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| ID | 387 |
|---|---|
| Original Title | Unravelling Emotions in the Dark Tourism Experience: A Theoretical and Empirical Analysis |
| Sanitized Title | unravellingemotionsinthedarktourismexperienceatheoreticalandempiricalanalysis |
| Clean Title | Unravelling Emotions In The Dark Tourism Experience: A Theoretical And Empirical Analysis |
| Source ID | 2 |
| Article Id01 | 614766318 |
| Article Id02 | oai:clok.uclan.ac.uk:32523 |
| Corpus ID | (not set) |
| Dup | (not set) |
| Dup ID | (not set) |
| Url | https://core.ac.uk/outputs/614766318 |
| Publication Url | (not set) |
| Download Url | https://core.ac.uk/download/614766318.pdf |
| Original Abstract | Since 1996 the subject of dark tourism was gaining an increasing interest among academics and practitioners. That does not mean that sites of or connected with death did not exist in the literature before, but labelling it somehow allowed the wider public to understand and conform to that term. Death was fascinating humans for centuries, and if the death occurred rapidly, or as a result of disaster, macabre, muss-murder, or in the other significant way then people for various purposes wanted to “see it for themselves” and participate in safe presence around death. What they took with them as an experience became an interest of the proposed research. This thesis is aimed to explain visitors’ emotions within dark tourism experiences with the focus on two Holocaust locations. Extermination camps are treated by many authors as pinnacles of dark tourism; they demonstrate the biggest genocide that happened within living memories. In many cases they are able to display the authentic tools which enabled annihilation of the prisoners of Nazi regime. Although brutal in a message they try to portray, the concentration camps are now museums with as many as 2 million visitors a year. As motives of visiting former concentration camps has been sufficiently covered in the literature, the issue of emotions and overall experience of visitors stays still uninformed. This thesis will attempt to define main emotions declared by visitors of two former extermination camps: Majdanek and Auschwitz-Birkenau. The element of comparison between both camps is perceived as a valuable contribution to the knowledge of dark tourism emotions and may possess an important managerial implication for executives at both camps. The research also attempts to display emotions in a wider scope of tourism experience, both concentration camps were able to carry high educational and transformational experience, hence looking at the experience solely through the lenses of emotions could be misleading. Finally, the findings of this thesis also indicate that both positive and negative emotions are experienced simultaneously during the visit. In addition, both types of emotions were found to have a positive association with the quality of the experience |
| Clean Abstract | (not set) |
| Tags | (not set) |
| Original Full Text | Unravelling Emotions in the Dark Tourism Experience: A Theoretical and Empirical Analysis by Agnieszka Maria Salajczyk A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment for the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at the University of Central Lancashire 31st of March 2024 i RESEARCH STUDENT DECLARATION FORM Type of Award PhD School School of Management Sections marked * delete as appropriate 1. Concurrent registration for two or more academic awards I declare that while registered as a candidate for the research degree, I have not been a registered candidate or enrolled student for another award of the University or other academic or professional institution 2. Material submitted for another award I declare that no material contained in the thesis has been used in any other submission for an academic award and is solely my own work 3. Collaboration N/A 4. Use of a Proof-reader No proof-reading service was used in the compilation of this thesis. Signature of Candidate Print name: Agnieszka Maria Salajczyk ii Abstract Since 1996 the subject of dark tourism was gaining an increasing interest among academics and practitioners. That does not mean that sites of or connected with death did not exist in the literature before, but labelling it somehow allowed the wider public to understand and conform to that term. Death was fascinating humans for centuries, and if the death occurred rapidly, or as a result of disaster, macabre, muss-murder, or in the other significant way then people for various purposes wanted to “see it for themselves” and participate in safe presence around death. What they took with them as an experience became an interest of the proposed research. This thesis is aimed to explain visitors’ emotions within dark tourism experiences with the focus on two Holocaust locations. Extermination camps are treated by many authors as pinnacles of dark tourism; they demonstrate the biggest genocide that happened within living memories. In many cases they are able to display the authentic tools which enabled annihilation of the prisoners of Nazi regime. Although brutal in a message they try to portray, the concentration camps are now museums with as many as 2 million visitors a year. As motives of visiting former concentration camps has been sufficiently covered in the literature, the issue of emotions and overall experience of visitors stays still uninformed. This thesis will attempt to define main emotions declared by visitors of two former extermination camps: Majdanek and Auschwitz-Birkenau. The element of comparison between both camps is perceived as a valuable contribution to the knowledge of dark tourism emotions and may possess an important managerial implication for executives at both camps. The research also attempts to display emotions in a wider scope of tourism experience, both concentration camps were able to carry high educational and transformational experience, hence looking at the experience solely through the lenses of emotions could be misleading. iii Finally, the findings of this thesis also indicate that both positive and negative emotions are experienced simultaneously during the visit. In addition, both types of emotions were found to have a positive association with the quality of the experience. iv Podziękowania Te parę minionych lat zawsze zostanie w mojej pamięci. Pisanie pracy doktoranckiej to fascynujacy czas, jakkolwiek także trudny. Czasami czułam sie samotnie – w końcu to ja byłam odpowiedzialna za projekt badań, dobȯr literatury a poza tym za prowadzenie życia zawodowego i rodzinnego. Jakkolwiek zawsze czułam wsparcie osȯb, bez ktȯrych mȯj projekt nie byłby możliwy. Po pierwsze chciałabym podziękować mojemu pierwszemu promotorowi – Profesorowi Richard Sharpley za nieustanną wiarę we mnie i za uczynienie moich pierwszych lat w tym procesie bardzo stymulujacych. Dziekuję za wiarę we mnie i za inspiracje. Dziekuję moim promotorom – Dr Paul Fallon i Dr Daniel Wright, ktȯrzy pomogali mi w końcowym etapie moich badań. Paul – dziekuję za to że byłeś nie tylko skarbnicą wiedzy, ale także niezwykle ciepłym i otwartym czlowiekiem, ktȯry wiele razy pomȯgł mi wstać na nogi i spojrzeć w gȯrę. Pragnę podziekować osobom, bez ktȯrych moje badanie nie byłyby możliwe. Pani Jolancie Laskowskiej i Panu Markowi Dudzie z Muzeum na Majdanku oraz Doktorowi Jackowi Lachendrze i Panu Tomaszowi Michaldo z Muzeum Auschwitz-Birkenau bardzo dziekuję za czas ktȯry mi poświęcili i niezwykle interesujace informacje, ktȯrymi zechcieli się ze mna dzielić. Pragnę podziekować mojemu partnerowi – Matt Coplestone za to że zawsze wspiera moje dążenia do celu i za to, że w dobrych chwilach, a także w chwilach zwątpień potrafi pomȯc w realizacji moich marzeń. Mojej Cȯrce – Chloe Coplestone dziekuję za cierpliwość i zrozumienie mojego napietego grafiku, przełożonych wakacji czy naprędce przygotowanego obiadu – jestem z Ciebie dumna. Chcę podziekować moim Rodzicom – Jolancie i Andrzejowi Sałajczyk. Nie jestem w stanie wyrazić mojego podziekowania za ogromne wsparcie, ktȯre towarzyszyło mi przez te lata. Ich wiara we mnie i słowa otuchy były i są bezcenne. v Acknowledgements The last few years took me through a path that will stay with me forever. Writing a doctoral thesis is a fascinating journey, however not an easy one. Often it seemed a lonely process being responsible for research, reading, writing, and managing a professional and family life at the same time. However, I never felt alone and helpless and this is thanks to the individuals who made this journey not only possible, but also a cherished one for me. Firstly, I would like to thank my supervisory team: Professor Richard Sharpley for having faith and providing me with the most interesting experience and guiding me through the first years of my degree. It was a pleasure to have your support and offering solutions when I was doubting myself. I would like to say a big thank you to my supervisory team: Dr Paul Fallon and Dr Daniel Wright. You have been exposed to my never-ending questions and doubts towards the submission date. Paul, you have been not only extremely knowledgeable and professional, but also kind and patient one, managing to “pick me up” multiple times – for that, I am eternally grateful. I would like to thank people without whom my research would not be as thorough: Mrs Jolanta Laskowska and Mr Marek Duda from State Museum at Majdanek and Dr Jacek Lachendro and Mr. Tomasz Michaldo from Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum. Those people granted me their time and attention during the in depth interviews and contributed hugely to many findings in this thesis. I would like to thank my partner – Matt Coplestone who was and is a constant support to me. It was him who witnessed my highs and lows and who continued to encourage me to reach my dream. To my daughter - Chloe Coplestone for understanding the reality of my busy schedule, postponed holidays and beans on toast which sometimes had to suffice for dinner due to my limited time. I love you and I am blessed to be your mum. Finally, a big thank you to my parents Mr Jolanta and Andrzej Salajczyk. It is impossible to measure how much they helped me through those years; their faith in me, care and understanding is beyond what I could wish for. I simply cannot name everyone who helped me in any way to finish my thesis but for those – I am entirely grateful. vi Table of Contents 1. Introduction ............................................................................................. 1 1.1. Locating the thesis in the context of dark tourism ........................................ 1 1.2. Introduction to the death camps ..................................................................... 2 1.3. Introduction to former KL Auschwitz-Birkenau and KL Majdanek; the past and present .................................................................................................................. 2 1.4. Death camps as ripe contexts for investigating emotional experiences ...... 4 1.5. Proposed conceptual frameworks .................................................................. 5 1.6. Introduction to the aim and the objectives of the thesis ............................... 7 1.7. Structure of the thesis ..................................................................................... 7 1.7.1. Literature review ................................................................................................. 7 1.7.2. Methodology ....................................................................................................... 9 1.7.3. Analysis and discussion ..................................................................................... 9 2. Dark tourism .......................................................................................... 11 2.1. Introduction to the chapter ............................................................................ 11 2.2. The rise of dark tourism and thanatourism .................................................. 11 2.3. Supply and demand of dark tourism ............................................................. 34 2.4. Review of Holocaust Tourism ....................................................................... 41 2.5. Tourism versus Dark Tourism in contemporary world ................................ 43 2.6. Ethical considerations of Dark Tourism ....................................................... 44 2.7. Summary ......................................................................................................... 45 3. Setting the scene ................................................................................... 46 vii 3.1. The Nazi regime and the morbid history of concentration camps .............. 46 3.2. The Wannsee Conference – the birthplace of Final Solution ...................... 47 3.3. Einsatz Reinhard – a tool of Holocaust ........................................................ 49 3.4. Holocaust by Bullets ...................................................................................... 53 3.5. The introduction of KL Dachau and KL Ravensbrück as a training ground for genocide ............................................................................................................... 56 3.6. KL Majdanek – “Little Auschwitz” ................................................................. 59 3.6.1. The case of Jadwiga Ankiewicz – the unknown Ann Frank ............................... 65 3.7. Author’s reflection on visiting State Museum at Majdanek ......................... 67 3.8. Auschwitz-Birkenau – a capital of Holocaust ............................................... 71 3.9. Generation post memory ............................................................................... 73 3.10. Auschwitz-Birkenau today ..................................................................... 74 3.11. Author’s reflection on visiting Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum .... 79 3.12. Holocaust in populo? ............................................................................. 83 4. Emotions and emotional experience ................................................... 86 4.1. Introduction to the chapter ............................................................................ 86 4.2. Introduction to the theme of emotions ......................................................... 87 4.3. Description of emotions ................................................................................ 88 4.3.1. Physiological Theories of Emotions .................................................................. 88 4.4. What are basic emotions? ............................................................................. 91 4.5. Emotions as a process .................................................................................. 93 4.5.1. Theory of emotions by Frijda ............................................................................ 93 4.5.2. Lazarus and his addition of coping mechanism in expressing emotions ........... 95 viii 4.5.3. Dimensions of emotions - Plutchik’s Wheel of Emotions................................... 96 4.5.4. Theories of Ekman, Turner and Ortony – a focus on facial emotions .............. 100 4.6. Two main approaches to analyse emotions ............................................... 101 4.6.1. Surprise as a basic emotion. Questioning the valance-based approach to emotions ........................................................................................................ 102 4.7. Cultural and personal differences in emotional display ............................ 105 5. Emotional experience in tourism sector ........................................... 106 5.1. Emotions in tourism ..................................................................................... 106 5.2. Emotions and tourists’ experiences ........................................................... 107 5.3. Aho’s approach to tourist experience ........................................................ 108 5.4. Memorable tourists’ experience .................................................................. 112 5.5. Valenced based approach to emotions in tourism .................................... 113 5.6. Positive emotions in tourism ....................................................................... 114 5.7. Negative emotions in tourism ..................................................................... 116 5.8. Adventure tourism – could one desire to feel fear during tourism activity? 118 6. Emotions in Dark Tourism .................................................................. 119 6.1. Towards an analysis of dark tourism sites using relevant theory ............ 123 6.1.1. Case of London Dungeons ............................................................................. 125 6.1.2. Case of Body Worlds Exhibition by Gunter von Hagen ................................... 127 6.1.3. Case of former KL Auschwitz-Birkenau .......................................................... 129 6.2. Summary ....................................................................................................... 136 7. Research Methodology ....................................................................... 137 7.1. Introduction .................................................................................................. 137 7.2. Research Philosophy ................................................................................... 138 ix 7.2.1. Positivism ....................................................................................................... 140 7.2.2. Interpretivism .................................................................................................. 142 7.3. Phenomenology ........................................................................................... 143 7.4. Hermeneutic phenomenology ..................................................................... 145 7.5. Case study approach ................................................................................... 147 7.6. Research Design .......................................................................................... 150 7.6.1. A statement from the author ........................................................................... 150 7.6.2. In-depth interviews ......................................................................................... 151 7.6.3. Netnographic study ........................................................................................ 154 7.7. An initial data analysis explanatory section ............................................... 158 7.8. Summary ....................................................................................................... 161 8. Findings of the research ..................................................................... 162 8.1. State Museum at Majdanek .......................................................................... 162 8.1.1. Identification of State Museum at Majdanek ................................................... 162 8.1.2. Interpretation of State Museum at Majdanek as a dark tourism site ................ 162 8.1.3. The way of presenting State Museum at Majdanek to visitors ........................ 163 8.1.4. Engaging emotions in State Museum at Majdanek ......................................... 164 8.2. Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum ............................................................ 173 8.2.1. Identification of Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum ....................................... 173 8.2.2. Interpretation of Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum as a dark tourism site .... 174 8.2.3. The way of interpreting Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum to visitors ........... 174 8.2.4. Engaging emotions at Auschwitz Birkenau State Museum ............................. 174 8.3. Limitations of the research .......................................................................... 182 8.4. Summary ....................................................................................................... 183 9. Analysis and Discussion .................................................................... 184 9.1. Introduction .................................................................................................. 184 x 9.2. State Museum at Majdanek .......................................................................... 184 9.2.1. Identification of State Museum at Majdanek ................................................... 185 9.2.2. Interpretation of State Museum at Majdanek as a dark tourism site ................ 185 9.2.3. The way of presenting State Museum at Majdanek to visitors ........................ 186 9.2.4. Engaging emotions in State Museum at Majdanek ......................................... 188 9.3. Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum ............................................................ 