Here, all surviving images of deportations from the German Reich between 1938 and 1945 are digitally published in a curated and scientifically contextualized format. With its complex filtering structure and the annotation of photographs with historical context, the Image Atlas serves as both a digital edition and an interactive exhibition. It provides various target audiences with a high standard digital access to deportation photographs.
In the digital collection of #LastSeen, you will find digitized images of varying provenance and quality. This reflects the different materials in which the photos have been preserved: (glass) negatives, contact prints, original prints, slides, and newspaper clippings are the historical formats. Most of the images are in black-and-white or sepia, with only one series known to be in color. The preservation of the images produced additional forms: copies, photographic reproductions, digital scans, prints for publication purposes, and stills from video footage. Depending on the source, the photographs are therefore available in varying resolutions. The backs of the prints, when available, are sometimes labeled or annotated. These reverses are crucial for analyzing the images, which is why they are also included in the Image Atlas. This complex materiality is challenging, as some images are of outstanding quality while others are very poor. Some images are blurry and skewed in both the overall view and on the individual image level. Certain photos even need to be resized to fit within the strictly geometric grid. The varying quality allows for different levels of analysis: sometimes more is visible, sometimes less.
Photographs require context to be used as historical sources. Therefore, the Image Atlas provides information for each photo, including a descriptive caption, a brief account of the deportation, references to further sources and literature, information about the image series as a whole and its preservation, as well as a short biography of the photographer (if known). The extent and scholarly validity of the provided information vary depending on the available sources. We strive to represent the reliability of the information through semantics.
All photographs in the Image Atlas are annotated. White dots indicate that background information is available directly on a particular image. We use three forms of these so-called tags: First, identified individuals are highlighted, and their biographies are provided if possible. Second, we use descriptive tags to explain recurring elements in the images and assist users in their analysis. These tags are also programmed as filters, allowing users to easily compile images containing specific elements. Third, we include narrative tags, which represent a new and innovative way to tell stories through direct annotations on the photos. For example, this can be seen in the images of the first deportation from Munich in 1941. Currently, the three tagging formats are not visually distinguishable, but this will be adjusted in the near future.
The Image Atlas offers various ways to view the complete collection. On an interactive map, the photographs are displayed as precisely as possible in their locations of creation, having been georeferenced in advance. The grid view organizes the collected photographs alphabetically by location. In this view, users can filter images by different dimensions: location, time period, persecuted group, image content and setting, as well as by the descriptive annotations mentioned above. This allows for quick and easy comparison of images from different series. A full-text search of the entire Image Atlas is also available.
These different functions and display modes distinguish the digital Image Atlas from a traditional printed source edition. They facilitate a low-barrier comparative analysis and provide a fragmented yet interconnected narrative about the various image series.
The publication of photographs, which typically originate from the cameras of perpetrators and were taken without the consent of the depicted victims, raises ethical questions and issues. Is their publication appropriate, or does it further perpetuate the dehumanization and disenfranchisement of the victims? What kind of curatorial framing does a digital edition of images of violence require? To address these questions and establish principles for our Image Atlas, we consulted with experts in this field during the conceptual phase.
Like other historical sources, photographs contain contemporary language. The texts, usually presented as captions or on the backs of images, are often anti-Semitic or anti-Roma, and may contain cynicism or euphemisms. Since we strive for accuracy in handling sources, we include these texts and transcribe them even when the handwriting is difficult to read. Unfortunately, this also means we reproduce ideological elements of National Socialism, as with the content of the images themselves. Therefore, the scholarly contextualization of the photographs in the Image Atlas is a high priority for us. The alternative of omitting or concealing these source elements is not an option. We rely on the users of the Image Atlas for their careful and critical reading.
Learn more about the ethical considerations and principles of the Image Atlas:
#LastSeen is a foundational research project that raises numerous advanced research questions based on the Image Atlas. Our digital edition provides a consolidated digital access to deportation photographs, framed appropriately through scholarly contextualization. The complex filtering structure makes the Image Atlas especially useful for researching the visual history of National Socialism from various thematic perspectives. Additionally, researchers are continuously invited to supplement or correct the information available in the ever-evolving digital edition. For this purpose, our team can be reached at lastseen@zedat.fu-berlin.de
The photographic collection published in the Image Atlas is particularly well-suited for educational work, especially because it allows for local or regional references and identifies individual people. Connections to other written sources can be easily established. Currently, a guide is being developed to assist educators in working with the Image Atlas. For a more in-depth engagement with photographs as sources, #LastSeen provides a digital discovery game for classroom use.
A digital representation of historical sources often gives an impression of completeness. We do not claim or aspire to do this. There are various gaps, of which only a few can be mentioned: There are no photographs from numerous locations, and there are temporal gaps, such as missing images from 1943 onwards, as illustrated by the placeholder tiles in the grid view of the Image Atlas. Particularly absent from the currently known images is the perspective of the persecuted.
Like other digital projects, the Image Atlas is a work in progress. Additional series will be gradually cataloged and published to complement the collection of deportation images from the Reich territory within its 1937 borders. Thematic and geographical expansions are also planned. During the current project phase, photographs from Austria and from transports related to the Nazi euthanasia program are expected to be added.
- The #LastSeen project does not hold the image rights but serves informational and research purposes. To use individual photographs for publication, you must contact the owning archives, which are listed under each image.
- In this version of the Image Atlas, the zoom functions are not available within the Image Atlas itself; please use your browser’s zoom function for this purpose.
- Annotations in the form of white dots can be toggled on or off using a slider located at the top left edge of the image.
All images and their associated entries in the Image Atlas are linked with an URL referencing the image ID, making each image entry citable.
For academic publications, we recommend the following citation format:
Author of the image entry: Title of the image page, in: Alina Bothe (ed.): #LastSeen. Images of Nazi Deportations, Berlin 2023, LINK (last accessed)
Example: Kerstin Hofmann: Deportation from Gailingen to Gurs on October 22, 1940, in: Alina Bothe (ed.): #LastSeen. Images of Nazi Deportations, Berlin 2023; https://atlas.lastseen.org/image/gailingen/76 (last accessed: July 30, 2024)
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.
