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Research project at Freie Universität Berlin documenting historic photographs of deportations in Nazi Germany receives prestigious online award
The #LastSeen image atlas, an international research project on the history of National Socialism developed at the Selma Stern Center for Jewish Studies Berlin-Brandenburg at Freie Universität Berlin, has received the Grimme Online Award 2024. The project, which is a collaboration between six prestigious international partner organizations, received the most important award in Germany for high-quality scientific, cultural, and journalistic online content in the category “Wissen und Bildung” (Knowledge and Education). This makes #LastSeen one of the few research projects to have ever received the award. The award ceremony took place on October 15, 2024, in Marl, Germany. Roughly one thousand digital content projects in total were submitted for consideration for this year’s Grimme Online Award.
More than two hundred thousand people were deported from Nazi Germany between 1938 and 1945. Most of them were taken to ghettos and extermination camps across Nazi-occupied Europe. The aim of the “#LastSeen: Pictures of Nazi Deportations” project is to collect, research, and publish as many photos of these deportations as possible. The #LastSeen image atlas already contains more than four hundred photos from thirty-three different locations showing the deportation of Jews and Roma people, as well as people with disabilities. Almost all the people in the pictures were murdered. The team behind the project have been able to identify 270 individuals to date and tell their stories at atlas.lastseen.org.
The #LastSeen project strives to collect and research all remaining photos of these deportations. They represent some of the most significant and irrefutable sources we have of National Socialist crimes. All photographs are extensively researched before being published online at https://atlas.lastseen.org/en. The image atlas, which was designed in conjunction with the Munich-based digital agency &why, serves as both a digital image collection and an interactive exhibition. A unique feature of the project is that the images tell their own stories. Tags on the photos draw the user’s attention to specific elements – luggage tags, a child’s stuffed animal, or a certain location. This enables the individual stories of the people in the photos to be told.
#LastSeen impressed the jury with its scientific precision, ethical handling of historic photographs and documents, and its well-thought-out use of digital media
According to the Grimme Online Award jury statement, “The historic photographs from thirty-three different places in Germany do not only depict the people who were deported, but also some of the Sicherheitspolizei officers and bystanders involved, thus serving as testament to the everyday brutality of these deportations. Thanks to the map feature and detailed information provided, they achieve a sense of immediacy that is rarely seen elsewhere.” It added, “#LastSeen impressed the jury with its scientific precision, ethical handling of historic photographs and documents, and its well-thought-out use of digital media. The project demonstrates in a poignant and impactful way how the atrocities committed by the Nazis can be made tangible through careful research and accurate historical appraisals.”
Bodo Klimpel, who is chief administrative officer of the Recklinghausen district, where the Grimme Institute is based, said in his laudatory speech, “It is so easy to forget these people when we don’t see them, when we don’t know their names and no longer see their faces. […] Then it is easy to reduce what happened to a series of facts, dates, and trite statements, to resign it to history. #LastSeen prevents us from doing this and reclaims this history so that we see these people as individuals.”
#LastSeen project undertakes fundamental research directly at the interface to knowledge transfer
The photos show how thousands of persecuted Jews and Roma people were forced out of their homes and escorted to specific gathering places where they were searched, demeaned, and forced to wait before being loaded into trains. Deportations took place all over Germany – and in broad daylight. The photos also show how, in addition to the Gestapo, police, and SS officers, local clerks, doctors, and business owners also helped with the deportations, with neighbors and passers-by watching or even participating themselves. Moderator Anja Backhaus noted that the photos show just how visible deportations were to the wider public at the time. They took place in broad daylight, right at the heart of German cities in front of many witnesses, who in some cases even collaborated with the Nazis. “The narrative that ‘ordinary Germans just didn’t know’ is totally refuted here.”
Head of the project, Dr. Alina Bothe of Freie Universität Berlin highlighted the significance of the award, “#LastSeen conducts fundamental research in the specialist field of history directly at the interface to knowledge transfer. We share our research outcomes online as a work in progress because we want to make research accessible to everyone. Receiving this award goes to show that we have achieved this at the highest level.” Professor Wolf Gruner, project partner and founding director of the USC Dornsife Center for Advanced Genocide Research and Genocide Studies in Los Angeles, added, “The Grimme Online Award illustrates how the idea behind the #LastSeen project encourages the use of innovative research on the Shoah and National Socialism for educational purpose.” The statistics from the past year-and-a-half confirm this assessment. Over fifty thousand people across the world have viewed the image atlas since its inception.
The #LastSeen project’s international research partners
The #LastSeen project is based at the Selma Stern Center for Jewish Studies Berlin-Brandenburg at Freie Universität Berlin, where it is led by Dr. Alina Bothe. Six institutions are involved in the #LastSeen project:
Arolsen Archives: International Center on Nazi Persecution – https://arolsen-archives.org/en/
University of Southern California Dornsife Center for Advanced Genocide Research, Los Angeles – https://dornsife.usc.edu/cagr/
House of the Wannsee Conference Memorial and Educational Site – https://www.ghwk.de/en/
Hadamar Memorial Museum – https://www.gedenkstaette-hadamar.de/en/
Public History München, Department of Arts and Culture, City of Munich – https://public-history-muenchen.de/
Selma Stern Center for Jewish Studies Berlin-Brandenburg – https://www.selma-stern-zentrum.de/
Dr. Alina Bothe, #LastSeen project manager, c/o Selma Stern Center for Jewish Studies Berlin-Brandenburg, Freie Universität Berlin, Habelschwerdter Allee 34A, Email: alina.bothe@fu-berlin.de
https://atlas.lastseen.org/en, #LastSeen image atlas
https://atlas.lastseen.org/, online game developed as part of the #LastSeen project
, Grimme Online Award 2024 awards ceremony
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