The picture series taken at the Hanau main train station and its forecourt on May 30, 1942 consists of nineteen photographs which record the deportation of the Jews from the Hanau town and rural district. The photographs were taken by Franz Weber, town photographer and head of the Hanau “Bildstelle” (photographic service), who archived the small picture negatives available on six strips (A-F) himself. Contact prints were made, glued on file cards and labeled in the post-war era. They show the deportees waiting in front of the station, boarding the train and the train’s departure in the direction of Kassel on platform two (today: platform nine).

Franz Weber, photographer of the series, headed the Hanau “Bildstelle” (photographic service) which was established in 1934. There he archived and developed the negatives himself. A photo from the series which shows the Gernsheimer family boarding the train has been preserved at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Holocaust survivor Simon Strauss stated that he had received the print from the US American Military Government in 1945 and written his uncle’s name Ludwig Gernsheimer on it.  He showed it on the occasion of two contemporary witness interviews recorded on video which are part of the holdings of the Visual History Archive now.