The photographs published in the #LastSeen Image Atlas and educational game were taken in extremely violent situations. They depict the structural violence of the Nazi regime and the criminal mistreatment of its victims by German perpetrators, often in public. The photos show the degradation of the persecuted. Reproducing them means repeating the victimization and the perpetrator’s gaze. Their publication therefore carries responsibility.
The vast majority of the photos were taken by perpetrators or on their behalf—against the will or at least without the consent of the photographed individuals. The National Socialists deprived their victims of the right to their own image, turning them into mere objects of documentation and performance records. The act of photographing was often itself a part of the violence inflicted on the victims. Viewing these photos requires a critical perspective that recognizes them as evidence of the violence, while also being aware that they usually represent only very small, selected, and sometimes staged portions of the events. At the same time, most of the photographs also represent the last images of the victims before their murder.
Survivors and relatives of the persecuted have rescued many of the photos and noted important information on them. For example, in an oral history interview in the Visual History Archive, survivor Lou Beverstein shows a photo taken during the deportation from Halberstadt to Warsaw on April 14, 1942. Lou Beverstein recognized his parents, Hugo and Paula Beverstein, in the photo. He and other survivors have significantly contributed to the preservation of some of these photographs, and the names of some of the people depicted are now known. These images are not only significant sources for historical research but also important testimonies of the crimes and documents of remembrance for the murdered individuals.
The collection gradually published in the #LastSeen Image Atlas is incomplete in many ways. The deportations were preceded by years of disenfranchisement, discrimination, and persecution, which are often only recognizable in the images with the appropriate knowledge. Few images from the perspective of the persecuted—taken secretly—have survived. The images do not adequately represent their previous lives as part of the society that excluded and persecuted them during the National Socialist era, nor their perception of the events. Further gaps arise from the fact that only a fraction of the deportations to concentration and extermination camps from the German Reich are documented in photos. For example, no photographs are known from major cities like Berlin or Frankfurt am Main, from which tens of thousands of people were deported, nor from the period after 1943. Conversely, photographs from the so-called Wagner-Bürckel-Aktion in Southwest Germany in 1940 are overrepresented compared to other phases of deportation.
Digital representations often suggest completeness. To counteract this impression, we have implemented disruption tiles on the homepage of the Image Atlas to highlight these gaps. They are intended to remind users of the inherent incompleteness of the source corpus.
Transparency is one of our guiding principles in the textual description of the photographs: What do we know for certain? What can we assume based on available evidence? What do we not know? It is important for us to reference the research and work of other colleagues upon whom our knowledge is based. These references are intended to encourage users to engage more deeply with the photos and the events depicted.
The primary goal of the design of the Image Atlas is to foster a critical and reflective approach to the photographs. Thus, the images are presented here only with thorough contextualization. Annotations that users can access directly from the image link contextual knowledge directly with the photographs. The markings on the photos interrupt the viewers' gaze and provide historical information that can shed light on the circumstances and processes of the deportation and influence the interpretation of the image.
A key focus is on the names and biographies of individuals persecuted as Jews, Romani and Sinti people, or in the context of the Nazi euthanasia program. Whenever possible, personal documents and photos showing them in their lives before deportation are also displayed. In the few cases where reports or interviews with survivors are available, these are also linked. This approach aims not only to question the perpetrator's gaze inherent in the majority of the images — the perspective of victims as deindividualized persecuted people — but also to make counter-narratives to the photographed deportations visible. The goal is to facilitate a shift in perspective for viewers. Additionally, perpetrators and bystanders visible in many of the images are identified and named when known.
The design of the Image Atlas, however, cannot provide definitive answers to the questions regarding the ethical presentation of the violent photographs of the Nazi deportations. These questions must be continually asked, reflected upon, and ultimately answered by the viewers themselves. It is about careful observation, reflection, understanding, and remembrance. What do these images mean – historically, but also in the present, for us as individuals and as a society?
The #LastSeen project team thanks André Raatzsch, Frank Reuter, and Theresia Ziehe for their support of the project through the discussion of ethical issues.
Co-operation network #LastSeen.
Pictures of Nazi deportations
Dr. Alina Bothe
Project lead
c/o Selma Stern Zentrum für Jüdische Studien Berlin-Brandenburg
Freie Universität Berlin
Habelschwerdter Allee 34A
14195 Berlin
©2024 #LastSeen. Pictures of Nazi deportations. All rights reserved.
