Moscow’s Donskoye Cemetery. Memorial researched the names of the victims. The results of a research project on the 928 German victims from 1950 to 1953 are presented in this exhibition.
2. Divided Germany
After the Second World War, the Allies divided Germany into four occupation zones. Germany became the scene of ideological conflicts during the Cold War. In 1949, the two German states were founded. A Stalinist system was established in the GDR.
3. Persecution by the Secret Service
The Ministry for State Security (MfS) of the GDR, founded in 1950, was modelled on its Soviet counterpart. It adopted enemy stereotypes and methods, persecuted opponents of the system and worked closely with the Soviet authorities.
4. Soviet military justice in the GDR
Despite the transfer of criminal jurisdiction to the GDR in 1949/1950, Soviet military tribunals continued to convict Germans until 1955. Between 1945 and 1955, approximately 40,000 judgments were handed down against German civilians without due process, including approximately 3,000 death sentences.
5. “Enemies” and “spies”
In the GDR, the SED and security organs arbitrarily determined who was an ‘enemy’. Vague guidelines and criminal laws enabled the persecution of critics, regardless of actual guilt. Even victims of National Socialism were targeted; their past offered them no protection from renewed persecution.
6. “Agents” of the West
Western intelligence agencies deliberately recruited informants in the GDR who cooperated out of protest, a thirst for adventure or financial interests. The KgU also gathered information and passed it on to the CIA. Intelligence agencies on both sides made equal efforts to infiltrate each other.
7 – Young people in resistance
Among those shot in Moscow were many young people who were committed to freedom and against the indoctrination by the FGY. Some sought contact with Western organizations, criticized the GDR regime and continued their protests in the West even after fleeing.
8 – “Opponents” within the ranks
Even staunch socialists, including SED members and members of the People’s Police, distanced themselves from the state in the face of the growing dictatorship. Through denunciation or by chance, they were targeted by the secret services and became victims of purges.
9 – Forbidden political work
In the summer of 1945, the Soviet occupying power allowed parties to form. The forced merger of the KPD and SPD to form SED in 1946 prompted many members of other parties to fight back. West German East German offices of various parties supported persecuted members, which SED and secret services regarded as espionage and triggered harsh repression.
10 – Enforcement of verdicts
After being sentenced by the SMT, the prisoners were taken to Moscow. Only a few death sentences were later commuted to prison sentences. The death row prisoners were shot at night in Butyrka prison and their ashes were buried anonymously in a mass grave at the Donskoye cemetery.
11 – Search for the missing
For decades, relatives searched in vain for the missing persons, as the authorities did not respond or provided false information. It was not until 1990 that open archives brought clarity. Since 1991, it has been possible for Russian courts to rehabilitate the Germans murdered in Moscow.
12th research project on the Donskoye cemetery
After 1990, the fate of those shot in Moscow was researched. Memorial published the first Russian Book of the Dead in 1992, followed by the research project on the German victims of Stalinism in 2004. In 2008, the revised Book of the Dead was published with 927 biographies, which appeared as a digital version in 2023.