Rebecka Ahola
Understanding the Significance of the Dark and Grievous How dark heritage and dark tourism can be a necessary light Purpose Dark Tourism Dark tourism can be explained as a way for tourists to explore or in some way experience death, disasters and darkness by for example, visit sites or participate in different activities. Examples of dark heritage sites are Chernobyl, Hiroshima Peace Memorial and the 9/11 Memorial, all sites where something horrific happened. Like with ’regular’ tourism sites there are different types of dark tourism sites, the ones mentioned above can be seen as places tourist visits to gain experience for understanding, pay respect or in some way connect with the past. But there are also places where tourist go to be part of and/or challenge themselves by participating in different activities or challenges. On the right is a spectrum of dark tourism, from darkest to lightest made by Dr Philip Stone. The spectrum indicates the wideness of dark tourism which states the importance of understanding its significance. Dark tourism can be a way to challenge and/or test ones limits but also to create an understanding for both the past and the present and maybe be a way to keep history from repeating itself by reminding us of what has been.
What is dark heritage/tourism? And what kind of meaning does the dark heritage sites and dark tourism have and for whom? These are the main questions. By analyzing what is being written and said about dark heritage/tourism an understanding can be given to why and how dark tourism have become so popular. It can also reveal a bigger comprehension for how one deals with the past, specially the dark/difficult. And in turn that can give an understanding for the significance of both dark tourism but also dark heritage today.
Dark Heritage Dark heritage embraces the past in the present in less sanitized and unpolished terms than traditional heritage discourses. (Thomas, Herva, Seitsonen & Koskinen-Koivisto 2019)
Dark heritage is within the field of dark tourism studies where the researchers examine the potentially dark concept in cultural heritage. In this context ’dark’ refers to the difficult and/or disturbing and often relates to death, conflict or suffering but also the complex nature of the social impact, multifaceted aspects and politically charged types of heritage, a way to capture the unpleasant history that has an impact on the present. And it should not be mistaken for contested-, dissonant- or negative heritage, those are other, more broad definitions or terms of heritage which shows for the complexity in heritage. Also, one should not think that dark heritage is only about some sort of fascination for death or the macabre. As explained under Dark Tourism it is more about understanding and/or challenge oneself.
Auschwitz Background Auschwitz (or Auschwitz-Birkenau) was three camps in one. The main camp, Auschwitz I established in 1940, an extermination camp with gas chambers, Auschwitz II established in 1941 and a slave-labour camp Auschwitz III, established in 1943. The site is located next to a railway junction with 44 parallel tracks and it was on these railways the victims were transported through Europe to their deaths. The main aim of the camps was to torture and murder Jewish people but also people of other nationalities, war prisoners, homosexuals, et.c. The tourist site The Auschwitz-Birkenau camp complex consist of 155 brick and wooden structures and around 300 ruins and among these ruins are gas chambers, ruined in 1945. The concrete supported fence framing the site is 13 km long. Structures such as houses, railways sidings and ramps, industrial buildings et.c in and around the site all testifies about the horrors that happened here. On the site there are exhibitions showing the clothes or ’striped pyjamas’ that the prisoners had to wear. There are also shoes, purses and other personal belongings displayed behind glass in the museum and the great amount of belongings, thrown in to piles, gives the viewer a chance to grasp the amount of people that lost their lives in the camp.
Interviews To get an understanding for the impact sites like Auschwitz-Birkenau can have on tourist a chapter based on in-depth interviews done with four visitors are being used. The interviews are from a large study of tourism experience at dark heritage sites and are used in the chapter to give the reader understanding for the lived experience.
The purpose of the site So why is it that despite the horrifying happenings on the site, it is kept open as a tourist site? Looking at the description of what dark heritage/tourism are, there are one word that repeats, understanding. And understanding what happened can make us not wanting history to repeat itself which makes the site important and part of peacekeeping. During the liberation a lot of camps got destroyed and part of Auschwitz as well. And the demolished buildings are also of great importance because people wanted to erase history and thereby make us forget which makes it even more important to remember. Because remembering is part of keeping it from happening again.
With the passing of years and decades, their remains do not lose any of their significance as a warning monument; rather they gain in meaning. Survivor Primo Levi Quoted in Dark Tourism: practice and interpretation
Experience Leading To Significance? Before visiting it is of great meaning to pay respect to and One of the interviewed expressed remember the people murdered on the site. concerns for how others would react to him After the visit going there because of how society seem to The person interviewed expressing a either hide or forbid death. And therefore feeling that Auschwitz is a site you ’have to visiting a site like Auschwitz, as a tourist, go to’ expressed how after the visit he and can be seen as something strange or his wife, who joined him, had to gather unpleasant to do. themselves with their thoughts for a few Another of the interviewed expressed days before they could talk about the how he feels a need to go there, like it is experience, which shows the deep impact the something you have to do, not due to site had on them. ”morbid curiosity” but to experience it and And the person stating that he felt a sort to pay respect. of concern visiting the site stated that he felt Visiting the site to pay respect was also a sort of relief over not having to go through brought up and described as very important what happened on the site himself. But also in another interview. The person meant that that, as a visitor, you hope it is over at that it
Ashworth, E, J. & Tunbridge, J, G. (2017) p.109
never will happen again, that we learned from it. Conclusion The reactions show that the site leaves visitors touched and filled with thoughts and emotions but also a greater understanding which, as mentioned, is the purpose. Sites lite Auschwitz need to exist to keep us reminded of what has been. Because it is when we chose to forget that the risk of repeating grows. So, even if dark heritage/tourism can result in unpleasant experiences it is necessary. It educates us, gives us an understanding for the past that helps us in the present and therefore it is, very significant.