This paper investigates the enduring impact of wartime violence on social capital and political mobilization. Specifically, we examine how exposure to extreme forms of publicly displayed violence, such as executions, during periods of war and authoritarian rule influences participation in civic associations during peacetime. Drawing on insights from two distinct bodies of literature - political violence and social norms - we argue that certain acts of violence are perceived as normative breaches even in the midst of conflict. We contend that executions of women exemplify such breaches for two key reasons: their rarity and their public visibility, which brings the suffering and sacrifice of women to the forefront of local communities’ awareness. This, in turn, can trigger enduring narratives within affected communities, shaping women’s social capital and political mobilization over the long term. To empirically test our hypothesis, we focus on Catalonia, utilizing data on state violence during the Spanish Civil War and the Francoist regime. Our analysis relies on extensive datasets capturing the universe of associations post-1975 as the primary outcome measure. Our findings reveal a positive association between the execution of women and women’s social capital, solely within associations related to women’s rights. Notably, this effect is exclusive to executions and not observed with other forms of oppression. This suggests that the mechanism activating enduring local dynamics, even decades after periods of authoritarian rule, is exposure to selective killings of female individuals.