Seilersbahn @museum.de

M2: "When we were first called upon to do our duty, our hearts were in our mouths, as we wondered whether our nerves would hold out. Not everyone is capable of witnessing such an event, especially since we are dealing with beings who, given their plight and their actions, would not have deserved to die."

F: For 40 years, Sebastian Grundel was the cemetery warden in Bruchsal. He and his family lived on the first floor of the mortuary in the middle of the graveyard. In his memoirs, Sebastian Grundel recorded what happened in the final two years of the war in what was known as the "Psycha an der Seilersbahn", a facility for prisoners with psychiatric disorders.

M2: "For many people, Bruchsal had already been a city famous and feared for its prison, but this was to be surpassed by the executions carried out there."

F: During the Nazi era, Bruchsal prison was designated as one of the main execution sites, along with Munich-Stadelheim prison and Stuttgart remand centre. Between June 1944 and January 1945, at least 55 civilians were executed in Bruchsal. It is no longer possible to establish the number of soldiers murdered there.

M2: "The slimmer the chances of victory were, the harsher the sentences for crimes and offences became. This held true for both military tribunals and the verdicts of the criminal courts. All it took was a very young soldier telling a fellow soldier he'd had enough, and a death sentence would be passed and he lost his life."

F: The place of execution was a shed on the grounds of the Psycha. The first victims included Andreas and Emilie Glock, a married couple from Mannheim. They were accused of looting and, having been labelled anti-social vermin, were sentenced to death.

M2: "How must the wife have felt when the public prosecutor appeared in her cell at 3 p.m. that afternoon and told her: (...) Prepare yourself, your sentence will be carried out at 7 p.m. How bitterly she wept when she begged to be allowed to speak to her husband one more time and her request was refused."

F: The sentences were carried out by guillotine. The blade descended at three-minute intervals, as we know from the meticulously kept execution records. Sebastian Grundel would receive a list the day before, which he then had to take to the city registry office, where the death certificates had already been issued.

M2: "First in line were those sentenced by the Wehrmacht for undermining military morale, desertion, etc., and afterwards, those sentenced by the courts. A date was set for them at monthly intervals. On one occasion, 13 victims were executed in a single afternoon. Most were so nervous, they were shaking and their condition varied widely."

F: Today, there are few reminders of the horrors of that time. Where the Psycha facility once stood, there's now a park and the town's civic centre. However, the street is still called Seilersbahn.