Dark Tourism
Managing Dark Tourism Sites, Attractions, and Exhibitions
Auschwitz...
Auschwitz which is also known as Auschwitz-Bureau, opened in 1940 and was the largest out of all the Nazi concentration and death camps. It is located in southern Poland, in the industrial town of Oświęcim. Auschwitz was initially served as a detention centre for political prisoners. However, it evolved into a network of camps where Jewish people and other apparent enemies of the Nazi state were exterminated mainly by gas chambers or they were used as slave labour. Some of the prisoners were subjected to barbaric medical experiments led by Josef Mengele. During World War II, more than 1 million people lost their lives in Auschwitz. In January 1945 the Soviet army was approaching and the Nazi officials ordered the camp abandoned and sent an estimated 60,000 prisoners on a forced march to other locations. When the Soviets entered Auschwitz they found thousands of gaunt and emaciated prisoners and piles of corpses left behind. The site is deemed very sacred to many people including the families of the people who dies there, the people that work there and also the visitors coming to the site.
'The exhibition at Auschwitz is not just a tribute to those who died in the camp’s gas chambers; it evokes the whole Holocaust'.
(Gardiner, 2008)
On June 14th 1947, Auschwitz first opened as a tourist attraction and today is one of the world’s most famous memorial sites and dark tourism sites. It is also visited by more than 1 million people annually. There are many different motivations of visiting Auschwitz, some of these are:
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Educational purposes
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Curiosity
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Pay respect to the people that died during the Holocaust
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To remember and prevent from happening again
'If I am ever really in power, the destruction of the Jews will be my first and most important job. As soon as I have power, I shall have gallows after gallows erected, for example, in Munich on the Marienplatz - as many of them as traffic allows. Then the Jews will be hanged one after another, and they will stay hanging until they stink. They will stay hanging as long as hygienically possible. As soon as they are untied, then the next group will follow and that will continue until the last Jew in Munich is exterminated. Exactly the same procedure will be followed in other cities until Germany is cleansed of the last Jew!'
(Hitler's Conversation with Josef Hell, 1922)
When a dark tourism site is receiving a high volume of visitors daily then the management of the site need to be aware of people interacting with the buildings. The management taking care of Auschwitz face this problem with maintaining the buildings and the need to ensure that they use the money they receive to look after and maintain the buildings. Without having the buildings, the site would just be a space again and it wouldn’t be sacred anymore because there would be nothing there but space (Sharpley and Stone, 2009). To be able to manage Auschwitz as a dark tourism site then they need to consider the management issues and put some management practices in place, whilst taking feedback from the visitors as they are paying to visit which pays to keep the memorial running.
Some of the managerial practices being applied in Auschwitz are:
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Selling of souvenirs: With there being multiple gifts shops located in Auschwitz many people are buying the souvenirs. People can in things such as key rings, postcards, maps etc. Many people could piece this as disrespectful with selling ‘cheap’ items to the visitors. Although this could also help with a feeling of both nostalgia and the feeling of comfort.
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Dignity of dead and survivors: The dignity of the dead is defiantly an important thing for the management of Auschwitz. Stone and Sharpley (2009) recognize the need to maintain the dignity of people that the site or attraction commemorates through its interpretation. Around the memorial here are extreme pictures shown which could be seen as compromising their dignity which can be disrespectful to the survivors who has to endure the same conditions as everyone else which would bring back painful memories. But on the other hand it can also be beneficial as it shows the true extent of the surroundings and what each prisoner had to go through. The managers of the sites need to make sure that the survivors are taken into consideration when displaying such shocking imagery. It can be a haunting experience for them knowing that they are all around but also haunting for the families of the victims. One of the main things the management needs to think about if it is ethical to be profiting and showing imagery that could potentially hurt the survivors.
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Managing the memorial/Authentic experience: it is important for the management of Auschwitz to keep the dark tourism site as ‘authentic’ as possible and completely preserve it in an unbiased manner. ‘This place belongs to the history of the entire world, therefore a common ground for reflection in many cases turns out to be necessary’ (Barkat, 2006). The management of Auschwitz is said to have been planning to make a few changes to the camps. They would do this by making it more attractive and appealing to visitors. This idea would receive many negatives comments due the changes ending up with the site losing its identity and authenticity, it would be completely lost. A recommendation to the management would be to preserve the site and keep its true identity. Visitors come and visit so they can get the feeling of they are there in the moment with most of the rooms in the buildings the same. They want to see the thousands of shoes, glasses and even the human hair because it is authentic and has not been changed.
'Inevitably, Auschwitz will grow less authentic with the passage of time'
(Curry, 2010).