197 9.3.1. Identification of Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum ....................................... 197 9.3.2. Interpretation of Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum as a dark tourism site .... 197 9.3.3. The way of interpreting Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum to visitors ........... 198 9.3.4. Engaging emotions at Auschwitz Birkenau State Museum ............................. 198 9.4. Comparison of emotional experiences demonstrated by visitors at State Museum at Majdanek and Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum. ........................... 202 9.4.1. Comparison of Identification between State Museum at Majdanek and Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum ................................................................ 203 9.4.2. Comparison of supplying between State Museum at Majdanek and Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum ................................................................................. 204 9.4.3. Comparison between engaging emotions at State Museum in Majdanek and Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum ................................................................ 205 10. Conclusions ......................................................................................... 213 10.1. Introduction to the chapter .................................................................. 213 10.2. Summary of the objectives with main findings .................................. 214 10.3. A critical analysis of the range of emotions in visitors’ experiences at Holocaust sites. ....................................................................................................... 215 10.4. A comparison of the emotional experiences at different Holocaust sites. 218 10.5. Demand and supply perspective at Holocaust sites .......................... 221 10.6. Emotions versus wider tourism experience ....................................... 223 10.7. Recommendation for further research and managerial implications of the study 225 10.8. Contribution to the knowledge ............................................................ 226 xi 10.9. Summary ............................................................................................... 228 BIBLIOGRAPHY ............................................................................................. 229 Appendix 1 ..................................................................................................... 293 Appendix 2 ..................................................................................................... 321 Appendix 3 ..................................................................................................... 354 Appendix 4 ..................................................................................................... 366 Appendix 5 ..................................................................................................... 376 Appendix 6 ..................................................................................................... 398 Appendix 7 ..................................................................................................... 416 Appendix 8 ..................................................................................................... 433 Appendix 9 ..................................................................................................... 449 Appendix 10 ................................................................................................... 468 xii Table of figures and tables Chapter 1 1.1. Plutchik’s Wheel of Emotions 6 1.2. Structure of the thesis 10 Chapter 2 2.1. Dark Tourism; the progress in research 14 2.2. A dark tourism spectrum 36 2.3. An exhibit at Body World, Amsterdam 38 Chapter 3 3.1. The assassination of Reinhard Heindrich 51 3.2. The map of concentration and extermination camps in Europe 52 3.3. Locating KL Majdanek on the map of Poland 60 3.4. The original receipt for Cyclon B delivered to KL Majdanek 61 3.5. The Nazi ruled Pawiak prison, Warsaw 65 3.6. The crematorium furnace at KL Majdanek 68 3.7. A former living barrack with the lighting exhibition “Shrine”, Majdanek 69 3.8. A former living barrack with the exposition of the victims’ shoes, Majdanek 70 3.9. The sign regarding the visitors’ behaviour at Auschwitz-Birkenau 75 3.10. Selection of posts of the Instagram user while visiting Auschwitz-Birkenau 78 3.11. Main entrance gate to Auschwitz I 79 3.12. The gallows for Rudolf Hess’ execution. Auschwitz I 80 3.13. The railway to Birkenau 81 3.14. The remaining of the gas chambers in Birkenau 82 xiii Chapter 4 4.1. The collection of theories demonstrating basic emotions 91 4.2. Process of emotions by Frijda and Mesquita (1998) 94 4.3. Eight basic emotions by Plutchik’s 97 4.4. Extended version of Plutchik’s Wheel of Emotions 99 Chapter 5 5.1. Link between Aho’s (2001) model and Plutchik’s Theory of Emotions (1980) 111 Chapter 6 6.1. Placement of chosen cases of Dark Tourism sites 124 6.2. The elements of tourist experience at the chosen Dark Tourism sites 125 6.3. Emotions at Auschwitz-Birkenau – application of Oren’s research 134 Chapter 7 7.1. Research onion 137 7.2. Research philosophy 139 7.3. Hermeneutic phenomenology: preliminary guidelines for researchers in tourism study 145 7.4. The sample selected for the in-depth interviews 153 7.5. The comparison of Auschwitz-Birkenau related sites on TripAdvisor 157 Chapter 8 8.1. The application of Plutchik’s Wheel of Emotion to retrieved reviews from TripAdvisor, case State Museum at Majdanek 167 8.2. Additional emotions retrieved reviews from TripAdvisor, xiv case State Museum at Majdanek 169 8.3. The application of Aho’s model to retrieved reviews from TripAdvisor, case State Museum at Majdanek 171 8.4. The application of Plutchik’s Wheel of Emotion to retrieved reviews from TripAdvisor, case Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum 176 8.5. Additional emotions retrieved reviews from TripAdvisor, case Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum 178 8.6. The application of Aho’s model to retrieved reviews from TripAdvisor, case Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum 180 Chapter 9 9.1. One of the sleeping barracks at Majdanek 187 9.2. Emotions at Majdanek – results of in-depth interviews 189 9.3. Emotions at Auschwitz-Birkenau – results of in-depth interviews 199 9.4. Emotions at Majdanek and Auschwitz-Birkenau – results of in-depth interviews comparison 206 Chapter 10 10.1. Objectives and findings from literature review and primary research 214 10.2. Emotions at Majdanek and Auschwitz-Birkenau – results of in-depth interviews comparison 219 1 1. Introduction 1.1. Locating the thesis in the context of dark tourism Without knowing the nature, scope and scale of what had happened there, a look at visitor numbers would identify Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum as a fairly significant player in the global visitor attractions portfolio. Niagara Falls attracts over 20 million visitors a year, Louvre Museum in Paris around 10 million and Colosseum in Rome around 4 million; nearly 2 million people visit Auschwitz-Birkenau each year. Can we put this formal extermination, or concentration, camp – which played a major role in what has become known as the ‘Holocaust’ - on a map of touristic appeal? The literature is consistent here; Auschwitz-Birkenau represents an example of dark tourism, as a location of mass death, extreme suffering, and genocide. It is then assumed that by visiting dark tourism locations feelings related to traditional tourism and holidaying – such as a sense of happiness, pleasure, joy, and relaxation – are unlikely to be achieved. If so, then what are the emotions of visitors of concentration camps? By contextualising them within dark tourism concepts, such as Stone’s (2006) spectrum, it could be anticipated that the emotions would be also dark, negative and full of rejection towards the perpetrators. However, the emotions could be much more complex and not necessarily consistent with the traditional understanding of either positive or negative categorisation of emotions. The purpose of this chapter is to introduce the reader to the focus of the following thesis: emotions at Holocaust sites. Essentially three main concepts will be analysed through this thesis: the models of emotions, the understanding of the dark tourism, and ultimately; the unravelling of emotions and overall tourism experiences at Holocaust sites. The thesis aims to unravel the current emotions at Holocaust tourism locations in situ, as well as to debate other elements of tourism experience; the learning and transformational remaining of visiting a concentration camp. The primary research seeks contribute to the current understanding of complexity of emotions and the experiential results of visiting former concentration camps. 2 1.2. Introduction to the death camps During the period of Nazi aggression in Europe, culminating in its defeat in Europe at the end of WW2, its targeting and persecution of specific enemies – especially Jews – is known as the Holocaust. The persecution took place at hundreds of sites across Europe, most infamously in its system of concentration camps (Koncentracioni Lage; KL), which in many cases swiftly changed into extermination camps. Initially concentration camps served as multifunctional facilities. Starting officially as political prisons, they become places of incarceration, forced labour, execution, and elimination as well as training grounds for the infamous SS Death’s Head units (Totenkopfverbande); the terror police (Sofsky, 1997). Within the camps the inmates became totally isolated structure. There was no links between them and outside world, the absolute power of Nazis created hermetic, terrorized environment, where the free will of people, or actual respect to life meant nothing. Prisoners were kept in everlasting sense of fear and dread of death. Without any right or dignity, they often turned on themselves in a desperate attempt to safe their life or the life of their loved ones. The total powerlessness created an extraordinary sense of self-preservation and unscrupulousness towards other inmates. The motives of extraordinary violence of the Nazis in the camps are various; from a sadistic aggression, show of power, exaggerated punishment or even sense of boredom and entertainment. The killing was ever-present reality of the camps. It was no exception, ranks or logic attached to it; hence no one was certain of surviving the next day. 1.3. Introduction to former KL Auschwitz-Birkenau and KL Majdanek; the past and present The name 'Auschwitz' - more formally known as Auschwitz-Birkenau Concentration and Extermination Camp (or Konzentracioni Lage, KL) - symbolises horror, terror and represents one of the most shocking physical reminders of genocide and mass murder in a history of humanity. It’s the personification of Nazi evil, the symbol of one of the most inhuman massacres of World War Two. Since 1945 more than 44 million people visited Auschwitz (http//70.auschwitz.org). Today the site is a place of historic value, remembrance, and a centre of education, visited by around a million people annually, reaching 2 million in pre-Covid 2019, and nearly as much in 2023. Former Auschwitz-Birkenau Concentration Camp, currently Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum is situated in a small village of Oswiecim located around 50 miles from Krakow, in southern Poland. It opened on the grounds of pre-war barracks as a labour camp in May of 1940 and was primarily used for political prisoners 3 of the Third Reich. As the war progressed and the dictatorship of Nazi Germany through Europe continued, Auschwitz, as one of many camps became a final destination for many civilians, women and children; unlike many other camps Auschwitz-Birkenau stretched to a mortifying number of over a million victims. On the 14th of June 1940, the first 728 Polish prisoners arrived at Auschwitz, and the (dark) history of the camp began (Langbein, 2005 p.20). Former KL Majdanek, currently State Museum at Majdanek never captured the level of interest of academics and historians as much more infamous former KL Auschwitz-Birkenau. It is noticeable by general tourism interest and numbers of visitors per year at each site. Also, the scholarly attention and research has not been directed towards KL Majdanek; the international literature is scares and there is a lack of evidence into academic work based on history of KL Majdanek. KL Majdanek, similarly to KL Auschwitz-Birkenau was primarily functioning as a lager for prisoners of war (POWs) and was initially established to house 25,000 – 50,000 prisoners (www.majdanek.eu). In early 1942 KL Majdanek also served as a penitentiary camp for Polish farmers who did not manage to supply requested quota of their harvests to Nazi army. Approximately 57,000 farmers from Poland and Soviet Union were imprisoned in Majdanek (Mailander, 2015). As the Second World War progressed, especially after deciding about Final Solution to The Jewish Question, since late 1942, Majdanek became fully functioning extermination camp. Holocaust by bullets or gas extermination at Majdanek took around 80,000 human beings. Although both former concentration camps were displaying many similarities, both were created for the same grim purposes, fortune and the historic path treated those locations rather differently towards the end of their operation days. Majdanek was approached and liberated as a first of extermination camps, in summer 1944. The victims of Auschwitz-Birkenau had to wait another 6 months until their liberation day came along. This outcome has its consequences until this day; as Nazi forces did not have time to demolish the reminders of their genocide actions at Majdanek, while the bigger camp, especially the site of Birkenau was totally mutilated before their escape to the collapsing Third Reich. As a result, today Majdanek and Auschwitz-Birkenau offer very different experience; the smaller camp – Majdanek offers almost untouched panorama of original infrastructure. The visitors are able to follow the route which the prisoners of Majdanek were taking; including well-maintained sauna room, barracks and work fields, however often – the destination of new commers were gas chambers and massive furnaces – all that preserved in full. As for Birkenau, also labelled Auschwitz II – the part of the camp, where extermination happened at most; the landscape is almost flat. Due to location – closer to Reich and still occupied Cracow, Nazis were aware of their limited options and enclosing circle of Allais. In a desperate attempt to cover their atrocities they were blowing off the gas chambers and crematoria, burning the papers and dragging the remaining prisoners towards West. As a result, Birkenau is demonstrating only few artefacts of Nazi regime and mass murder committed at the site. It could possibly impact on emotions and tourism 4 experience of visitors at those two sites. This thesis will attempt to compare and contrast the emotional range demonstrated by visitors at both chosen location. 1.4. Death camps as ripe contexts for investigating emotional experiences Although motivation for visiting dark tourism sites has been significantly researched, and perceived as form of curiosity (Biran et al, 2014; Farmaki, 2013), pilgrimage (Brown, 2016) or as a remembrance (Isaak and Cakmak, 2016) the academics call for more extensive understanding of emotions and feelings related to dark sites (Johnston, 2013; Stone, 2009; Walter, 2009). Although eclectic, the feeling and emotions in those places are complex and multi-layered (Light, 2017), hence it is of a great importance to understand not only the drivers of tourists but also their experiences. A focus on experiences - rather than motivations - has been proposed as more helpful for understanding dark tourism or thanatourism (Johnston, 2013; Seaton, 2002; Walter, 2009) and also offers a conceptual means to integrate supply and demand perspectives within dark tourism (Biran & Poria, 2012). In fact Biran et al (2011) calls supports Sharpley (2009) framework of tourism demand and supply, while additionally Ryan and Kohli (2006) looking at the case of the buried village in New Zealand suggest that rather than defining this site as merely dark tourism (based on its attributes) this site represents a Grey tourism supply, so that while it is a site of death and atrocity—and is being promoted as such—tourists’ experience is one of peaceful natural scenery and cultural heritage. Despite the centrality of emotions in the tourist experience, rigorous empirical research into this subject is still limited (Lin, Kerstetter, Nawijn, & Mitas, 2014; Skinner, 2012). Although Oren et al (2021) and Oren et al (2022) contributes to the understanding of dark tourism by the emotions demonstrated at Auschwitz-Birkenau, the other extermination camps and their emotional experience is still neglected. One of the reasons could be a complexity of emotions; by assuming to receive negative responses from visitors we might be amazed learning that for many the overall experience was enlightening, informative, and positively long lasting. As Auschwitz-Birkenau Concentration Camp is often perceived as an example of “darker” or even “darkest” tourism (Stone & Sharpley, 2008; Miles 2002, Mionel 2019), Miles (2002) additionally assumes that the visitors of such a place will demonstrate higher levels of empathy and other emotions as a reaction to the site. It is therefore anticipated that observed or described behaviour of visitors of Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum would analyse higher spectrum of emotional experience while visiting dark site. That indeed, could be true, if we treat Auschwitz-Birkenau as a singled out case, however it would be beneficial for the literature of dark tourism to compare the emotions and tourism experience demonstrated at Auschwitz-Birkenau; being most prolific and “go to” site of Holocaust with another extermination camp and the emotional baggage represented there. 5 In short, there is an identifiable gap in the literature suggesting that emotions demonstrated at darkest sites of tourism require deeper research and understanding both from historical, personal and psychological perspectives. The research into comparison of emotions and tourism experiences at various former concentration camps sites is also missing at the current literature of the subject. 1.5. Proposed conceptual frameworks This thesis was conceptually supported by two models: Plutchik’s Wheel of Emotions (1980) and Aho’s tourism experience model (2001). Both models were chosen after much deliberation and are considered as suitable in helping to analyse emotional and non-emotional experiences at dark tourism sites. There are many existing theories of emotions (presented in chapter 4), however Plutchik’s Wheel of emotions was chosen as one of the most flexible theories; allowing to accept both negative, positive and neutral emotions experience during an event. As it is also visually attractive (figure 1.1.) theory it is assumed that it could gage the responses during the primary research better and be more involving for the respondents, which in turn can be beneficiary for the findings. Aho’s theory (2001) of overall tourism experience is working as an umbrella framework; as it includes four types of experiences, emotions, although important are part of the overall experience, hence displaying emotions with corresponding experiences; educational and transformational could lead to better understanding the sum of emotional baggage some might feel in a dark tourism location. 'Plutchik’s Wheel of Emotions (1980) proposes that emotions are multi-layered and -faceted, identifying 24 emotions from an initial base of eight primary ones, which are: joy, trust, fear, surprise, sadness, anticipation, anger, and disgust. By decreasing or increasing of the intensity of primary emotions the framework offers not only extended understanding of emotional states, but also a relation the emotions have with each other over time, which could be used in longitudinal studies of emotions. Another advantage of using this model is that Plutchik did not conformed to the general understanding of emotions as being either negative or positive. The Wheel shows valance-neutral emotions as well, which especially important with a surprise – emotion often displayed at the dark tourism site. 6 Figure 1.1. Plutchik’s Wheel of Emotions (1980) Source: Plutchik, 1980 The second theory used in this thesis is Aho’s model of tourism experience (2001). Aho proposed that the tourism experience can be individual or collective and distinguished four core elements: emotional, practical, informative, and transformational. Like Plutchik, but with a wider focus, Aho highlights the multi-faceted nature of experiences. His framework expands the understanding of a tourism experiences reaching beyond emotional one. So, as this thesis progresses the findings will be aiming at demonstrating a variety of emotions present at dark tourism sites, but also to deepen the understanding of tourism experience by establishing the possible importance of other elements of tourism experiences. 