Many countries that experience political violence employ Transitional Justice (TJ) policies in its aftermath. In spite of their prevalence, we still know little about their impact. Previous research has focused on macro-level outcomes and top-down measures, but we know much less about their local-level dynamics and consequences. Given that TJ policies explicitly aim to improve social reconciliation, this is an alarming gap. In this paper we explore the consequences of a type of TJ policy whose implementation is dependent on local factors and varies significantly within a single conflict: mass grave exhumations in Spain. Building on recent advances in difference-in-differences methods, we exploit variation in the timing of the exhumations to analyze their consequences on political preferences and the diffusion of further exhumations. We leverage the fact that exhumations took place in two different waves, a first one in a transitional context of political uncertainty and a second one in a context of consolidated democracy with institutional support, to probe the interaction between local activities and the broader political context. Results show that early exhumations, which took place during the transitional period, increased fear and polarization. On the contrary, later ones increased collective action and support for norms around TJ policies. This paper contributes to larger debates on the consequences of TJ and human rights policies. It offers new evidence on an unexplored phenomenon and provides recommendations for the design of post-conflict policies and peacebuilding strategies.