Representing each life as an animated particle, this map visualizes the data kept by the Nazis at two concentration camps—Dachau and Flossenbürg. Rather than limiting the scope of these lives to only the years affected by the Third Reich, this animated map begins with the birth year of the oldest known man kept at these camps for violating paragraph 175, which was the law prohibiting consensual relationships between consenting adult men. The map shows each man’s birth year and location and traces their forced movement into the camp systems.
The animation contains a timeline that unfolds alongside the populating map. As the dates near 1945, the particles take on new colors to represent the last known status of each person.
— A collaborative project led by Dr. Katie Fisher, coded by Prajakta Patankar, with support from Mallikarjun Nagaraja, Amol Bhadane, and Jennifer Cantrell-Sutor. This project was completed as a part of the work of the Digital Studies of the Holocaust project which is directed by Dr. Nils Roemer at the University of Texas at Dallas in 2025.
Data Sources
- Dachau Camp Records: Alphabetical Register of Prisoners of the Concentration Camp Dachau, A – Z
- Flossenbürg Camp Records: Internment Book (Numbers) of CC Flossenbürg
- 396,683 records reviewed
- Over 600 individuals included
Counter-Mapping & Animation
- Coded in JavaScript
- Running on Processing 4
- Final video edited in Adobe Premier
Presented at Holocaust Remembrance Day (Yom HaShoah), University of Texas at Dallas, April 2025
As a team, we worked to make visible the lives of these men who were persecuted for para 175, with the goal including their lives prior to the rise of the Third Reich.