7 1.6. Introduction to the aim and the objectives of the thesis Understanding that emotions and overall tourism experience is a complex matter, there is also an identified potential to contribute to the knowledge in this subject. Therefore, the aim of this thesis is to identify and analyse visitor emotions within dark tourism experiences, specifically two separate Holocaust locations. The four research objectives introduced in the preceding sections are as follows: Objective 1: To critically analyse the range of emotions in visitors’ experiences at Holocaust sites. Objective 2: To compare the emotional experiences of visitors at different Holocaust sites. Objective 3: To compare supply and demand side perspectives of emotional responses at Holocaust sites. Objective 4: To consider the role of emotions in the wider dark tourism experience to further our understanding of the emotional experiences at the dark sites. 1.7. Structure of the thesis 1.7.1. Literature review The literature review of this thesis will essentially be taking the reader into three realms of the research; dark tourism, specific cases of Holocaust tourism, and the argument of emotions. Chapter 2 demonstrating dark tourism will unravel the historic beginning of the taxonomy of dark tourism, as well as coexisting classification of thanatourism. The substantial element of chapter two is a table presenting updated achievements in literature of dark tourism divided into individual genres falling into dark tourism category. This chapter will focus particularly on Holocaust tourism – a type of dark tourism, represented by in situ and in populo sites connected with Jewish genocide during the Second World War. The complexity of behaviours and documented experiences of tourists demonstrated at Holocaust sites would be a motive to state a first objective of the thesis: Objective 1: To critically analyse the range of emotions in visitors’ experiences at Holocaust sites. 8 Chapter 3 will be introducing the reader to the Holocaust tourism and the case studies selected: Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum and State Museum at Majdanek. The chapter will demonstrate the genesis of the “Final Solution”, as Holocaust was branded by the perpetrators, the influx of terror aimed at Jewish, Roma and sexual minorities. The selected former extermination camps will be introduced through the lens of history as well as personal experience of the researcher. Faced with supply-related and demand-affecting differences between two selected extermination camps, the second and third objective of the research will be stated: Objective 2: To compare the emotional experiences of visitors at different Holocaust sites. Objective 3: To compare supply and demand side perspectives of emotional responses at Holocaust sites. Chapter 4 will be taking the reader through the academic journey of forming the taxonomies of emotions. The identified main emotions will be presented and confronted by the influx of more updated understanding of this subject. Following that, the thesis will focus on demonstrating the emotions observed commonly in a general tourism – being mostly positive responses to a hedonic and voluntary activities. As the chapter progresses the plethora of demonstrated emotions are being focused on the ones exhibited at dark tourism sites, and essentially – at Holocaust sites. The two theoretical frameworks; Plutchik’s Whell of Emotions (1980) and Aho’s (2001) Tourism Experience model will be employed in an attempt of categorise not only the emotions as such, but also additional vital tourism experiences such as learning experience and transformational experience felt as a result of visiting former extermination camp. As the thesis demonstrated further that emotions are one of many contributors to the overall tourism experience, the fourth objective is being set as: Objective 4: To consider the role of emotions in the wider dark tourism experience to further our understanding of the emotional experiences at the dark sites. 9 1.7.2. Methodology The methodology chapter will be explaining the approach of collecting primary data undertaken for this research. There is an argument that data collection and the resulting analysis of the results would benefit from being accumulated from multiple sources and at two sites of Holocaust: State Museum at Majdanek and Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum. The in-depth interviews would contribute to the understanding of emotions demonstrated by visitors at various stages of visiting two concentration camps (discussions with the tour guides), while in-depth interviews conducted with the representatives of the management of both museums will increase the knowledge about the supply strategies used at dark tourism locations. The next stage will include the netnographic research undertaken for this thesis, when the feedback left at TripAdvisor site for both locations would be collected. The feedback would be then analysed for the purpose of this research and minding the objectives of the thesis; the relevant expressions of emotions and other tourism experience will be taken into account and analysed further. 1.7.3. Analysis and discussion The final part of the thesis will present the results of primary research and then analyse them using the same frameworks which were used for the conceptual portion of the thesis: Plutchik’s Wheel of Emotions (1980) and Aho’s (2001) Tourism Experience model. As long as the effectiveness of those two frameworks will be addressed, a question would also emerge towards sufficiency of them. Especially the emotions displayed in Plutchik’s Wheel could be slightly restricting to demonstrate a full depth of emotions presented as a result of visiting a former extermination camp. 10 Figure 1.2. The structure of the thesis Introduction Aim and the objectives of the thesis. Literature review Dark tourism Dark tourism / thanatourism The literature so far Holocaust tourism Genesis of the Holocaust Introduction of the cases Emotions Theories of emotions Emotions in tourism Emotions in Dark Tourism Emotions at extermination camps Methodology In depth interviews: 2 x at Majdanek 2 x at Auschwitz-Birkenau Netnographic research TripAdvisor for Majdanek TripAdvisor for Auschwitz-Birkenau Analysis and discussion 11 2. Dark tourism 2.1. Introduction to the chapter As mentioned in the introduction, the overall purpose of these thesis is to analyse visitor emotions within dark tourism experiences, in the setting of Dark Tourism sites. In other words, the aim is to propose an enhanced understanding of emotional outcomes of going to see difficult sites and the additional educational and transformational effects of the visits. This chapter will introduce Dark Tourism as a specific and unique genre of tourism, progress observed in researching dark tourism related sites as well as ethical considerations associated with such a form of tourism. The chapter will specifically focus on progress of Holocaust tourism – a well-established part of Dark Tourism connected with the massacre of Jewish population during The Second World War. 2.2. The rise of dark tourism and thanatourism It has been 1996 when International Journal of Heritage Studies published an article by Malcolm Foley and John Lennon called “JFK and dark tourism. A fascination with assassination”. This paper is considered to be a precursor for first attempts of understanding the phenomenon of dark tourism. Foley and Lennon while inventing this phrase explained that dark tourism is “interpretation and representation of deaths, disasters and atrocities for remembrance, education ore entertainment” (1996, p.198). Simultaneously Seaton’s (1996, p.240) interpretation of thanatourism was published by the same journal and explained as “travel to location wholly, or partially, motivated by the desire for actual or symbolic encounters with death, particularly, but not exclusively, violent death, which may, to a varying degree be activated by the person specific features of those whose deaths are its focal objects”. Seaton then argues that thanatourism is a behavioural activity, where the motivation of visitor is more important than characteristics of a site and the motivation is growing with the form or a scale of death. In other words, thanatourists are motivated to travel by the idea of visiting scenes of particularly intense macabre, museums of genocide or mass graves. Seaton, in an attempt to acclimatize his new concept proposes five different thana-travel activities: a) travel to witness public enactment of death (e.g. gladiators combat to death, martyrdom of Christians in Rome, public hangings in Britain which were legal until 1868; b) travel to see the sites of mass and / or individual deaths, after they occurred (also acknowledged by Seaton as most common form of thanatourism with the most amount of behavioural reactions); concentration camps, including former KL Auschwitz-Birkenau, Colosseum in Rome, 12 Lockerbie – a location of PanAm air crash in 1988, sixth floor of Dallas building from which JFK was assassinated, room where the Princes in the Tower of London were most probably murdered, Frederick’s West house; c) travel to internment sites of, and memorials to, the dead: graveyards, catacombs, crypts, war memorials and cenotaphs; d) travel to view the material evidence, or symbolic representations of death, in locations unconnected with their occurrence. This activity is based on visiting sites in populo; being “connected with”, rather than “of death”; it includes museums where the artefacts of a certain historical occurrence are displayed; e) travel for re-enactment of simulation of death such as The Passion Play in German Alps (Seaton, 1996). Twenty years after introduction of “dark tourism” and “thanatourism” Light (2017) attempted to compare both taxonomies by stating that dark tourism is acting as an umbrella term for any forms of tourism related to death, atrocities, mass murder, crime, or suffering, while thanatourism is more specific term referring to long-standing practices of travel motivated by desire of encounter with death; also, using Seaton’s words “a minor tourism form” (1996, p.243). Indeed, since 1996, when both concepts were introduced term “dark tourism” gained reasonably higher attention of scholars and practitioners and has been redefined by Stone (2006, p.146) as “act of travel to sites associated with death, suffering and the seemingly macabre”. Currently, Google search engine shows around 250 million results related to dark tourism and just over one million results regarding thanatourism. Subsequently, Google Scholar indicates 1,5 million pages related to dark tourism comparing to 5 thousand pages linked to thanatourism (authors’ own observation, January 2024). This thesis, following the more common and holistic approach would adopt terminology “dark tourism” for two main reasons. Firstly, terminology of dark tourism is more universal, hence better suited to cover additional sub terms of death, genocide and heritage related tourism. As Lennon (2017) acknowledges, other terms such as “black spot” tourism or grief tourism are too narrow to argument all aspects of death or disaster related site. Secondly, although mentioned and described, the motivational aspect of visiting difficult sites; so essential to analyse thanatourism is not the main concern of this thesis. Additionally, Sharpley clarifies the portray of dark tourism by the following variables: • The immediacy and spontaneity of “sensation” tourism to dark sites of contemporary death and disaster compared with premeditated visits to organised sites or events related to near and/or distant historical occurrences; • The distinction between purposefully constructed attractions or experiences that interpret or recreate events or acts associated with death, and “accidental” sites (that is, sites such as churches, graveyards or memorials that have become tourist attractions ‘by accident’); 13 • To extent to which an “interest” in death – to witness the death of others, to dice with death in dangerous places, to learn about the death of famous people and so on- is the dominant reason for visiting dark attractions; and why and how dark sites/experiences are produced or supplied-for example, for political purposes, for education, for entertainment or for economic gain (Sharpley, 2009, p.13-14). The differences between the theories of dark tourism and thanatourism do not cease with the narratives of the two phenomena. One of the main contrasts comes with the understanding a time frame which both concepts cover; Foley and Lennon argued that dark tourism is a new concept due to its emphasis on spectacle and reproduction, giving an example of the site of assassination of the President John Fitzgerald Kennedy. Seaton’s view (1996, p.235), however suggests that thanatourism exists as long as people could travel and as early as in early centuries AD and Middle Ages, certainly emerging from “thanatoptic” traditions and performances such as Dance of Death. This perspective is supported by Sharpley (2009, p.4), who observes that ‘for as long as people have been able to travel, they have been drawn – purposefully or otherwise – towards sites, attractions or events that are linked in one way or another with death, suffering, violence, or disaster’. Although treated as universal umbrella terms, dark tourism and thanatourism did not find universal acceptance which resulted in additional vast body of taxonomy of sites connected with or of death or suffering (Light, 2017) and has been a subject of academic discussion (Lennon, 2017). Rojek, ahead of first dark tourism and thanatourism publications offered a term “black spot” tourism which he referred to commercial development of grave sites and sites in which celebrities or large numbers of people have met with sudden or violent death. His rather vast understanding of “black spot” tourism included sites such as Graceland where Elvis Presley died and was buried or site of Lockerby air crash disaster from 1988, but also locations like Auschwitz, the Bridge over the River Kwai, and the Killing Fields in Cambodia (Rojek, 1993, p.136). Other terminology includes Dann’s (1998) view of “milking the macabre”, morbid tourism (Bloom, 2000), Holocaust tourism (Beech, 2000), genocide tourism (Beech, 2009), or more focused: prison tourism (Strange and Kempa, 2003; Aslan, 2015), fright tourism (Bristow and Newman, 2005); disaster tourism (Van Hoving et al, 2010), pagan tourism (Laws, 2013), suicide tourism (Yu et al, 2020). Additionally, grief tourism proposed by (Trotta, 2006 or separately; Lewis 2008) could be seen as an activity culturally informed: people seeing Oscar winning movie “Schindler’s List” visit Auschwitz-Birkenau as a result. While to many, they may appear “morally depraved” and “morbid,” grief tourists are simultaneously socially anxious, the sites they visit prompting, for example, “How could this have happened?” questions. Heritage tourism is another form of dark tourism, however it could be worth noticing, that, although a general heritage site might not necessarily have a “dark” connotation, then specific nature of conflict heritage tourism, sensitive heritage tourism (Domenico and Domenico, 2009) or difficult heritage tourism, such as slavery heritage tourism (Essah, 2001) might. 14 Over the years, as a status of dark tourism as an attractive tourism genre was expanding, so were the areas connected with commonly understood “dark” associations, for example: favela tourism, poverty tourism, gothic tourism, trauma tourism, all of them referring to negative aspects of the life, the history and places that are visited (Mionel, V., 2019). Interestingly “gothic tourism” was recently explored by Light et al, (2021) who argues its position as a separate form of tourism that can be conceptualized as a particular form of “lighter” dark tourism, as much as a category of literary tourism. A placement of gothic tourism in the plethora of dark tourism is argued by its atmosphere of gloom and mystery; gothic novels are characterized by a focus on horror and the supernatural (Townshend, 2014) and rely on settings, atmosphere, characters and events stimulating emotions such as fear, terror, horror and disgust (Botting, 2017). The evolution of dark tourism related genres through the lenses of academic papers starting from first of this kind publications of Foley and Lennon as well as Seaton dated in 1996 until most recent papers (2023) at the time of submitting the thesis. Light (2017) categorises sites connected with Holocaust tourism as second after war and battlefield locations in terms of number of academic studies and makes a distinction between Holocaust and genocide sites. Hence the table below (2.1) shows battlefield tourism as the first genre of dark tourism, as it is the one mostly interpreted by the literature of the subject. Table 2.1. aims to assemble updated literature connected within a wider understanding of dark tourism. The table presents the types, or genre of dark tourism and demonstrates a considerable evolution that dark tourism took since 1996, when the term originated. It also indicated the extensive academic interest in dark tourism related studies, and the ever-expanding focus of particular research on various aspects in dark tourism activities. Table 2.1. Dark Tourism; the progress in research Battlefield Tourism Author / Date Topic Article Focus Seaton (2000) "Another weekend away looking for dead bodies...": battlefield tourism on the Somme and in Flanders. This article reports a phenomenological investigation into the perspectives and experiences of battlefield tourists visiting the landscapes of the Western Front, the setting of trench warfare in the Great War of 1914-1918. Gatewood and Cameron (2004) Battlefield pilgrims at Gettysburg National Military Park. This article reports on the motives people provide for visiting Gettysburg National Military Park and the perceptions and images they have of the park. Holguin (2005) “National Spain Invites You”: Battlefield Tourism during the Spanish Civil War. The author explores an episode in Spanish Civil War history - in National Spain Invites You': Battlefield Tourism during the Spanish Civil War. 15 Cooper (2006) The Pacific War battlefields: tourist attractions or war memorials? This paper considers on the continuing debate on Japan's involvement in the Pacific War 1941–45, and the development of Pacific battlefields as tourist destinations. Iles (2006) Recalling the Ghosts of War: Performing Tourism on the Battlefields of the Western Front. This article explores the ways in which tourists embarking on commercial coach tours engage with the battlefield landscape by examining contemporary tourist performance. Ryan (2007) Battlefield Tourism: history, place and interpretation. Through a series of case studies that involve past conflict in China, the United States, The South Pacific and Europe, the nature of battlefield sites as tourist locations are explored. Iles (2008) Encounters in the Fields – Tourism to the Battlefields of the Western Front. This paper explores the ways in which tourists embarking on commercial coach tours engage with the battlefield landscape by examining contemporary tourist performance. It also considers the role of the tour guide in setting and directing the tourist encounter. Winter (2009) Tourism, Social Memory and the Great War. This paper uses social memory theory to describe the processes through which tourism can engage in creating and perpetuating the memory of the Great War. Baldwin and Sharpley (2009) Battlefield Tourism: Bringing organized violence back to life This chapter explains the recent interest in battlefield tourism, specifically First World War and positions it in the scope of dark tourism. Winter (2010) Battlefield visitor motivations: explorations in the Great War town of Ieper, Belgium. This study measured the motivations for education, holiday and remembrance for an international sample of visitors to the Great War town of Ieper in Belgium. Zhang (2010) Of Kaoliang, Bullets and Knives: Local Entrepreneurs and the Battlefield Tourism Enterprise in Kinmen (Quemoy), Taiwan. This paper explores the role of local entrepreneurs in the branding of Kinmen (Quemoy) Island, Taiwan as a battlefield tourism destination. Dunkley, Morgan and Westwood (2011) Visiting the trenches: Exploring meanings and motivations in battlefield tourism. This paper provides insights into the motivations and experiences of tourists who visit sites associated with war and conflict specifically 25 individuals who participated in a tour of the World War One battlefields of the Somme and Ypres. Le, Pearce (2011) Segmenting visitors to battlefield sites: International visitors to the former Demilitarized zone in Vietnam This article tries to segment and profile battlefield visitors based on their motivations. The identified groups are: the Battlefield Tourism Enthusiast, the Opportunists, and Passive Tourists Miles (2012) Battlefield tourism: Meanings and interpretations This thesis analyses what battlefields mean to tourists and the effect interpretation has on battlefield sites. 