During the Second World War, agricultural supplies and the war economy in the German Reich were maintained with the help of forced labor. Between 1939 and 1945, the Wehrmacht and the German labor authorities deported over 13 million people from the territories occupied by Germany to work in the Reich. Forced laborers also worked in Wiesbaden under poor conditions in large companies, medium-sized and small firms and for the city administration. The first forced laborers arrived here in 1940. At the peak of the so-called foreign labor deployment in the summer of 1944, between 6,500 and 7,000 foreign workers had to perform forced labor in Wiesbaden. Among them was Edward Seweryn from Ludwinów in Poland. He had to perform forced labor at the Willy Rauch nursery. He was arrested in 1942. He was accused of sexually abusing his employer's daughter. He was executed in the Fasanerie on July 10, 1942.

Edward Seweryn, born on March 30, 1915 in Ludwinów, Kielce district, was one of the Polish forced laborers deployed in Wiesbaden from 1940. There is hardly any information about his life. What is documented is that he had to start working for Willy Rauch in the Wiesbaden district of Kleinfeldchen on May 1, 1940. Willy Rauch, who was born on November 10, 1900 in Wiesbaden, had been running a market garden next to the Kleinfeldchen sports field since 1933.

Edward Seweryn was processed for identification by the Wiesbaden criminal investigation department on 21 January 1942. Witnesses stated in the post-war period that Seweryn was accused of sexually abusing his employer's underage daughter. In accordance with the Polish Criminal Code, the case was punished extremely harshly and without due process of law. Officers of the Secret State Police Station in Frankfurt am Main executed Edward Seweryn in the Fasanerie on July 10, 1942. The Fasanerie was a municipal property that was not yet being used as a zoo at the time. It was leased to Dr. Richard Beer, who used it for agricultural purposes. Between 1939 and 1945, at least 26 foreign forced laborers were employed here.

Shortly after Seweryn's death, Katharina Sawtschenko, who came from Kiev, was put to work in the Willy Rauch nursery. She was followed on May 2, 1944 by Stanislaw Wroniewicz, who was just 17 years old.

The long-term war against the Soviet Union and the increasing demand for labour in the armaments industry in particular led to the centralization of labour policy from 1942 onwards. On March 21, 1942, Fritz Sauckel (1894-1946) was appointed "General Plenipotentiary for Labour Deployment". After the defeat at Stalingrad, labour policy was further radicalized and the "deployment of foreigners" was expanded enormously in all areas. Prisoners of war and concentration camp inmates were increasingly used for labor, resulting in the development of an extensive network of POW and concentration camp satellite camps. For the civilian workers from the Soviet Union who were deported to the German Reich from spring 1942, a comprehensive special law was created along the lines of the "Polish decrees".

The system of "deployment of foreigners" thus created remained in place until the final weeks of the war. The bombing of German cities and the turmoil of the last days of the war threatened the lives of the forced laborers. On March 9, 1945, the largest forced labour camp in Wiesbaden was destroyed. As the foreign forced laborers were forbidden to go to shelters, over 20 people died as a result of the bombing of the camp, which was located near the Wiesbaden slaughterhouse. With the destruction of the camp, all structures for supplying the forced laborers also collapsed. The foreign workers wandered through the city looking for ways to procure food. They were liberated when the US army marched in on March 28, 1945. Most of the survivors remained in Wiesbaden for several months as "displaced persons" until the military government was able to transfer them to their home countries.

In the course of the legal investigation into Nazi crimes in the 1950s and 1960s, Seweryn's death was also investigated by the Hessian State Criminal Police Office in Wiesbaden. The unknown perpetrators were investigated for murder.

Between 1962 and 1964, the detectives questioned former officers of the Secret State Police in Frankfurt am Main and its branch office in Wiesbaden, among others. The investigations revealed that Bernhard Weyland, an assistant officer with the Frankfurt Gestapo, carried out the execution. Other officers, including the head of the Frankfurt Gestapo Oswald Poche, are said to have taken part in the execution. In his interrogation, Weyland also stated that around ten Polish forced laborers were forced to attend Seweryn's execution. This served as a deterrent and was intended to spread fear among the forced laborers.

The proceedings against the officials responsible for carrying out the execution were dropped by the senior public prosecutor at Frankfurt am Main Regional Court on January 6, 1968. Either the accused could not prove their involvement in the execution beyond doubt or, as in the case of Weyland, they claimed to have carried out orders from their superiors without realizing that they were participating in a crime.

An information stele at the entrance to Tierpark Fasanerie has commemorated forced laborers deported to Wiesbaden since 2025. The case of Edward Seweryn and his execution are also critically examined on site.