The penal institution dates back to the Stockhof built in 1698, which housed prisoners condemned to build a fortress.

According to the National Socialist rulers, it was primarily communists and social democrats, but also homosexuals and the Jews.

Other executions due to Allied trials involved the concentration camp doctor Rolf Rosenthal, Hans Körbel and Benno Orendi, Vera Salvequart (Kapo in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp), the SS guards Ruth Neudeck, Dorothea Binz, Elisabeth Marschall and Emma Zimmer, the former battalion commander of the 12th SS Panzer Division Bernhard Siebken and Fritz Knöchlein, chief of the 4th Company of the 2nd SS Totenkopf Regiment.

The last execution in Hamelin was on December 6, 1949, on the Pole Jerzy Andziak (a displaced person) for the use of firearms resulting in death.

[2] Also, 13 further convicted of murdering the Stalag Luft III escapees on the orders of Hitler, all executed on the same day 27 February 1948.