16 Cheal and Griffin (2013) Pilgrims and patriots: Australian tourist experiences at Gallipoli. This paper explores the Australian tourist experience at Gallipoli in order to better understand how tourists’ approach and engage with battlefield sites and how the experience may transform them. Miles (2014) Battlefield sites as dark tourism attractions: An analysis of experience. This paper seeks to explore tourism experience at a “dark” site. It shown that the visitors experience is wide and dominated by lighter set of values. Van der Merwe (2014) Battlefields Tourism: The status of heritage tourism in Dundee, South Africa This paper analyses the economic opportunities for battlefield-heritage tourism in South Africa by examining the battlefields route within KwaZulu-Natal. Lee (2016) The relationship amongst emotional experience, cognition, and behavior intention in battlefield tourism This paper attempts to identify the relationship amongst emotional experience, cognition, and behavioral intention in battlefield tourism. The paper shows a positive relationship between emotional experience and cognition as well as between cognition and behavioral intentions. Kokkranikal, Yang, Powell and Booth (2016) Motivations in Battlefield Tourism: the case of ‘1916 Easter Rising Rebellion’, Dublin. This paper reports findings of a study examining motivations of visitors to major battlefield destinations related to the ‘1916 Easter Rising Rebellion’. Fallon, Robinson, (2017) ‘Lest we forget’: A veteran and son share a “warfare tourism” experience. This paper provides a perspective on participation in ‘warfare tourism’ by investigating the behavior and experiences of a living veteran and his son returning to two theatres of war in which the veteran had served in the Royal Navy during the Second World War. Chen and Tsai (2021) Tourist motivations in relation to a battlefield: a case study of Kinmen. This paper attempts an empirical investigation to assess tourist motivations at the battlefield site on Kinmen Island of Taiwan. Noivo, Lopes Dias, Jiménez-Caballero, (2022) Connecting the dots between battlefield tourism and creative tourism: The case of the Peninsular War in Portugal. This exploratory research provides insights into the intersection between battlefield tourism and creative tourism in Portugal focusing on the Peninsular Wars (1807-1814). Garcia-Madurga and Grillo-Mendez (2023) Battlefield Tourism: Exploring the Successful Marriage of History and Unforgettable Experiences: A Systematic Review This research discusses battle tourism, including its economic and educational impacts, as well as the challenges and opportunities in managing tourism at these historic sites. In addition, it discusses how battlefield tourism relates to other types of historical tourism and how visitors’ experiences in these places can be enhanced. 17 Holocaust Tourism Author / Date Topic Article Focus Young (1993) The Texture of Memory: Holocaust Memorials and Meaning. In this study of Holocaust memorials, Young explores both the idea of the monument and its role in public memory, discussing how every nation remembers the Holocaust according to its own traditions, ideals, and experiences, and how these memorials reflect the ever-evolving meanings of the Holocaust in Europe, Israel, and America. Dann (1998) The Dark Side of Tourism The article addresses the issues concerned with the commodification of the Holocaust and as a means of selling death as a visitor attraction. Cole (1999) Selling the Holocaust. From Auschwitz to Schindler: How History is Bought, Packaged and Sold. Cole shows us an "Auschwitz-land" where tourists have become the "ultimate ruberneckers" passing by and gazing at someone else's tragedy. He shows a US Holocaust Museum that provides visitors with a "virtual Holocaust" experience. Beech (2000) The Enigma of Holocaust Sites as Tourism Attractions - The Case of Buchenwald‟. This article considers the case of Buchenwald Concentration Camp, which has a memorial site, some extant buildings and an interpretation center. Zelizer (2001) Visual culture and the Holocaust. Whilst not specifically focused on dark tourism, Zelizer’s book looks at both the traditional and the unconventional ways in which the holocaust has been visually represented. Ashworth (2002) Holocaust Tourism: The Experience of Krakow-Kazimierz The paper seeks to analyze the level of interest in Holocaust history in historically located Jewish part of Cracow, Poland. Miles (2002) Auschwitz: Museum interpretation and darker tourism. Attention is drawn on underscoring the significance between the distinction of „dark‟ and „darker‟ tourism. Particularly, focusing on the authenticity in terms of site interpretation in regard to the differing motivations for Holocaust memorial construction and visitation. Hoskins (2003) „Signs of the Holocaust: Exhibiting Memory in a Mediated Age‟. This article examines one site of contemporary Holocaust representation: the Holocaust Exhibition housed at the Imperial War Museum, London. Tumarkin (2005) Traumascapes: The Power and Fate of Places Transformed by Tragedy. "Traumascapes" is a deeply felt and wonderfully intelligent exploration of international sites where traumas of great magnitude have occurred – Moscow theater; Pennsylvania, USA plane hijacking during 9/11; 2002 Bali bombings; Bosnia and Port Arthur colonial penal settlement in Tasmania. Podoshen (2006) Sins of the fathers: The Holocaust and the Leisure Travel decision among American Jews This research explores the effects of past ethnic conflict on the tourism decision process for leisure travel. 18 Biran, Poria and Oren (2011) Sought Experiences at (Dark) Heritage Sites. The authors focus on Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp; the epitome of dark tourism Cohen (2011) Educational dark tourism at an in populo site: The Holocaust Museum in Jerusalem. This article is based on a study at Yad Vashem, the Shoah (Holocaust) memorial museum in Jerusalem. Podoshen and Hunt (2011) Equity restoration, the Holocaust and tourism of sacred sites. This paper, utilizing netnographic data, examines the reactions of some global Jewish citizens in relation to tourism activity surrounding historic Holocaust sites located in Eastern Europe. Kidron (2013) Being there together: dark family tourism and the emotive experience of co-presence in the holocaust past. This study examines the motivations and lived experiences of Israeli descendants of Holocaust survivors who set out on family roots trips to heritage sites and sites of atrocity accompanied by their survivor parents. Hermanova, Abrham (2015) Holocaust tourism as a part of the dark tourism The paper discusses the origins and development of the holocaust tourism i.e. the tourism associated with visiting concentration camps that had emerged during the Second World War in Europe and more generally with visiting memorials and museums linked to the phenomenon of the legacy of the Holocaust. Liyanage, Coca-Stefaniak, Powell (2015) Dark destinations–visitor reflections from a holocaust memorial site. This paper discusses a case of the concentration camp at Dachau in Germany to explore the psychological impact of the site on its visitors as well as critical self-reflection processes triggered by this experience. Reynolds (2016) Customers or witnesses? Holocaust tourists and the problem of authenticity. This article considers how Holocaust tourists exercise agency, especially through the practice of photography. Podoshen (2017) Trajectories in Holocaust tourism This paper examines how tourists engaged in atrocity heritage tourism embark in processing meanings, community discourse and motivations when faced with increasing levels of hostility. Nawijn, Isaac, Gridnevskiy, Liempt (2018) Holocaust concentration camp memorial sites: an exploratory study into expected emotional response. This study explores Dutch people’s expected intensity of emotional responses of a potential visit to a concentration camp memorial site in the Netherlands. Thurnell-Read (2018) Engaging Auschwitz: an analysis of young travellers’ experiences of Holocaust Tourism. This article considers the experiences of young travellers visiting the site of the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp in Poland. 19 Wight (2020) Visitor perceptions of European Holocaust Heritage: A social media analysis This paper through a netnographic research identifies four salient discourses of Holocaust heritage as social memory, reactions to Holocaust heritage, obligation and ritual, and transgressive visitor behavior which frame the values, existential anxieties, emotions, priorities, and expectations of visitors. Oren, Shani, Poria (2021) Dialectical emotions in a dark heritage site: A study at the Auschwitz Death Camp This study was designed to explore the emotional experience during the visit to the Auschwitz Death Camp, and its relationship to the perceptions of benefits gained from the visit as well as the quality of the experience Dawson, O’Leary, O’Connor (2022) Holocaust tourism: education or exploitation? The purpose of this paper is to investigate the ethics of holocaust tourism as a niche market which is becoming very commercialized due to the growing demand for such activities at certain locations and to examine the motivating factors for tourists visiting these destinations. Stojanovic (2022) Holocaust and the Ethics of Tourism: Memorial Places in Narrations of Responsibility This paper seeks to expose questions related to dark tourism, Holocaust tourism, auratic memorial places, and to discuss ethical approaches to the Holocaust memory in the beginning of the 21st century Oren, Poria, Reichel (2022) The positive role of negative emotions in heritage-site visits: The case of Auschwitz Death Camp The papers examines through the primary research the outcome of overall positive tourism experience through difficult emotions exhibited by visitors of Auschwitz Birkenau Concentration Camp Magano, Fraiz-Brea and Leite (2023) Dark tourism, the holocaust, and well-being: A systematic review The paper seeks to provide an updated systematic literature review of dark tourism associated with Holocaust sites and visitors’ well-being; to structure the findings into categories that provide a comprehensive overview of the topics; and to identify which topics are not well covered, thus suggesting knowledge gaps. Soulard, Steward, Larson, Samson (2023) Dark Tourism and Social Mobilization: Transforming Travelers After Visiting a Holocaust Museum. The paper seek to approach a critical gap in the dark tourism literature concerning the possibility of social mobilization outcomes after taking part in dark tourism experiences. Widawski, Olesniewicz (2023) Education in Tourism—Digital Information as a Source of Memory on the Examples of Places Related to the Holocaust in Poland during World War II The purpose of this paper is a stated consideration that the quality of an educational tourist product depends on the availability of information, its quality, and the manner in which it is provided. 20 Ghost Tourism Author / Date Topic Article Focus Inglis and Holmes (2003) Highland and other haunts: Ghosts in Scottish Tourism. This paper traces the history of the parts played by spooks in constructing Scotland as a prime tourism location Holmes and Inglis (2004) Selling the Spectre: Ghost Stories and Tourism in Modern Scotland. The paper considers the historical development of these literary forms, the reasons for their genesis, and the often-strange mutations they are undergoing in the present day. Gentry (2007) Walking with the Dead: The Place of Ghost Walk Tourism in Savannah, Georgia. This paper introduces ghost walk tourism as a mobile form of dark tourism; discusses the role of walking in the formation of sense of place and relates the negotiation of the tour experience between guide and participants in terms of performance. DeLyser (2010) Authenticity on the Ground: Engaging the Past in a California Ghost Town. Study explores how the concept of authenticity is constructed, experienced and employed by visitors and staff in the provocative landscape of the ghost town of Bodie, California. Holloway (2010) Legend-tripping in spooky spaces: ghost tourism and infrastructures of enchantment. This paper investigates the increasingly popular practice of ghost tourism comprising urban ghost tours and organised paranormal investigations. Examples from participant observation on ten ghost tours across the UK, an overnight vigil in a Tudor mansion are used. Valdez (2010) Ghost legends from the historical district of Puebla, Mexico. A complementary tourist attraction? This study supports the creation and promotion of three tourist routes containing the most famous historical buildings linked to legends of ghosts and supernatural phenomena in order to increase their interest for tourists in the historical district of the city of Puebla, Mexico. Rittichainuwat (2011) Ghosts: A travel barriers to tourism recovery. This study aims to assess whether or not beliefs in ghosts really deter tourists from traveling to disaster-hit destinations. Study examines tourist barriers associated with tsunami-hit destinations. Garcia (2012) Management issues in dark tourism attractions: the case of ghost tours in Edinburgh and Toledo. This article explores the interpretative, managerial, and ethical issues present in dark tourism, namely ghost tours. Thompson (2012) Entertaining Ghosts: Gettysburg Ghost Tours and the Performance of Belief. The author‟s aim is to define the ghost tour as a distinct genre and examine each of the elements that comprise a ghost tour performance in Gettysburg - the site of the largest battle and death toll during the entire American Civil War. 21 Rittichainuwat (2011) Ghosts: A travel barrier to tourism recovery. The study aims to assess whether or not beliefs in ghosts really deter tourists from traveling to disaster-hit destinations. Heidelberg (2015) Exploring local government involvement in dark tourism. This study presents factors local governments should consider as they examine their role in dark tourism, including planning for site management, consideration of the safety of, and services provided to, their citizens, examination of potential economic benefits, and most importantly, to ensure that they have a voice in the stewardship of their history. Palleiro and Peltzer (2023) ‘The lady ghost’ in the Recoleta Argentinian graveyard: dark tourism and ghostly narrative itineraries. This article deals with the legend of ‘The lady ghost’ connected with the supernatural apparition of a young woman in Argentinean graveyards. Dancausa, Hernández, and Pérez (2023) Motivations and Constraints for the Ghost Tourism: A Case Study in Spain This paper examines the motivations for participating in ghost tourism using the push-pull theory; and analyzes how motivations and constraints may influence the intention to participate in ghost tourism in Spain Pedreño-Peñalver, Huertas-Valdivia, Orea-Giner (2023) An exploratory study of the future paranormal tourist experience on ghost tours. Journal of Tourism Futures. This paper explores the paranormal tourist experience on ghost tours, taking into account the participants’ perceptions and their prior knowledge of the paranormal, in order to determine the principal components of the future of paranormal tourist experience. Dracula Tourism Author / Date Topic Article Focus Muresan and Smith (1998) Dracula's castle in Transylvania: Conflicting heritage marketing strategies. This paper explores issues of marketing, policies for interpretation and the understanding of heritage sites within a formerly socialist society in transition to a market economy and offers solutions to produce a better understanding of the role of heritage tourism in a transitional economy. Bristow and Newman (2004) Myth vs. Fact: An exploration of Fright Tourism. This paper investigates the new phenomena called “Fright Tourism.” This research explores this topic by comparing and contrasting two sites in the world that have a reputation of sinister activity. Salem, Massachusetts and Transylvania, Romania are excellent examples of sites that promote fright tourism. Tanasescu (2006) Tourism, Nationalism and Post-Communist Romania: The Life and Death of Dracula Park. The following analysis examines how Romania is responding to Dracula as a tourist attraction and focuses on the debate surrounding the proposed development of Dracula Park. Cosma, Cornelia Should Dracula Myth This paper tries to find an answer to the controversial question - 22 and Negrusa (2007) be a Brand to Promote Romania as a Tourist Destination? should the Dracula myth be used as a brand promoting Romania as a tourist destination? Iordanova (2007) Cashing in on Dracula: Eastern Europe's Hard Sells. This article aims to show that attempts intended to capitalize directly on Dracula's trademark image. Light (2007) Dracula tourism in Romania Cultural identity and the state. This paper examines the way the Romanian state has managed and negotiated such tourism, in both socialist and post-socialist contexts. Jamal and Tanase (2009) Impacts and Conflicts Surrounding Dracula Park, Romania: The Role of Sustainable Tourism Principles. Sustainable tourism principles are applied to a historical case study of tourism-related impacts and conflicts over Dracula Park and its proposed location in Sighisoara (Romania). Analysis of this large theme park project reveals a highly political landscape, with complex interdependencies attributable to a diversity of stakeholders and issues ranging in scale and scope from the local to the global. Banyai (2010) Dracula's image in tourism: western bloggers versus tour guides. This study attempts to describe the different Western images related to Dracula tourism, and the role Bran Castle tour guides have in the image formation process. Reijnders (2011) Stalking the count: Dracula, Fandom and Tourism. This article investigates why people feel the need to connect fictional stories, such as Dracula, with identifiable physical locations, and why they subsequently want to visit these locations. Larson, Lundberg and Lexhagen (2013) Thirsting for vampire tourism: Developing pop culture destinations. The pop culture phenomenon the Twilight Saga (book and film series) is in this paper used as an example to explore how a pop culture phenomenon can affect destinations, and how destinations manage this type of tourism. Case studies in Forks, WA, in the USA, Volterra, Montepulciano in Italy and British Columbia in Canada illustrate different tourism destination strategies. Hovi (2014) The use of history in Dracula Tourism in Romania. This article I will examine what kinds of history and tradition are used and told in Dracula tourism in Romania, and which eras of history are highlighted and why. Light (2017) The Undead and Dark Tourism: Dracula Tourism in Romania This paper is examining Dracula tourism in Romania from the perspectives of both supply and demand. Lupu, Brochado and Stoleriu (2017) Experiencing Dracula's homeland. The paper examines the reasons of overall dissatisfaction of visiting Dracula Castle as a heritage attraction. The results of the research also reveal that visitors are the most satisfied with their experience around the time of Halloween. 