Since 2004, Memorial International and Facts & Files had been researching biographical information about 1,000 Germans who were arrested in East Germany under mysterious circumstances, sentenced to death by Soviet Military Tribunals because of supposed espionage and shot in Moscow between 1950 and 1953. Within the scope of this project, previously unknown or closed records held at Russian and German archives were made accessible for the first time.

With the publication of a Book of the Deceased in autumn 2005, the biographical information about these victims of Stalinist persecution was brought to the public’s attention for the first time. In addition to the book, Facts & Files designed a travelling exhibition. The exhibition uses photographs, texts, and documents to describe the victims’ fate and the background of their arrest and conviction.

Documents on 927 Germans from all parts of East and West Germany who were sentenced to death on charges of “spying”, “anti-Soviet agitation and propaganda” or “illegal possession of guns” in secret trials held by a travelling Soviet military tribunal. After their trials, the sentenced were held at the prison in Berlin-Lichtenberg before they were transported in disguised railway-cars to Moscow, where they were shot in the cellar of the Butyrka prison. The same night, their bodies were burned and their ashes were buried anonymously at the Moscow Donskoje cemetery.

Memorial International estimates the total number of victims of the NKWD/MGB buried at the Donskoje cemetery to be higher than 7,000. Today, stones at three of the mass graves serve as a memorial to the murdered.

The new revised edition of the book was published in October 2008.