The crime scene cleaners

“The smell of corpses eats into your hair”

They have seen a lot of bad things - the job of crime scene cleaners is to clean up where terrible things have happened.(Bild: Andi Schiel)

They are always there where tragedies have happened. Where people have been murdered, committed suicide - or died a lonely death. Three crime scene cleaners talk about their worst assignments.

Peter Holzer is a man with a sinewy build, you can tell from his hands that he's good with his hands. He has a melancholy expression around his mouth. His bright eyes are striking. They have seen a lot of bad things in the past two years ...

The trained chef has been working as a crime scene cleaner for the Viennese company Zelenka since the beginning of 2016. His job: he cleans. Where terrible things have happened. When people have been murdered, committed suicide or died a lonely death.

A typical beginner's mistake for a crime scene cleaner: taking the tragedy to heart.(Bild: zVg)

Holzer's memories of his first assignment: "It was in an apartment in Vienna. A young man had killed his father. And I made a serious rookie mistake before cleaning up. I looked at the photos of the family hanging on the walls. And then there was this horrible movie in my head. The crime played out in front of me, the scene of the son stabbing his father. A colleague realized what was happening to me and brought me back to reality: 'Don't think about the tragedy or you'll go crazy. Just do your job and think about something nice while you're doing it'."