© Alina Simmelbauer
#LastSeen. Pictures of Nazi Deportations
© Fotograf:in unbekannt, Stadtarchiv München DE-1992-FS-NS-00013
© Fotograf:in unbekannt, Stadtarchiv München DE-1992-FS-NS-00013
The #LastSeen. Pictures of Nazi Deportations initiative focuses on images of deportations from the German Reich between 1938 and 1945. The photos show the last moments of persecuted people before they were wrenched out of their society and murdered.
Approximately 550 such photographs are known so far, but have not been collated systematically and made accessible as a collection. The project partners want to find more images and assemble as much detailed information as possible – with the support of a broad interested public.
The more people help search for images and information, the more informative #LastSeen results will be. Anyone can become active in the context of the initiative: Experts involved in archives and historical research as well as committed local historians and anyone with an interest, including pupils. In eight regions the #LastSeen team is embarking on a targeted search in the hope of making new discoveries: Berlin and the surrounding area, Bavarian Swabia, Swabian Alb, Saxony Triangle, Western Pomerania, Northern Hesse, Rhine-Ruhr area as well as Bremen and Oldenburg. Scientific research is also carried out internationally, especially among descendants of Jewish survivors.
The results of the search are published on a website in the form of an annotated collection of images. In parallel with this, an interactive educational offer is being developed which decodes selected images and in this way opens access to the history of the deportations in the National Socialist era. The aim of #LastSeen is also to bring the memory into the present and to begin a conversation about the options people have when injustice occurs in front of them.
The Arolsen Archives are the world's most comprehensive records of the victims and survivors of National Socialism.
Project partners:
Gedenk- und Bildungsstätte Haus der Wannseekonferenz
Institut für Stadtgeschichte und Erinnerungskultur, Kulturreferat der Landeshauptstadt München
USC Dornsife Center for Advanced Genocide Research, Los Angeles
Zentrum für Antisemitismusforschung, TU Berlin
Duration: 01.11.2021 until 31.12.2022