23 Stoleriu, Ibănescu, Stoleriu, Lupu (2022) Strengthening Dracula tourism brand through cartographic approaches. The paper provides several recommendations for national actors in order to upgrade the tourism management of Dracula’s image in corporation with the brand image theme. Ground Zero Tourism Author / Date Topic Article Focus Blair (2002) Tragedy turns to tourism at Ground Zero. The article addresses the rise of tourism around the vicinity of Ground Zero – frequently seen as a one of the more recognizable dark tourism attractions. Lisle (2004) Gazing at Ground Zero: tourism, voyeurism and spectacle. This essay uses the temporary viewing platform at the site of the former World Trade Center to explore human fascination with violence, conflict and disaster. It illustrates how discourses of voyeurism and authenticity promote a desire for sites of horror, and examines how that desire both disrupts and reinforces our prevailing interpretations of global politics. Hajer (2005) Rebuilding Ground Zero. The Politics of Performance. This paper analyses the planning process of rebuilding Ground Zero as a case in which politics was unhinged and new procedures were invented on the spot. It describes the rebuilding of Ground Zero as a case of an „unhappy performance‟ in which, as the process continued, the wider publicly-shared determination to create a bold symbolic response to terrorism lost out to uninspired political-economic reasoning. Marcoux and Legoux (2005) Ground Zero: A Contested Market. This article provides a theoretical reflection on the documentary Selling Tragedy, which relates to the commodification of Ground Zero. Sturken (2007) Tourists of History: Memory, Kitsch, and Consumerism from Oklahoma City to Ground Zero. Sturken investigates the consumerism that followed from the September 11th attacks; the contentious, ongoing debates about memorials and celebrity-architect designed buildings at Ground Zero. Potts (2012) „Dark tourism‟ and the kitschification‟ of 9/11. The article interrogates the framing of New York‟s Ground Zero as a „dark tourist‟ destination, with particular reference to the entanglement of notions of kitsch in academic discussions of the events of 11 September 2001. Stone (2014) Dark tourism as ‘mortality capital': The case of Ground Zero and the Significant Other Dead. The purpose of this article is to address this gap in dark tourism knowledge and to augment the dark tourism literature by examining new times/new dark tourism sites and studies on the example of Ground Zero, New York. Ariana, Sukana, and Ariana (2016) Preference of tourists toward peace tourism product for Ground Zero Monument in Kuta Bali. The purpose of this study is to analyze the preferences of tourists toward the development of Ground Zero Monument as a peace tourism product in Kuta Bali. 24 Terrorism and Tourism Author / Date Topic Article Focus Richter and Waugh Jr. (1986) Terrorism and tourism as logical companions. This article looks at the relationship between tourism and terrorism from several perspectives and the sensitivity of the tourism industry to general political strife and the vulnerability of travellers and tourist facilities to terroristic activity. Ryan (1993) Crime, violence, terrorism and tourism: An accidental or intrinsic relationship? The relationship between crime and tourism is discussed. Pizman (1999) A Comprehensive Approach to Classifying Acts of Crime and Violence at Tourism Destinations. Based on a review of 300 cases of acts of crimes and violence that occurred at tourist destinations around the world in the last decade, a comprehensive typology is created. Pratt (2002) Terrorism and tourism: Bahamas and Jamaica fight back. This study highlights the fragility of the tourism industry in developing countries. Beirman (2003) Restoring tourism destinations in crisis: a strategic marketing approach. This book deals with destinations marketing in specific crises events: war, terrorism, natural disasters, crime waves, and epidemics. Tynon and Chavez (2006) Adapting a Tourism Crime Typology: Classifying Outdoor Recreation Crime. The authors tested a crime typology developed for tourism destinations in a U.S. National Forest recreation setting. Specific objectives were to classify the attributes of crime and violence, examine the effects of crime and violence on visitor demand. Alsarayreh, Jawabreh, Helalat (2010) The influence of terrorism on the international tourism activities. This paper connects tourism and politics and overviewed the negative impact of politics on tourism activities through reviewing the literature written in this field and through the observation of the researcher, in addition to the collection of secondary data from different sources. Raza and Jawaid (2013) Terrorism and tourism: A conjunction and ramification in Pakistan. This study investigates the impact of terrorism activities on tourism in Pakistan by using the annual time series data from the period of 1980 to 2010. Baker (2014) The effects of terrorism on the travel and tourism industry. This paper aims to clarify this relationship and examines the relationship between selected factors and tourists’ decision-making process for destination choice. Tourists’ risk perception associated with terrorism served as a basis for the analysis. Gamage, Illangarathne, Kumudumali, Nedelea (2020) Terrorism and tourism: a systematic review of empirical literature. The paper systematically discusses the literature on terrorism and tourism between the years 2010 to 2019 with the use of The Scopus database. 25 Genocide Tourism Author / Date Topic Article Focus Grosspietsch (2006) Perceived and projected images of Rwanda: visitor and international tour operator perspectives. The present study was conducted with the purpose of determining and comparing the images of Rwanda as a tourist destination as perceived by visitors and as projected by international tour operators. Mazimhaka (2007) Diversifying Rwanda's tourism industry: a role for domestic tourism. This paper examines the role of domestic tourism in Rwanda's developing tourism economy and argues that positive benefits can be obtained through the greater promotion of domestic tourism in the country. Hughes (2008) Dutiful tourism: Encountering the Cambodian genocide. This paper considers contemporary international tourism to a genocide museum in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. The paper is concerned with the ways in which visiting practices encouraged at the Tuol Sleng Museum of Genocide Crimes in the immediate post-genocide period (the 1980s) continue to affect visiting practices in the present. Hitchcott (2009) Travels in Inhumanity: Véronique Tadjo's Tourism in Rwanda. This article focuses on L'Ombre d'Imana: voyages jusqu'au bout du Rwanda (2000), the travel narrative she published as a result of this trip. Robb (2009) Violence and Recreation: Vacationing in the Realm of Dark Tourism. In this article the author takes a cross-regional approach to a diverse group of dark tourism sites, from Rwanda and Argentina to the United States and Brazil, considering their aesthetics and the experiences of visitors to contribute to the theoretical exploration of the relationship between tourism and violence. Simic (2009) Remembering, Visiting and Placing the Dead: Law, Authority and Genocide in Srebrenica. The article address the recent development of „dark tourism‟ in Srebrenica and the blurring between voyeurism and educational enlightenment that such tourism provokes. The article examines the legal and ethical disputes surrounding the authority over the dead who rest in the Srebrenica Cemetery complex. Kistner (2010) Commemoration and Counter- Memory: „The Genocide Series‟. At the end of his monumental work Lieux de mémoire, Pierre Nora finds himself baffled by the paradox that the critical work of counter-memory has been overtaken by the obsession with commemoration. This paper explores this paradox. Tadjo (2010) Genocide: the changing landscape of memory in Kigali. This paper reflects on the memory of the genocide in Rwanda. 26 Bolin (2012) On the Side of Light: Performing Morality at Rwanda’s Genocide Memorials. In Rwanda, numerous memorials have arisen to remember the 1994 genocide and its victims. This paper considers the effect of the national genocide memorials on Western tourist visitors, in the context of research on „dark tourism‟ and Western attitudes toward death and the dead. Bonnekessen (2013) Murder State: California's Native American Genocide, 1846–1873. The book consists of three parts, Imagining, Perpetrating, and Supporting Genocide. Sharpley and Gahigana (2014) Tourist experiences of genocide sites: The case of Rwanda. The paper reviews briefly how the Rwandan genocide is presented and memorialized before considering research into how tourists experience genocide memorial sites in Rwanda. Isaac and Çakmak (2016) Understanding the motivations and emotions of visitors at Tuol Sleng genocide prison museum (S-21) in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. The purpose of this paper is to examine the motives and emotions of Western tourists visiting Tuol Sleng Genocide Prison Museum in Phnom Penh, Cambodia and further contribute to a deeper understanding of the dark tourism consumption. Wild (2022) Consuming memory, legitimizing power: the interplay of government and tourist narratives at Cambodia's Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum. The paper examines tourists' reactions to the Tuol Sleng Museum and analyses how it can shed light on the ways in which tourist and state narratives intersect at memorial sites, and on how the politics of memory interacts with the phenomenon of dark tourism. Slavery Tourism Author / Date Topic Article Focus Dann and Seaton (2001) Slavery, Contested Heritage and Thanatourism. This article introduces a collection of eight revised papers that focus on the connection between slavery and tourism. Essah (2001) Slavery, Heritage and Tourism in Ghana. This paper examines the past and present of the approximately 80 slave trade-related structures erected by Europeans on the shores of the Gold Coast (now Ghana). The meaning of these monuments remains powerful, bringing to Ghana and the slave forts a stream of tourists, primarily from Europe and the Americas, on a pilgrimage to view the virtual history of buyers, sellers and victims of the Atlantic Slave Trade. Richards (2005) What Is to Be Remembered? Tourism to Ghana's Slave Castle- Dungeons. This paper explores performances of identity enacted by black tourists and hosts in the "contact zone" of Ghana's castle- dungeons, now designated World Heritage sites because of the transatlantic slave trade that occurred there. Buzinde and Santos (2009) Interpreting slavery Tourism. This inquiry explores the manner in which tourists endow a former slave plantation with meaning by promoting or demoting its cultural authority. 27 Mowatt and Chancellor (2011) Visiting death and life: Dark Tourism and Slave Castles. This study is informed by combining data from interviews that were conducted with 14 individuals pre- and post-travel to Cape Coast Castle, Ghana, alongside elicited photographs from the site, and a narrative analysis on other visitations and reflections of coastal castles and bringing the discussion of these sites into an overall conceptual discussion of dark tourism. Essah (2013) Slavery, heritage and tourism in Ghana. This paper examines the past and present of the approximately 80 slave trade-related structures erected by Europeans on the shores of the Gold Coast (now Ghana). Bright, Alderman, and Butler (2018) Tourist plantation owners and slavery: A complex relationship. This paper examines owners of plantation heritage tourism sites as memorial entrepreneurs who control and negotiate the inclusion and specific treatment of the history of African enslavement. Skipper, Davidson (2018) The big house as home: Roots tourism and slavery in the USA. The study identifies two general conditions needed to facilitate this process: access to slavery-related sites encouraged by historic site owners or managers and reunion with enslaved ancestors and descendants of those who historically lived and worked at slavery-related sites. Prison Tourism Author / Date Topic Article Focus Shackley (2001) Potential Futures for Robben Island: shrine, museum or theme park? This article focuses on the debates surrounding the future of Robben Island which include its position within the multicultural heritage of the Western Cape, whether or not it should be developed as a conference center including residential accommodation, and to what extent its message should be politicized. Strange and Kempa (2003) Shades of dark tourism: Alcatraz and Robben Island. The paper argues for an analysis that accounts for the multiple shades of penal history marketing and interpretation - focusing on sites such as Alcatraz in the United States, and Robben Island in South Africa. Schrift (2004) The Angola Prison Rodeo: Inmate Cowboys and Institutional Tourism. This article examines the Angola prison rodeo as a form of tourist performance and ritual. It argues that the rodeo capitalizes on the public’s fascination with criminality through the spectacle of animalistic inmate others subdued by a progressive penal system. Wilson (2004) Dark tourism and the celebrity prisoner: Front and back regions in representations of an Australian historical prison. This article discusses two very different entities utilizing Goffman's vocabulary of dramaturgy, and examines the links between the two. One entity is an institution: Pentridge Prison, the former maximum-security jail in Melbourne's northern suburbs. The other is a 'celebrity' whom, a considerable portion of the general public has come to associate with Pentridge's evolving post- operational front region, and who is arguably its most famous living ex-inmate: the criminal-turned-writer Mark Brandon Read, universally known as 'Chopper'. 28 Wilson (2008) Prison: culture memory and dark tourism This book addresses a fundamental question: Do the interpretations and presentations of the sites include and fairly represent the personal stories and experiences associated with those prisons? This book examines avenues via which neglected narratives may be glimpsed or inferred, presenting a number of examples. Walby and Piche (2011) The polysemy of punishment memorialization: Dark tourism and Ontario's penal history museums. Contributing to debates about cultural representations of prisons and prisoners, as well as exploring the crossover between the dark tourism literature and cultural criminology, this article reflects on how penal museums in the province of Ontario, Canada, create and communicate meaning as it regards imprisonment and punishment. Welch and Macuare (2011) Penal tourism in Argentina: Bridging Foucauldian and neo-Durkheimian perspectives. This project explores penal tourism in Argentina in ways that reveal key forms of state power alongside important cultural signs, symbols, and messages. Wilson (2011) Australian Prison Tourism: A Question of Narrative Integrity. The article discusses the special nature of prison tourism in Australia, given the nation’s origins, just over two centuries ago, as a penal colony, and the significant role thus played by convicts in the development of Australian society. Ross (2012) Touring imprisonment: A descriptive statistical analysis of prison museums. Most of the prison museums in the United States are in California, Colorado, and Texas. This paper briefly reviews the scholarly literature about jail and prison museums. Aslan (2015) Prison Tourism as a form of Dark Tourism. In this study, firstly it has been tried to describe the general framework of dark tourism and prison tourism, then, Sinop Fortress Prison that also draws attention with historical features, is tried to emphasize. Turner and Turner (2016) Tourism on the Prison Boundary The paper explores a variety of sites and spaces that market landscapes of imprisonment as attractions for tourist consumption. Slade (2017) Remembering and forgetting the Gulag: prison tourism across the post-Soviet region. This specific chapter provides a comparative account of prison tourism in the post-Soviet region. It juxtaposes prison tourism in the Gulag center of Russia and Kazakhstan – countries where the Soviet system of labor camps was most prevalent. 29 Peters and Turner (2017) Journeying towards new methods in prison tourism research: Mobilizing penal histories at the Convict Ship Exhibition. This paper attends to convict ship histories through the lens of penal tourism, focusing on how this period of carceral history has been conveyed and expressed through the tourist site of the Galleries of Justice Museum, Nottingham, UK. Carlton (2023) Heritage, resistance and dissonance: reconstructing Pentridge in a prison tourism theme park. This article observes how the institutional histories of Pentridge have been curated and represented through the on-site redevelopments and tours. Dark Tourism / Thanatourism Concepts Author / Date Topic Article Focus Seaton (1996) Guided by the dark: from thanatopsis to thanatourism. The paper looks at the historical development of Thanatoptic elements in travel and shows how the Dark Tourism can be located within a historical tradition which sheds light on how it should be defined, typified and viewed in contemporary society. Foley and Lennon (1997) Dark Tourism – An Ethical Dilemma. The authors place emphasis and critical attention to the ethical dilemmas engulfed within the act of travel associated with death and disaster. Lennon and Foley (2000) Dark Tourism: The Attraction of Death and Disaster. The book focuses on the conceptual attraction of visiting sites associated with death and disaster. Seaton (2002) Thanatourism's final frontiers? Visits to cemeteries, churchyards and funerary sites as sacred and secular pilgrimage. The paper examines the historical and contemporary status of cemeteries, churchyards and other funerary sites, and their textual characteristics, as pilgrimage goals. Stone (2005a) Consuming Dark Tourism - a call for research. The article calls for the development of consumer behavior models, which incorporate contemporary socio-cultural aspects of death and dying. Stone (2006a) A dark tourism spectrum: Towards a typology of death and macabre related sites, attractions and exhibitions. In this article the author argues that certain suppliers (of dark tourism) may indeed, conceptually at least, share particular product features, perceptions and characteristics, which can then be loosely translated into various 'shades of darkness'. Wight (2006) Philosophical and methodological praxes in dark tourism: Controversy, contention and the evolving paradigm. The article comments on a cross section of publications written on this subject in the context of philosophical issues, research methodologies, emerging paradigms in the topic, contemporary debate and controversies. 30 Stone (2007) Dark Tourism: the ethics of exploiting tragedy. Stone suggests sound management and governance is fundamental to ensuring dark tourism sites are not reduced to simply a voyeuristic tourist gaze, where people come to gawp upon others‟ grief and misfortune. Stone and Sharpley (2008) Consuming dark tourism: A thanatological perspective. Despite increasing academic attention paid to dark tourism, understanding of the concept remains limited, particularly from a consumption perspective. That is, the literature focuses primarily on the supply of dark tourism; less attention, however, has been paid to the demand for „dark‟ touristic experiences. This theoretical paper seeks to address this gap in the literature. Bowman and Pezzullo (2009) What's so 'Dark' about 'Dark Tourism'? Death, Tours, and Performance. The essay identifies and interrogates the scholarly and political assumptions behind labeling tourist destinations at sites of death as „dark‟. Sharpley and Stone (2009) The Darker Side of Travel: The Theory and Practice of Dark Tourism. This book explores conceptual themes and debates surrounding dark tourism. It explores the wider disciplinary context to establish informed relationships between the theory and practice of dark tourism. Walter (2009) Dark tourism: Mediating Between the Dead and the Living. First the author identifies a range of mediators, and then enquires what kind of relationships dark tourists and others have with the dead. This is followed by an enquiry into what kinds of encounters with death are involved, and, finally, the author questions the current trend to analyze dark tourism in terms of motives and demand. Stone (2010) Death, Dying and Dark Tourism in Contemporary Society: A Theoretical and Empirical Analysis. Drawing upon thanatological discourse – that is, the analysis of Society’s perceptions of and reactions to death and dying – the research objective is to explore the potential of dark tourism as a means of contemplating mortality in (Western) societies. Stone (2012) Dark Tourism. Heterotopias and Post-Apocalyptic Places: The Case of Chernobyl. The purpose of this chapter is to critically explore the touristification of Chernobyl and examine how a place of industrial death and disaster convey broader political narratives and identity. Podoshen (2013) Dark tourism motivations: Simulation, emotional contagion and topographic comparison. This paper examines dark tourism consumption motivations. This study traces the dark tourism motivations related to “blackpackers” and fans of the musical performance art known as black metal. Raine (2013) A dark tourist spectrum. The purpose of this paper is to develop a typology of dark tourists through an investigation of people's motivations to visit burial grounds. This research extends Stone's Dark Tourism Spectrum and Seven Dark Suppliers framework by identifying nine types of dark tourists. 