The Execution Files
Written records of injustice and inhumanity
The Munich State Archive holds 844 execution files. Despite their brevity, – each one is just a few pages long – they reveal the chilling bureaucratic machinery behind the executions. At the same time, the files also include documents that show how the condemned prepared for death, how they said farewell to their loved ones – and to life itself. Rarely are the inhumanity of the state and the humanity of its victims more intimately connected than in these files.
The public prosecutor’s office usually issued orders for a prisoner to be transferred to Munich-Stadelheim on the same day the court sentenced them to death. But the condemned prisoner still had the opportunity for a brief meeting with their defense lawyer to prepare a petition for clemency. Afterwards, they were taken by train or in a prisoner transport vehicle from the place where the trial had been held – for example, from Nuremberg, Innsbruck, Bayreuth, or the Munich Palace of Justice – to the “central execution site.”
Documents from the court, such as a transcript of the sentence or the petition for clemency, were sent along with the prisoners. These documents formed the basis for the “execution file,” a term probably already in use at the time to refer to the new prisoner file that was opened upon a prisoner’s arrival at Stadelheim. This file also contained the transport slip and arrivals form.
Written traces in the files
In the weeks and months that followed, every action undertaken by the authorities – or the prisoners themselves – left written traces in the files: a letter to a family member, a visit from relatives or to see the doctor, an attempted escape or suicide, a punishment, a petition, or other official paperwork. Some files include copies of farewell letters that were delivered to their intended recipients – others contain farewell letters that were never sent.
The files vary in size depending on how long the prisoners spent on death row. Some waited six months for their execution, while others were taken to Stadelheim for summary executions – or “lightning” executions as the Nazi judiciary called them – and killed on the same day. Most death row inmates had to wait six to eight weeks for their execution. During this time, they clung to the hope of a favorable response to their petition for clemency, exchanged correspondence with their lawyers, or wrote and received the few letters the public prosecutor allowed them.
German prisoners who understood the penal system and could communicate better left far more written traces than other inmates, such as Polish forced laborers who not only suffered the same torments as their German counterparts, but were also linguistically isolated during their time on death row.
What happened to those who were to be executed?
The actual executions were not documented in the execution files – the official report can usually be found in the public prosecutor’s investigation file. However, a note was made of the exact time of the execution and how the body was disposed of. Most bodies were handed over to the anatomy departments at the universities of Munich, Erlangen, Innsbruck, or Würzburg. Others were buried at the Perlacher Forst cemetery in the immediate vicinity of Stadelheim – but this was only possible when relatives requested the burial in writing and paid the costs. In a small number of cases, bodies were laid to rest in other cemeteries.
A significant portion of each execution file consists of a list detailing the prisoners’ personal effects and instructions for what should be done with their belongings. Particularly poignant are the pieces of paper on which condemned prisoners wrote the addresses of their loved ones – often in shaky handwriting – so their possessions could be forwarded. In some cases, however, the public prosecutor decided that their estates were not worth the cost of postage.
Where are the missing execution files?
When a prisoner who had been sentenced to death arrived at Stadelheim Prison, an entry was made in the “execution diary.” This document lists all 1,381 death row inmates who were officially executed in Stadelheim between September 1934 and April 1945. However, only 844 execution files have been preserved in the Munich State Archive. Historian Alexander Korb discovered two more tucked between file covers. This means that 537 execution files that presumably once existed are now missing. What happened to these files?
It is striking that many of the missing files concern “political” victims sentenced by the People’s Court, while the files of people who were convicted and executed by special courts for allegedly criminal acts have been preserved. Stadelheim Prison handed the latter over to the Munich State Archive in 1975, where they were kept under lock and key for many years.
There are several theories about the whereabouts of the files of the “political” prisoners: One is that the Reich Prosecutor ordered the destruction of the files in 1945. Another is that the Americans removed them and took them to the Berlin Document Center. Historian Alexander Korb has come up with another possible explanation. He thinks their disappearance may be related to the establishment of Memorial Grove II at the Perlacher Forst cemetery in 1945, when the city of Munich reburied execution victims who were alleged to have committed political crimes in a collective grave. It is possible that municipal employees sifted through the prisoner files beforehand to select “suitable” execution victims. The files of these “political” prisoners could then have been taken to the town hall or the municipal burial office, where all trace of them has since been lost.