Searches, arrests and police abuse were commonplace in the daily life of non-conformists living in the GDR. Following the mass incarcerations of youths and young people across the country in 1981, particularly from among the ranks of the open youth outreach work of the Evangelical Church, Pastor Walter Schilling encouraged those targeted to keep written records of their ordeals and preserve the memory of what transpired to them. He wanted to document, collect and distribute records of the targeted measures undertaken by the state among the public and make the crimes known. Walter Schilling (1930-2013) was one of the creators of open youth outreach. The “Matthias Domaschk” Thuringian Archive for Contemporary History preserves his estate comprising 18 running meters of materials spanning 50 years. Further memoirs pertaining to the documentation of police abuse can be found in the Ulrich Bär and Wolfgang Thalmann collections.