31 Stone (2013) Dark tourism scholarship: a critical review. This review paper scrutinizes dark tourism scholarship and, subsequently, offers original insights into the potential role dark tourism may play in the public representation of death, as well as highlighting broader interrelationships dark tourism has with research into the social reality of death and the significant Other dead. Christou and Hadjielia (2022) Aura, thanatoplaces, and the construction of thanatourism emotions. The present study addresses thanatourism emotions by focusing on tourists’ individual perceptions and the role of the thanatourism place (referred to as the thanatoplace). Guano (2022) The Mirror of the Dead: Thanatoptic Storytelling in an Italian Cemetery. This paper draws on ethnographic research conducted in Genoa’s Staglieno monumental cemetery between 2016 and 2019 to examine the events--poetic readings, guided walking tours, and outdoor theater performances--that have become popular against the backdrop of the local tourist industry and its economy of cultural experiences; its goal is to explore the strategies through which the evocative power of storytelling promotes the contemplation of mortality. Light and Ivanova (2022) Thanatopsis and mortality mediation within “lightest” dark tourism. This paper aims to investigate the visitor experience at a ‘‘lightest’’ dark tourism attraction, focusing on issues of thanatopsis and mortality mediation Death of “famous” individuals Author / Date Topic Article Focus Foley and Lennon (1996) JFK and dark tourism: A fascination with assassination. This paper sets out to explore the phenomenon that the authors have entitled Dark Tourism and to analyze evidence of its existence in the context of sites associated with the life and death of the former US President, John F. Kennedy (JFK). Merrin (1999) Crash, bang, wallop! What a picture! The death of Diana and the media. This paper draws upon contemporary media theory to argue that the death of Diana represents one of the most important recent examples of a media event in which event, broadcast and audience interpenetrate to render questions of truth and falsity, original and image undecidable. Blom (2000) Morbid tourism: a postmodern market niche with an example from Althorp. The paper examines locations such as Elvis Presley's grave in Graceland, Jim Morrison's in Paris and Princess Diana's at Althorp in England (all of which attract large numbers of tourists). It also addresses the emergence of increasingly sophisticated commercial activity. Natural disasters tourism Author / Date Topic Article Focus Faulkner and Vikulov (2001) Katherine, washed out one day, back on track the next: a post-mortem of a tourism disaster. This paper aims to refine a previously developed model for tourism disaster management plans (companion paper) by examining the case of the 1998 Australia Day flood at Katherine. In the process, the potential contribution of such a plan to destination preparedness 32 is illustrated, and valuable insights into the details of such a plan and the more enduring tourism impacts of disasters are provided. Ryan and Kohli (2006) The Buried village, New Zealand – An example of dark tourism? In 1886, the explosion of Mount Tarawera resulted in the loss of 150 lives and the burial of the village of Te Wairoa, the base from which tourists had visited the Pink and White Terraces, a silicone-stained natural formation then advertised as one of the natural wonders of the world. Since 1931, the buried site has itself been a tourist attraction and Smith and Croy have argued that it serves as an example of “dark tourism”. Coats and Ferguson (2013) Rubbernecking or Rejuvenation: Post Earthquake Perceptions and the Implications for Business Practice in a Dark Tourism Context. In this research the authors explore how residents of Christchurch, New Zealand negotiate the balance between being the subject of unwelcome tourist gazing and commencing the path towards economic and social recovery from the devastating earthquake. Yankovska and Hannam (2014) Dark and toxic tourism in the Chernobyl exclusion zone. This paper is an attempt to explore and understand tour guides interpretations of tourist’s experiences at the one of the most infamous sites of dark and toxic tourism - the Chernobyl exclusion zone. Rucińska (2016) Natural disaster tourism as a type of dark tourism. Based on the literature analysis, distinction of natural disasters in thanatourism was investigated, which relates to dynamic geographical conditions. Natural disasters used to play an important role in social life by their appearance in myths and religions. Sharpley and Wright (2018) Disasters and disaster tourism: The role of the media. The paper unravels the opinion that ‘Disasters are unusual, dramatic, and often have great impact upon people’s lives. This combination makes disasters newsworthy and creates the expectation that news outlets, which are driven by commercial imperatives, will report them. The paper looks at the relationship between disaster sites and media coverage. Farkić and Kennell (2021) Consuming dark sites via street art: Murals at Chernobyl. This paper aims to explore tourists’ experiences through their embodied encounters with murals in the Zone Martini and Minca (2021) Affective dark tourism encounters: Rikuzentakata after the 2011 great East Japan disaster. This article discusses the case of Rikuzentakata, a town almost completely destroyed by the 2011 tsunami provoked by the Great East Japan Disaster. It shows how the town has directed some of its recovery efforts toward the development of a specific form of post-disaster tourism Urbonavicius (2021) Chernobyl: Analysis of Young Travelers’ Motivations to Visit a Unique Dark Tourism Destination. This study concentrates on analysis of internal (push) motivations of young travelers who were born after the event, but live in the distance of 500-700 km from Chernobyl and therefore are aware about it from their families and from public sources Zhang (2021) Unpacking visitors' This research, undertaken at four post-natural disaster 33 experiences at dark tourism sites of natural disasters. sites, explores the onsite experience of 196 participants using semi-structured interviews and participant-generated photos. Findings indicate that experiencing a disaster context could be cognitive, emotional, introspective, sensory, relational and hedonic. Yapan and Çingiloglu (2023) Dark Tourism and Natural Disasters: A Proposal For An Earthquake Memorial Museum in Kahramanmaras. The purpose of this study is to propose an earthquake memorial museum for dark tourism in Kahramanmaras, Turkey. Supply and Demand of Dark Tourism Author / Date Topic Article Focus Hanink and Stutts (2002) Spatial demand for National battlefield parks. A spatial demand model is developed in this research to examine some of the factors contributing to the popularity of battlefields as tourism destinations. The model is applied to a pooled data set of annual visits to 19 national battlefield parks in the years 1990, 1993, and 1996. Ashworth and Hartmann (2005) Horror and human tragedy revisited: the management of sites of atrocities for tourism. This book deals with the management of atrocity sites, relics and memorials for tourism. Kim and Wong (2006) Effects of News Shock on Inbound Tourist Demand Volatility in Korea. This study introduces the concepts and theories relating to conditional heteroscedastic volatility models and the news impact curve and applies them in the analysis of the tourist market in Korea. Miller and Gonzalez (2007) When death is the destination: the business of death tourism – despite legal and social implications. This paper views the growing popularity of death tourism which directs the confrontation with grief and mortality with the expressed purpose of orchestrating travel that culminates in assistance to end one's life. Goatcher and Brunsden (2011) Chernobyl and the Sublime Tourist. This paper looks at a number of photographs from the Pripyat.com website that appear to share a visual grammar with „tourist snap-shots‟. Kang, Scott, Lee and Ballantyne (2012) Benefits of visiting a „dark tourism‟ site: The case of the Jeju April 3rd Peace Park, Korea. This research examines visitor experiences at a contemporary dark tourism site: the April 3rd Peace Park on Jeju Island, South Korea, a site commemorating and memorializing one of the most destructive episodes in modern Korean history. Biran and Hyde (2013) New perspectives on dark tourism. The purpose of this paper is to introduce the papers in this Special Issue of IJCTHR on dark tourism. These papers take either a demand-side, supply-side, or integrated demand-and- supply side perspective to understanding dark tourism. Collectively, the papers explore tourist experiences at dark sites, the management of dark sites, ethical issues in profit making, and the involvement of indigenous 34 peoples in site management. Brown (2013) Dark tourism shops: selling “dark” and “difficult” products. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the position of the museum shop within dark tourism sites. Buda and McIntosh (2013) Dark tourism and voyeurism: tourists arrested for “spying” in Iran. The purpose of this paper is to propose voyeurism as one possible lens to analyze the experiential nature of dark tourism in places of socio-political danger, thus expanding psychoanalytic understandings of those who travel to a “dark” place. Farmaki (2013) Dark tourism revisited: a supply/demand conceptualization. The purpose of this paper is to advance the conceptualization of dark tourism by evaluating both the supply-side drivers for dark tourism development and the demand-side motivations for visiting two dark heritage sites in Cyprus. Johnston (2013) Mark Twain and The Innocents Abroad: illuminating the tourist gaze on death. This article offers a rereading of Twain's encounters, proposing examination of Twain's encounters as timely and useful in addressing what Seaton identifies as a gap in data on thanatourism consumption. Powell, Iankova, (2016) Dark London: Dimensions and characteristics of dark tourism supply in the UK capital. This paper will investigate the characteristics of the supply of dark tourism in London, UK through an examination of the identified main dark sites in London, UK. Millan, Millan Vazquez de la Torre, Hernandez Rojas (2021) Dark tourism in Southern Spain (Córdoba): An analysis of the demand. This study analyzes dark tourism in the province of Córdoba in southern Spain with the aim of knowing the profile of the tourist and his motivation. This study additionally will forecast the demand for this type of tourism, using autoregressive integrated moving average (ARIMA) models, which allow us to know this market’s evolution and whether any promotional action should be carried out to promote it. Source: Adapted from Wright, D (2014), doctoral thesis: “Residents’ Perceptions of Dark Tourism Development: The Case of L’Aquila, Italy” 2.3. Supply and demand of dark tourism The inquest into demand and supply of dark tourism raised a considerable research interest, as shown in table 2.1., although Seaton (1999) stated that production and distribution of dark and unsettling past is not only driven by consumers’ tastes, which are often media influenced, and by commercial marketing ploys on behalf of the supplier, but also subject to changes in the wider external factors such as political and cultural climate. That view balances his visitors’ driven thanatourism approach from 1996, where he notes that fundamentally dark tourism is a behavioural phenomenon defined by the motivations of the tourist’s rather than the particular site / attraction characteristics. Stone (2005) argues that that perspective is restricting as it focuses on dark tourism as a demand-oriented 35 phenomenon, thus, ignoring significant issues from the supply and development perspective which is fundamental to holistic understanding of phenomena of dak tourism. According to Stone (2005) the supply of dark attractions depends on factors such as the attempt to achieve a mercantile advantage or to manipulate a dark heritage site for political reasons. Following this argument and as an answer to Miles (2002) suggestion of a significant difference between dark and darker sites such as former KL Auschwitz-Birkenau and Washington’s Holocaust Memory Museum, Stone creates a Dark Tourism Spectrum – overall acclaimed framework where comparison between factors such as locations, objectives of visit, authenticity (place “of” or “related to” death) provide a basis of distinction between various sites. The proposed spectrum (table 2.2.) is useful for analysing the supply of dark sites from various perspectives, such as time and availability for tourism infrastructure, although it is not free from automatic reference to the “time” dilemma. As Lennon and Foley (2000, p.12) turn towards more temporal and “within living memory” dimensions of categorising dark tourism site, Seaton allows time to be less relevant and indicates that any site effecting tourism motivated by death is equally important. The spectrum carries an important message to the supply side of dark tourism locations, which, as per framework presented below is responsible for most authentic possible demonstration of the site. The darkest locations (including concentration camps – a case chosen for this thesis) carry expectations towards supplying the right balance of education and personalization of the place. However, the framework is not free from certain limitations. Firstly, it focuses mainly on the supply site of Dark Tourism, neglecting its demand perspective. Although Raine (2013, p.248) attempted to provide a typology of subsequent seven types of dark visitors, her typology is based on assumed motivation to travel not supported by empirical research neither followed by the academics as a co-existing framework. Additionally, and what is more relevant to the focus of this thesis the framework of Dark Tourism Spectrum does not suggest any emotional distinction among various sites. Although the emotional experience at multiple sitings (specifically contrasting lightest and darkest) was beyond the scope of this thesis, it could be assumed that emotional reactions would be more heightened towards the darkest site of the spectrum. There is therefore believe that the future of Dark Tourism research would include and add an emotional element-based distinction between various Dark Tourism sites on Stone’s Spectrum. 36 Figure 2.2. A Dark Tourism Spectrum Source: Stone (2006) As the sites chosen as a primary research location and representing Holocaust tourism in situ (Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum and State Museum at Majdanek) would be analysed using the spectrum model, there is undeniable they would be located as darkest sites of dark tourism spectrum. They both offer extensive educational experience, not only during the visit but also as a form of additional workshops or online discussions. They are both authentic – the location that visitors encounter follows the exact sites of genocide events happening between 1941 -1945. There is however a particular question of time frame, also being a debate between dark tourism versus thanatourism perspective; the time of “living memory” is ceasing; existing survivors of KL Auschwitz-Birkenau and KL Majdanek are currently 90plus years old and every following year the theme of Holocaust tourism is faced with the necessity of depending on written documents rather than original memoirs which were available to be heard from survivors of Second World War Nazi concentration camps. 37 Following on his dark tourism spectrum Stone suggested seven dark suppliers (Stone, 2006, p.152-157). These ‘seven dark suppliers’ include: dark fun factories; dark exhibitions; dark dungeons; dark resting places; dark shrines; dark conflicts sites; and dark camps of genocide. Dark Fun Factories represent the lightest category of Stone’s spectrum. They are categorized by high volume if tourism infrastructure, as they mostly have an entertaining and commercial focus. Although the death is present, the visitors can draw on macabre process in a relatively safe environment and in a playful manner. These sites experience little to no political influence and are more likely to be separated from the seriousness of the original event by the passage of time, separating the events depicted from social consciousness. The sites do not necessarily represent an authentic location of death or macabre and can be fictional and fabricated. Examples of such places include, in the UK, the London Dungeon, Blackpool’s Tower Dungeon or Dracula Castle in Romania. Dark Exhibitions located as slightly darker than fun factories and represent exhibitions which seek to showcase the educational element through the manner in which exhibits are displayed. Dark Exhibitions offer products which revolve around death, suffering or the macabre with an often commemorative, educational and reflective message (Stone, 2006, p.153). The example of Dark Exhibition is Body Worlds – fixed or remote exhibitions of plastinated bodies. Unlike most specimens in a conventional museum, they are real human corpses: cadavers. The bodies are arranged in various stages of dissection, though without showing any signs of decomposition. The corporeal remains have undergone a preservation procedure known as plastination: the palatized corpses ‘do not rot or smell, and they maintain the structure, colour and texture of the original tissue and organs down to the microscopic level (Herscovitch, 2003). The exhibitions created by a Doctor Gunter Von Hagens create many controversies in academic and science world; Burns (2007) feels strongly that the human cadaver should never be regarded as an object of art, entertainment or education – because of its exceptional meaning. He refers to Von Hagens himself who is keen to emphasize that education is his foremost aim. He does agree though that the training of medical students through the use of cadavers is extremely valuable, because of the benefit this provides to society as a whole. By exposing the bodies to the public, he believes the cadavers are made objects and the aim is not educational anymore. “If anatomical knowledge were the primary concern, I do not see why that could not be conveyed through models and other means”. He asks the question whether seeing the “real thing” makes one an expert like an anatomist. In Body Worlds cadavers are put on general display surrounded by fanfare and acrimonious exchange instead of being largely hidden from the public in dissecting rooms. 38 Table 2.3. An exhibit at Body World, Amsterdam Source: Author’s own collection Dark Dungeons refer to sites located in the middle of dark spectrum (Stone, 2006) as they may offer both fun as well as serious element and are highly commercialised. The examples are former penal and justice building, most likely former prisons and courthouses. Stone (2006, p.154) gives an example of Galleries of Justice in Nottingham, UK, however it is also worth mentioning the international phenomenon of “The Rock” – a former high security penal institution located in San Franciso Bay attracting motion of “prison tourism” (Manning et al, 2002; Strange and Kempa, 2003; Aslan, 2015). Strange and Kempa (2003, p.401) argue that to describe prison history tourism as “good” is too good, and “dark” too stark. Alcatraz was never simply a maximum-security prison with nothing to offer site interpreters but a story of punishment. From its splashy opening to its controversial operation, to its ignominious closure and its unsanctioned occupation, its history was colourful. Even while it functioned as a prison, Alcatraz generated sensational stories, in testimony before public inquiries, in news coverage of daring breakouts, in the memoirs of former prisoners and prison personnel. But more than any other publicity generator, blockbuster films put Alcatraz on the mental map of Americans and international consumers of films made in the United States. 