Photographs of Nazi Deportations from Hamburg Discovered for the First Time
The images had previously been mistakenly interpreted as evacuation photos
On October 25, 1941, more than 1,000 Jewish residents of Hamburg were deported to the Litzmannstadt Ghetto. Until now, there were no known photographic documents of this event. Researchers at Freie Universität Berlin and the Hamburg Memorials and Learning Centers Foundation have now succeeded in identifying three photographs of this deportation. The photographs show the arrival of the persecuted people at the assembly point and their transport by troop trucks to the Hannoverscher Bahnhof – the starting point for deportations during the Nazi era. The researchers are now hoping for information from the public to help them identify the people in the photographs.
The relevant discovery was made in collaboration between historians from the project Documentation Center denk.mal Hannoverscher Bahnhof of the Hamburg Memorials and Learning Centers Foundation and the joint project #LastSeen. Images of Nazi Deportations at the Selma Stern Center for Jewish Studies Berlin-Brandenburg at the Free University of Berlin. The three identified photographs provide new perspectives on the deportation by the Nazi state in the fall of 1941.
The photos come from a photo album belonging to Bernhardt Colberg, a member of Reserve Police Battalion 101—the military unit of the order police in Hamburg during National Socialism. The album is now kept at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C. Until now, the people depicted in the photographs had been described as “victims of Allied air raids prior to their evacuation.” This interpretation has now been refuted by scientific expertise and an intensive validation process.
Researchers at Freie Universität Berlin and the Documentation center denk.mal Hannoverscher Bahnhof project have proven that the photos instead show the Nazi deportation process at the Logenhaus collection point on Moorweidenstraße in the Hanseatic city. Eighty-four years ago, on October 24, 1941, persecuted Jewish residents of Hamburg had to report to the Logenhaus with the few belongings they were allowed to take with them. There, they were subjected to degrading searches and robbery by Gestapo and Nazi tax officials. After a night spent in cramped conditions and under catastrophic circumstances, the women, children, and men were taken by police trucks to Hannoverscher Bahnhof – the central departure point in Hamburg for Nazi deportations – on the morning of October 25, 1941, and from there to the Litzmannstadt Ghetto.
Between 1940 and 1945, a total of more than 8,000 Jews, Sinti, and Roma from Hamburg and northern Germany were deported to forced labor camps, ghettos, concentration camps, and extermination camps in German-occupied Eastern Europe. Today, a memorial commemorates the victims who were deported from here.
Dr. Alina Bothe, historian and project manager of the project “#LastSeen. Images of Nazi Deportations” at Freie Universität Berlin, emphasizes: “Based on our project’s expertise, it was clear to me at first glance that these were photographs of a deportation. The complex process of scientific validation, in which numerous colleagues thankfully participated, confirmed this initial impression.”
Dr. Kristina Vagt, from the project Documentation Center denk.mal Hannoverscher Bahnhof / Hamburg Memorials and Learning Centers Foundation, explains: “In our project, we have been searching for such images for a long time, because until now, the events at the collection point in Moorweidenstraße could only be reconstructed from oral and written memoirs and trial statements by the perpetrators. Photos are particularly important as historical sources in exhibitions. They show that the injustices took place in broad daylight and in the middle of the city. By publishing the three photos from October 25, 1941, we hope to receive information from the public about the victims depicted, but also about the police officers and Gestapo officials.”
Wolfgang Kopitzsch, former police president in Hamburg and historian, explains: “Reserve Police Battalion 101 is particularly notorious for its numerous crimes, participation in deportations, and mass murders. The photos are dated October 1941 by Colberg, and there is no reason to doubt this date. At that time, there were no significant air raids on Hamburg, so these are not photographs of an evacuation of non-Jewish Hamburg residents. The pictures show a crime committed in Hamburg by PB 101.”
Further Information
The photos will be included in the online image atlas of #LastSeen, hosted by Freie Universität Berlin, where they will be presented and critically analyzed from an academic perspective: https://atlas.lastseen.org
- The photos will be shown in a pop-up exhibition from November 4, 2025, to January 6, 2026, at the Geschichtsort Stadthaus: Stadthausbrücke 6, 20355 Hamburg, opening hours: Monday to Saturday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
- Dr. Alina Bothe, Dr. Kristina Vagt, Johanna Schmied, and Wolfgang Kopitzsch will present the photos and the results of the investigation in a lecture: “Close-up: The Hamburg Deportations to the Ghettos in the Fall of 1941” Tuesday, November 4th, 2025.
About #LastSeen
The cooperative project #LastSeen. Images of Nazi Deportations uniquely combines research, education, and remembrance of the Holocaust. Since 2021, historians around the world have been searching for photographs documenting deportations that took place between 1938 and 1945 within the territory of the German Reich. These photographic findings are gradually being published in the award-winning digital image atlas #LastSeen. By 2026, hundreds of images from 60 locations across Germany will be accessible online.
#LastSeen is an initiative of the Arolsen Archives and partners:
- USC Dornsife Center for Advanced Genocide Research, Los Angeles
- Gedenkstätte Hadamar
- PHM Public History München
- Gedenk- und Bildungsstätte Haus der Wannsee-Konferenz
- Selma Stern Zentrum für Jüdische Studien Berlin-Brandenburg
Funded by
- Alfred Landecker Foundation
- Stiftung Erinnerung Verantwortung Zukunft (EVZ)
Read more about the project