39 Dark Resting Places are located in the middle on the Stone’s spectrum. They are typically represented as cemetery or grave (Seaton, 2002). Stone (2006) suggests a trend of using cemeteries and places of rest of famous as mechanism promoting the area. Although visiting cemeteries maintains its primary function of displaying history and offering a space for commemoration, there is also nearly romantic character of occasionally tragic deaths or a possible space of coming to terms with death Venbrucks (2010). Young and Light (2016) recognized heritage value of cemeteries where visitors are drawn to the distinctive architecture, monuments and statuary associated with such spaces. In this way, cemeteries are potentially educational resources in the same way as any other heritage attraction. Consequently, an increasing number of cemeteries now provide interpretive facilities for visitors and more than 100 cemeteries in Britain now offer guided tours (Young and Light, 2016, p.65). Those cemeteries in which famous people or celebrities are interred can also be sites of pilgrimage for fans and enthusiasts (Seaton, 2002) and such cemeteries can be the setting for a range of commemorative rituals and performances. Dark Shrines are formal or informal constructs of remembrance at or near the place of death and within short time from death happening (Stone, 2006). Often, they are spontaneous acts of sorrow, signs of tribute or honouring the deceased. Generally, dark shrines can be divided into two categories, those commemorating celebrities and those representing general members of society; equally, mourners can also be divided into two categories, namely, those directly related to the victim and those who are not. Shrines that are related to the general populous are more often created spontaneously by friends and relatives visiting the site of death and may be, for example, the site of a road accident or the place where a murder took place. Dark conflict sides are locations of war or a historic battlefield. According to Stone (2006), they can be located at the darker end of the spectrum as they tend to be commemorative driven, educationally informative and history-centric and originally non-purposeful in the dark tourism context (Stone, 2006, p. 156). Although categorised as dissonant heritage by Tunbridge and Ashworth (1996) they also carry a deep political meaning. Stone observes an increasing pattern of commercializing war and battle zone as a result of growing popularity of the site among tourists. For instance, since 1998, more than 3000 people are involved in re-acting a medieval “Battle of Grunwald” which took place in 1410 AD between the Polish-Lithuanian army and Teutonic Knights. The scenario of the bloody conflict, taking place on the original battlefields of Grunwald in northern Poland, gathers annually 100,000 visitors from around the world (www.grunwald1410.pl). 40 Dark Camp of Genocide represents those sites and places which have genocide, atrocity and catastrophe as the main thanatological theme, and thus occupy the darkest edges of the ‘dark tourism spectrum’ (Stone, 2006, p.157) Although they are rare, there is an unprecedented level of cruelty, suffering and numbers of victims. They have the potential to elicit extreme emotional feelings among its visitors (Sharpley and Friedrich, 2016); they occupy the authentic location of genocide happening and often have many artefacts belonging previously to either victims of perpetrators of the mass murder. The example of Dark Camps of Genocide is Killing Fields in Cambodia, a location of mass murder perpetrated by Khmer Rouge Regime in late 70-ties. However, the most prolific example are concentration and extermination camps established by Nazi dictators in various locations in Poland and Germany. According to Stone (2006, p.157) Dark Camps of Genocide are those sites which mark a concentration of death and atrocity, and a concentration of death is no more apparent than that committed throughout the Holocaust. It is therefore the utmost and ultimate representation of darkest side of the spectrum. Miles (2002) suggested that dark tourism, in numerous forms is a function of both demand and supply. Responding to this suggestion Sharpley proposed a matrix of dark tourism demand and supply (2008). Within the framework, dark tourism attractions and experiences are measured depending on whether the demand for seeing death related sites is strong or weak and whether the supply of those sites is purposeful or accidental. Specifically, he establishes a link between the site’s attributes and the experience sought by tourists and proposed four shades of (dark) tourism. As a result, four “shades” of dark tourism have been identified: • Pale tourism; when tourists with a minimal or limited interest in death are visiting sites unintended to be tourist attractions. • Grey tourism demand; when tourists with a fascination with death are visiting unintended dark tourism sites. • Grey tourism supply; when tourists with some, but not dominant fascination with death visit sites intentionally established to exploit death. • Black tourism; when tourists with a profound fascination with death are exposed to purposefully supplied places and experiences which satisfy that fascination. Sharpley also perceives this shade as “pure dark tourism” (2008). The consideration of both supply and demand gives rise to an important realisation – i.e. that not all tourists visiting dark sites engage in a dark experience (Stone and Sharpley, 2008) and not all tourists 41 visiting dark sites are thanatourists (Slade, 2003; Biran et al., 2011). Indeed, tourists may implicitly take away meanings of mortality from their visit rather than explicitly seek to understand death as a primary motive (Stone and Sharpley, 2008; Stone, 2012). Even though the supply site of dark tourism has been revisited both by practitioners and academics, Yoshida, et al., (2016) call for expressing more focus on educational side of the dark tourism as well as the need of taking the intensity of dark tourism lens away from Western Countries and offer wider geographical fringe of the Asia Pacific Region. 2.4. Review of Holocaust Tourism Holocaust tourism does not have a history matching the other types of dark tourism such as some cases of battlefield tourism or pilgrimages. Holocaust as such is understood as genocide against Jews undertaken during Second World War and executed as a result of “Final Solution” plan. Hermanova (2015) identifies Holocaust sites with a massacre, a complete disaster or a complete destruction of something or someone. Feldman (1995) characterizes Holocaust tourism as shared practice of Judaic heritage where the collective tourism experience becomes even more central to identity than faith. Poland: a location of many former concentration and extermination camps, as well as the Jewish ghettos established during Nazi occupations in many leading cities; is a destination of many Holocaust related travels (Dawson et al, 2022). Ashworth (2002) noted that Jewish tourism in Poland was steadily increasing since the early 1990s, as the Iron Curtain dropped, and the Jewish tourists can reconnect with Jewish roots and Holocaust artifacts. The need to mourn and remember the Shoah has prompted an ever-growing form of what Buntman (2008) refers as memory-based tourism. The number of such tourists to Poland increases annually, thereby making Holocaust tourism a viable business. Holocaust tourism, as an academic phenomenon, and with its beginnings is similar to dark tourism, where the particular researches were scares and supply was a leading dimension. Colle (1999) in his book is trying to capture the early stages of switching to Poland-located Holocaust sites, which were not fully accessible before the drop of the Iron Curtain. He suggested replacing Belsen with Auschwitz and shift the Western understanding of Holocaust to its most prominent example - former KL Auschwitz-Birkenau. Beech (2000) focused on Buchenwald as a Holocaust related tourism attraction, admittedly expressing problems with calling it an “attraction”, and consequently struggling with interpreting motivations towards visiting former concentration camps, which he classified as a “heritage which hurts” (p.40). 42 Holocaust tourism, according to Miles (2002) can be something that is experienced at an actual site of the Holocaust or elsewhere, such as the Holocaust Museum in Washington, DC or at an in populo as at former concentration camps. A key difference, however, is that being at an actual Holocaust location allows the tourist to experience a unique level of empowerment and empathy (Miles 2002). Since the first decade of this century Holocaust tourism gained more intense interest in studying the demand site, although Biran et al, (2011) mentioned it mostly covered motivations of tourism visiting dark places including difficult heritage and Holocaust sites. Their research on visitors of Auschwitz-Birkenau were important in understanding, that contrary to previously mentioned main motive to visiting dark sites being fascination with death (Stone and Sharpley, 2008), the motives are varied and include a desire to learn and understand the history presented, a sense of ‘‘see it to believe it,’’ and interest in having an emotional heritage experience. The findings indicated that tourists are mainly motivated by a desire for an educational as well as emotional experience (Biran et al, 2011, p.836). Their findings demonstrate that the motives for visiting former KL Auschwitz-Birkenau are similar to those for visiting a ‘‘regular,’’ not dark, heritage site being strong educational motive, as well as emotional involvement. However, the visitors perceive the visit to Auschwitz-Birkenau also as a heritage experience. The sought benefits revealed here indicate that rather than a tool for satisfying curiosity over death and dying, participants value on-site interpretation as a tool for enhancing their educational experience and knowledge, and as a source for emotional experience and connection to one’s personal heritage. Although the issue of motives for visiting Holocaust sites is not a focus of this study, the findings are indicating a need to have an emotional and learning experience. This outcome is also in line with the holistic understanding of the overall tourism experience proposed by Aho (2001). Emotional experience at the Holocaust sites was also discussed through the lenses of identity (Podoshen, 2006; Biran et al, 2011; Podoshen, 2011). The visitors who perceive the site as personal heritage display greater interest in an emotional experience and feeling connected to their own heritage, while the visitors without personal connection to Holocaust are more interested in educational experience (Biran et al, 2011). Kidron (2013) examined dark tourism as heritage tourism and focuses on family trips by Holocaust survivors and their families. The author has identified that there are growing numbers of war survivors that take their children and families to sites of personal suffering, sacrifice and, ultimately, survival. In contrast to Foley and Lennon (1996) who stated that friends and family visiting dark tourism sites is not dark tourism, Kidron believes that families who witness where their loved ones have suffered offer a highly emotional experience compared to the normal tourist. Looking at presented plethora and complexity of dark tourism sites, the question 43 arises, what kind of emotional experiences could be identified at places labelled as “dark”. Although there is a belief that dark or difficult heritage sites create strong emotional reactions (Seaton, 2009), the assumption, that the corresponding emotions are also “dark” or negative might not be correct. Vess et al (2009) argue that experiencing places of death could bring positive reactions and even appreciation to the world around us. Agreeing with a multileveled density of assumptions the first objective of this research is to critically analyse the range of emotions in visitors’ experiences at Holocaust sites. Objective 1: To critically analyse the range of emotions in visitors’ experiences at Holocaust sites. 2.5. Tourism versus Dark Tourism in contemporary world The subject could be posted regarding a comparison of tourism and Dark Tourism followed by potential suggestions that Dark Tourism is yet another (modern) type of tourism. The term “dark” alludes to a sense of apparent disturbing practices and morbid products and experience, within the tourism domain (Stone, 2006, p. 146). Ultimately Dark Tourism would not exist without tourism, and from a practical way they might be treated similarly. As a service they are both subjected to some marketing efforts focused on promising the best experience possible. However, what is a “best experience” could be subjective. With traditional, hedonic forms of tourism pleasure, stress-free time is often an ultimate goal and if satisfied, tourists are willing to repeat that activity and recommend it (Wong et al, 2020). Dark Tourism sites on the other site might elicit strong negative emotions (Foley and Lennon, 1996; Rojek, 1999; Stone, 2005), however it does not necessarily rule out the positive and satisfying positive outcome. As summarized above, tourism and dark tourism phenomena is not a conventional product and the experiences arriving from consuming tourism, especially difficult tourism are complex, however a consideration should be given into the nature of it in order to better understand the behavior of tourists and correct the efforts of organizers. Dark Tourism, as much as being a permanent component on the academic map of tourism and customer behavior (with more than a million search results at Google Scholar), starts as a term gaining recognition in non-academic settings with added twists and provocations. Netflix was successful to launch its serious called “Dark Tourist” (www.netflix.com/gb/title/80189791); describing experiences of visiting dark or difficult by general social understanding meaning sites to somehow tease the viewer. The episodes introduce meeting an infamous serial sadistic killer Jeffrey Dahmer’s enthusiast in 44 Milwaukee, attending a voodoo festival in Benin or shooting and gutting a cow near the Cambodian’s Killing Fields. As much as the Netflix series is a viable success, its commercial character allows for a higher level of flexibility in using terminology and locations. Here, the term “dark tourist” is used widely, while in academia still little is known on what exactly means to be a dark tourist in terms of the role they perform on site, creating it almost a taboo subject. Zerva (2023) proposes that currently a dark tourist can play more or less involving role; the passive role of the spectator which requires the audio-visual attention of the tourist on stimulus that is prepared ex ante or in situ or the active role of the spectator where a tourist is participating in real or staged activities. 2.6. Ethical considerations of Dark Tourism The 9/11 Memorial Museum hopes to educate visitors from around the world about the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001 (www.911memorial.org). The starting price for an adult ticket is $24 and the cost can rise to $44 when attending various tours there are in the museum’s offer. In addition to entry fees the museum holds a gift shop with a range of memorabilia. It could be argued the gift shop is nothing but a modern answer to the Victorian idea of Memento Mori however the profit generating aspect does not sit well with the families of the September the 11th victims. A victim’s father called it “a crass commercialism on a literally sacred site” and argues against selling souvenirs on the spot of the tragedy which took more than three thousand lives. According to The Washington Post (2014) the feelings of the victims’ families are deeply hurt by the prospect of keeping the 9/11 Memorial Museum as one more touristic attraction in New York City. One of the speakers says, “They’re down there selling bracelets, they’re making money off my dead son” (www.washingtonpost.com). It could be roughly calculated that the Museum itself brought around $50 million to date hence it might be perceived as a money-making machine born out of death, horror and sorrow. It could be argued that the WTC authorities turned mass murder and global tragedy into an extremely profitable project on the touristic map of NYC. The Museum’s website is easily accessible with its choice of packages which could be booked up to three months in advance. Also, on the main site there is a link to the Museum’s store providing items like rescue dog mugs, cuddly toys, posters and cards. However, it could also be argued that supplying souvenirs is not a calculated act but an answer to an existing demand; a natural sign of our times. By buying those items tourists do not necessarily express fascination with death and murder but rather feeling for the victims and support for their families. 45 The WTC and the 911 Memorial Museum undoubtedly finds itself on a dark tourism spectrum as one of death and macabre marked destinations, therefore is vulnerable to kitschification; a term introduced in the mid-19th century to describe an aesthetic that was portrayed as banal, trite, predictable and in bad taste (Calinescu, 1987 in Sharpley and Stone, 2009). Places or spaces such as this one require inoculation and thus rendering into something else that is comfortable and safe to deal with and contemplate (Sharpley and Stone, 2009; Stone, 2012 in Stone, 2013; Stone and Grebenar, 2022). As Tarlow (2005) reminds us dark tourism has the commercial side making the horrors of yesterday to the business of today for this reason souvenir shops can be seen in the places of tragedy, individual ‘s memory is replaced with collective one and those who pay their respect to the victim become the consumers. Furthermore, the educational role of place of death was compromised by an emphasis on spectacle and entertainment; something termed “dark edutainment” (Sharpley and Stone, 2009, p. 111) or ‘dartainment’ (Dale & Robinson, 2011, p.213). Although the link between death and travel has a long history (Seaton, 1996), the consumerism surrounding death in contemporary society (Jacobsen, 2016) has raised concerns about the ethical demarcation between commercialism and commemoration in dark tourism, which ‘packs-up’ spectacles of death as commodities for consumption and sells tragic memories as souvenirs (Stone, 2019, p. 2). Chen and Xu (2021) concluded that commercialization is one of the main reasons why dark tourism faces ethical dilemmas, however with an appropriate exposition dark tourism can, in many cases, be a source of income for the local community; the instance is especially present at disasters sites, rather than an example of “milking the macabre” Dann (1998). On this basis, it is recommended that future research be expanded to explore the moral judgements of tourists with different political and cultural attitudes towards the commercialization of dark tourism. 2.7. Summary This chapter was aimed at introducing the theme of dark tourism and its taxonomies observed in the literature in the last few decades. As dark tourism works as an umbrella term for other subgenre of seemingly difficult tourism it felt appropriate to present an updated achievements in the literature divided by different types of dark tourism. There is a special attention given to literature connected with Holocaust tourism, as this thesis is located at two prolific Holocaust tourism destinations. 46 Moreover, given the limitations of emerging research on emotions and tourism overall experience at Holocaust sites it is suggested to conduct more focused, and heritage connected research in order to understand potential differences in receiving a heritage site experience from various groups of visitors. 3. Setting the scene 3.1. The Nazi regime and the morbid history of concentration camps “The bigger the lie, The more easily people fall for it” Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf While the idea of concentration camps is historically related to mass murder and extermination, the genesis of those camps was based on more “selective” imprisonments of subjects considered as dangerous to the stability of The Third Reich. The “concentration” status included several sectors of society such as: • The politically unacceptable; • The racially unacceptable; • The criminally unacceptable; as an alternative to prison; • Physically inacceptable – disabled people; • Psychologically unacceptable; people suffering from mental illnesses (Beech, 2000). Towards the end of 1930s and as the Nazi regime spread through Europe in 1940ties, the uses of concentration camps became more brutal and sadistic. The outbreak of the Second World War’s atrocities generated a need to drastically increase the number of camps and assign them one of the three main functions: transit cap or a holding centre, forced labour camp (associated with production of goods to support the Nazi war effort and selected industries) and thirdly; as a concentration camp (Beech, 2000). In relatively short few years however many war prisons or forced labour centres became death factories as they metamorphosed from “a locus of terror into a universe of horror” (Sofsky, 1997, p.5). Camps’ objectives have been changing, so were the reasons for imprisonment and 47 the nature of prisoners, for instance in 1938 Buchenwald camp hosted 100% German nationals convicted of political reasons, however by the day of liberation in April 1945 only 5% of prisoners were of German origins (Beech, 2000). 3.2. The Wannsee Conference – the birthplace of Final Solution There is simply impossible to debate the genesis of Holocaust and the sites of Holocaust such as concentration and extermination camps without mentioning the focal point which remains accountable for mass murder and genocide of a scale never acknowledged before or after that time; the meeting that lasted around 90 minutes and changed the history of the world (Jasch, 2017). It happened approximately 40 miles away from Berlin in a picturesque of countryside of Wannsee in a very out lavish villa situated near the lake. Opotow (2011) argues that it is difficult to choose more picturesque and serene surrounding for forging such a macabre and chilling plan. The meeting at Wannsee set on the frosty 20th of January 1942 (and only titled a Conference after the Second World War) collected 15 high-ranking SS officers and ministerial invited by young naval officer Reinhard Heydrich to discuss “Final Solution to Jewish Question” (Jasch, p.150). Before the breakfast the “Final Solution to the Jewish question” was reached. Cold-handily taken minutes of the meeting revealed a plan to “evacuate” European Jewry (Rovit, 2017). In retrospect, the acting Reich Justice Minister Franz Schlegelberger summed up the situation as follows: “The final solution of the Jewish question presupposed a definitive and final determination of the class of individuals who were to be affected by the proposed measures” (Gerlach, 1998). As only one of thirty copies of meeting’s minutes taken by general enthusiast of Holocaust in practice; Adolf Eichmann was kept until his trial begun in 1960ties it is difficult to unravel the particular points of the discussion, point who was the biggest advocate of the “Jewish Solution” or how the orders were worded and distributed, however, the historians agree that what was discussed at Wannsee was not “whether” Holocaust should happen, but “how” it should happen (Jash, p.151). Reinhard Heydrich as the chair opened the meeting with a long presentation how to “prepare a Final Solution for the Jewish Question in Europe” and reminded antisemitic regulations and their development since 1939. The plan was to “eliminate” an estimated 11 million Jews living in Europe. Again, the language often used is vague; most likely on purpose and some SS officials were struggling to understand whether the elimination means relocation (at some stage the Island of Madagascar was once planned location for a colony of Jews) or simply exterminating. The justification of Final Solution was Adolf Hitler’s own vision of racial supremacy of the Aryans and undefinable certainty that European Jewry is responsible 48 for the wickedness and disorder erupting in Europe after First World War. Joseph Goebbels, the minister of German Nazi Propaganda cited Hitler speaking in 1941 in regard to Jewish “problem”: Regarding the Jewish question, the Fuhrer is determined to clear the table. He warned the Jews that if they were to cause another world war, it would lead to their own destruction. Those were not empty words. Now the world war has come. The destruction of the Jews must be its necessary consequence. We cannot be sentimental about it. It is not for us to feel sympathy for the Jews. We should have sympathy rather with our own German people. If the German people have to sacrifice 160,000 victims in yet another campaign in the east, then those responsible for this bloody conflict will have to pay for it with their lives. Wannsee Conference accelerated a man hunt for Jewry which started couple of years before. A pre-war cumulation of antisemite aggression in Germany reached a peak on the night of 9th November 1938 when synagogues across Germany were burned, houses, small businesses and workplaces of Jewry smashed and vandalised. The broken glass covering the streets next day gave a name of that cruel even which is known as Kristallnacht - the night of broken glasses (Gerhardt and Karlauf, 2021). As a result, many German Jews wanted to escape to the neighbouring countries, to US or Palestine and Hitler was only too glad to let them go – with one suitcase per person. Other belongings: estates and business were from now a property of Reich (Mara, 2009). Thousands were also relocated to Eastern Europe; places such as Minsk or Lodz (Gerlach, 1998). In order to accommodate German Jews in those places Soviet and Polish Jews were executed and a regular hierarchy of killing chain, a morbid pecking order of death started to occur. However, at that stage of segregation, as well as the later ones the question reminded of who is being qualified as a Jew. In 1942 pure Jewish or half Jewish blood qualified the victim to the cruel fate designed by Nazis, however as the weeks and months progressed, civils with even some traces of Jewish blood or marrying into Jewish community were treated as the one to be exterminated. Although Wannsee Protocol assumed that most Jews and Jewish descent people including “first degree-crossbreeds” were to be exterminated there was a terrifying clausula insisted by Otto Hofmann from SS Race and Settlement Office saying that citizens with two Jewish grandparents should be given a choice of either sterilization or evacuation (Heinemann in Jasch, 2017 ed). As many statements during Wannsee Conference were as previously mentioned vague and ambiguous, there is assumption that by being evacuated Hofmann actually meant; exterminated. 49 However, it was after June 1942, when the antisemitic policy and planning reached a stage so intense that is now being known as biggest mass murder in the history of humankind. 3.3. Einsatz Reinhard – a tool of Holocaust Reinhard Heydrich was a very prominent figure in SS ranks; he was head of the Reich Main Security Office (RSHA); an institution more connected with terror and repression rather than security. Literature and biographers retitled him “Nazi Terror Enforcer”, “God of Death” “Butcher of Prague” and “Hitler’s Hangman” (Gerwarth, p.57); titles more appropriate to his true nature and activities during first few years of Second World War. Reinhard Heydrich himself liked to believe being a third important person in Nazi Reich; just after Hitler and Himmler, famously driving an open Mercedes with registration SS 03. At relatively young age he was chairing the Wannsee Meeting, he also nominated an acting Reich Protector of Bohemia and Moravia in 1941 (Gerwath, p.58). His strong attention to Hitler’s and Himmler’s idea of “cleansing” Europe from Jewry became Heydrich’s main obsession. Once arriving in Prague in September 1941 as a viceroy of occupied by German forces Bohemia and Moravia he started methodical cleaning this territory from Jewry. Heydrich’s plan was to create his protectorate a model SS province; pure, Aryan, fully germanised and entirely free of Jewish population (Hauner, 2007). Primary goal was to put Bohemia and Moravia Jews to hard labour such as roads building, in that time it was Autobahn in the East. When no longer capable of deliver efficient level of work those Jewish labourers would be send to concentration camps and replaced by new arrivals. Shortly after his appearance in Bohemia and Moravia, on the 2nd of October 1941 Reinhard Heydrich comprised the following announcement: “I must unambiguously and with unflinching hardness bring the citizens of this country, Czech or otherwise, to the understanding that there is no avoiding the fact they are members of the Reich and as such they owe allegiance to the Reich… This is a task of priority required by the war. I must have peace of mind that every Czech worker works at his maximum for the German war effort… This includes feeding the Czech worker – to put it frankly – so that he can do his work…To be able to make a decision as to who is suited to be Germanized, I need their racial inventory…We have all kinds of people here, some of them are showing racial quality and good judgment. It’s going to be simple to work on them – we can Germanize them. On the other hand, we have racially inferior elements and, what’s worse, they demonstrate wrong judgment. These we must get out. There is a lot of space eastwards. Between these two extremes, there are those in the middle that we have to examine thoroughly. We have racially inferior people but with good judgment, then we have racially unacceptable people with bad judgment. As to the first kind, we must resettle them in the Reich or somewhere else, but we have to 50 make sure they no longer breed, because we don’t care to develop them in this area… One group remains, though, these people are racially acceptable but hostile in their thinking – that is the most dangerous group, because it is a racially pure class of leaders. We have to think through carefully what to do with them. We can relocate some of them into the Reich, put them in a purely German environment, and then Germanize and re-educate them. If this cannot be done, we must put them against the wall.” (Holocaust Education & Archive Research Team, 2015 in Terry & Waring 2017, p.61) Both the Bohemia and Moravia government as well as general population of Jews understood that this solution would mean “extermination through work” for men, however for women, children, and elderly this directive meant immediate dispatch to concentration and extermination camps. There was little belief in relocation, securing new housing and adopting to German environment in a humanly manner, especially for Jews. As the insecurities and fear started to spread, Moravian and Bohemian government was seeking a solution, even as radical one as assassination of Reinhard Heydrich, which was nicknamed “Operation Anthropoid”. Colonel Moravec; The Minister of Education for the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia ahead of Heinrich’s assassination was fully aware of potential consequences and stated: “The cost of Heydrich’s life would be high. I said it to Benes (President of Bohemia and Moravia in London exhale), who listen carefully to my evaluation and then said that as a Supreme Military Commander, he had decided that although the action would admittedly cost lives, it was necessary for the country. He ordered me to carry it out” (Leong Kok Wey, 2012, p.71). After an extensive training by British Army forces two Czech soldiers volunteered and were chosen to execute “Operation Anthropoid”; Jan Kubis and Josef Gabcik were parachuted near Prague at the beginning of 1942. They had to familiarise themselves with the topography of the city; plan possible escape routes to be used after assassination. On the 27th of May 1942 they waited for Reinhard Heydrich’s car appear on its regular route; Heydrich felt so secure and imperial that he was traveling in open top Mercedes 320C without any additional protection ahead of him, which fact gave a great advantage his assassinators. However, in crucial moment of attack Gabcik’s gun jammed and he was unable to use it, Kubi in response has thrown a hand grenade which only managed to hit the side of a car rather than exploding inside it as shown in a picture below (Terry & Waring, 2017). 51 Table 3.1. The assassination of Reinhard Heindrich Heydrich and his driver did not die on a spot, and although Heydrich’s wounds were not necessarily fatal, she succumbed few days later to gas gangrene while still being treated in Prague. As a repercussion Nazi unleashed torment, they have lost their “Golden Boy” of Final Solution, a man who was charming in insisting his point of view to SS juniors but also methodical and very determined to finish the task assigned to him. Although there is no clear data about immediate revenge action on Czech Jews, Jaggers mentioned at least 5,000 Czechs who were killed to avenge the death of Heydrich including 3,000 taken immediately from Terezin ghetto (1960, p.12). During a memorial service in Berlin on the 9th of June 1942 Himmler gave eulogy when he reinforced the importance of “Final Solution” and continuing this plan as Heydrich’s legacy under the name Einsatz Reinhard - “Action Reinhard”. “Einsatz Reinhard” was therefore yet another SS propaganda theme proclaiming that Jews had to be exterminated as a rightful response to assassinating one of the most brilliant and effective man in Third Reich. The plan assumed a total (and quick) extermination of Jewry from General Government; a Nazi occupied territory in south-eastern Poland. To fulfil the plan and call “Einsatz Reinhard” a success German Nazi erected three new camps in the eastern Poland: Belzec, Treblinka and Sobibor. Those three camps served purely as extermination camps. It is estimated that numbers of victims executed directly in the camps were 925,000 in Treblinka, 435,000 52 in Belzec and 167,000 in Sobibor. (www.encyclopedia.ushmm.org). Additionally, the result of “Action Reinhard” was Harvest Festival in KL Majdanek (also mentioned in further part of this chapter) where 18,000 Jews were shot over period of two days. Table 3.2. The map of concentration and extermination camps in Europe Although the total number of victims of “Action Reinhard” is being established at 1,7 million there is relatively limited knowledge and incorporation of this action in the history of genocide; Wylegala (2020) laments that “Action Reinhard” as a pivotal point on Holocaust is relatively under researched while Writte and Tias question whether there would ever be possible to quote anything more than rough estimates of numbers of “Action Reinhard” victims (2001). 53 3.4. Holocaust by Bullets Dan Stone laments, that Holocaust, as indeed many other results of Nazi regime was multi-layered and complex, nevertheless barbaric act, hence perceiving it just by “Auschwitz syndrome” could be short-sighted or in fact exclusive to other ways, or places of mass-extermination (Stone, 2003). In his own words Auschwitz syndrome “kept us fascinated by the apparent paradox of modern technology being employed in the service of mass murder and has stopped us from seeing other aspects of Holocaust” (p.457). This chapter aims at opening the scene to the fact that extermination of Jews and places of Holocaust are far beyond concentration camps; every big town in Nazi occupied Poland had a ghetto for Jewish population where death and shooting were an everyday occurrence. Approximately 6 million Jews died during the Second World War and KL Auschwitz -Birkenau is accounted for around 1.1 million of these cases. It is therefore consistent with Stone’s view of explaining Holocaust by mentioning other locations or methods of extermination European Jewry; it is important to mention that Holocaust existed before Auschwitz was created and before the mass killing gas chambers present in concentration and extermination camps were even tested and built in Birkenau – Auschwitz II. Desbois (2008) for instance contributed to this view by describing the importance of “Holocaust by Bullets” as the procedure of shooting at close range an estimated 1,5 million Jews by mobile squads, or Einsatzgruppen, mostly in 1941 and 1942 inside or outside the concentration camps in Ukraine. Einsatzgruppen (Special Task Forces, or mobile killing groups), an equivalent to death squad were tasked with searching, gathering, and exterminating European Jews in the line of Nazi’s policy of “cleaning Europe” and the “Final Solution”. They were recruited from German citizens, people of German descent – Volksdeutche and occasionally local (non-German) civilians participating as executioners or observers. Anderson (2009) and Rubeinstein (2019) recall separately Father Desbois’ testimony of such mass shootings happening in Ukraine, Belarus, Russia, and Poland being one of the first harvest of “Final Solution”. The hatred towards Jews installed by Nazi occupants was either persuaded or forced upon local non-Jewish population; the antisemite propaganda and the death penalty for intervening with it created scenario when not many were able to protect Jews. Any kind of association with Jews was not allowed, helping, or hiding them was punishable by death; and consequently, giving Jews away was welcome and rewarded. In times when living another day was uncertain and therefore threated as a gift, many people succumbed to refraining themselves from any contact with Jewish or even half-Jewish neighbours. Desbois argues that “The Germans could be so mobile thanks to an immobile local population that was always there to do their dirty work,” (p.29). Being a member of Einsatzgruppe was a privilege for some, and a way of surviving the war for the others. For the first group of death troops the “Holocaust by bullets” was 54 so important way of contributing to the Final Solution they took pictures of the process and were sending them home as trophies or souvenirs. They were performing regular shooting near town or villages after gathering their victims, who had to dig their own graves first, then strip. Some of the armed forces were firing their guns, the rest were “pushers” who made sure to create “neat” pile of bodies in the pit. Some piles were then burned, some rest covered with turf. One of the most infamous actions of Holocaust by Bullets happened in Ukrainian Babi Yar where near 24,000 Jews were exterminated in August 1942 (Berghof, 2015). On the 3rd of November 1943 in Majdanek, north-east Poland Nazis murdered by bullets around 18 thousand of Jewish inmates of KL Lublin and burned the bodies to ashes. The action was called “Erntefest” – “Harvest Festival”. (www.majdanek.eu) and will be described with more details in the further part of this chapter. However, as Arad (1987) debates the process of killing by bullets started to become more burdensome for Einsatzgruppen and Nazi members to endure. Mass murder of that calibre took days, even weeks if the population of Jews was large in the area. The victims needed to be marched in groups in regular intervals; first men than women, children, and elderly. From the operational point of view, it was time and labour consuming task, often requiring weeks of exposure to systematic killing and dispositioning of bodies. Additionally, the killing squadrons, initially proud contributors to the idea of Final Solution started to question the orders and suffer from mental illnesses as a result to being exposed to killing for instance women and children, quite controversial act even for the hardened criminals. It is almost ironic, but some thoughts and observations were made on behalf of SS Party on mental state of Second World War proprietors to prevent them from getting mentally ill, suicidal, or unable to perform their duties. Although there is a considerate body of literature naturally referring to Post Traumatic Stress Disorder among inmates, victims, families and second generations of concentration camp victims (Phillips, 1978; Hirschberger, 2018; Friedlander, 1992; Favaro et al, 1999; Alexander, 2002), there is not many research documenting traumas of Nazi soldiers, officers, decision makers or simply regular killers. However, was there ever an agreement to acknowledge any “weakness” of German solder? Nazi officials: national socialists were claiming that only military front service could combat the moral decay of pre-war democratic approach. Ernst Rohm – a leader of Nazi paramilitary wing in 1930-ties was expressing a strong view that fighting in the trenches or open field was the “spiritual father” of National Socialist movement and some sort of anointment of men fighting for the Reich with “mental powers” (Crouthamel, 2003, p.61). According to Rohm, the experience of first line combat was crucial in building mental resilience, strong character and a perfect man who are able to save Germany from total decline. Heinrich Himmler; SS leader, a man tasked with overseeing of “Final Solution” was interestingly aware of descriptive impact of straight shooting for the executioners after attending a 55 mass shooting himself. Matthaus (2007) mentions that Himmler was obsessed with “mental hygiene” of his troops to the point where battalion commanders and troops leaders had to make special accommodation for spiritual care for the men participating in shooting action (p.229). Social gatherings were arranged to blur the impression of their own actions almost creating a morbid spectacle for firing squads and making them believe they were the useful tools of Third Reich rather than soulless murderers. Nevertheless, the morbid façade of mass killing obscured the unspoken consequences, general mental health deterioration. Breitman (1991) mentions one of the most prominent figures on SS front and SS leader for the central Soviet region – Erich von dem Bach-Zelewski who witnessed the problem of a psychological deteriorating health with one of SS physicians as a result of mass killing and general exposure to Eastern front (p. 432). What is not a general knowledge and certainly was not the part of proud Nazi propaganda is that high officials including Himmler himself were aware of the limited resilience of killing troops to their regular tasks. Although Himmler encouraged his murder squads by broadcasting a general Nazi outlook on Jews as a under human race, needed to be eliminated for the better future, as well as depersonalising the killing as a general order from “above” and making statements where the executioners were not the culprits but fulfillers of needs of the Reich; Himmler was himself not immune to the realities of mass shooting. According to his adjutant Jochen Peiper, Himmler assisted, mostly by observing one of the mass executions of Polish intelligentsia mid-January 1940. After that experience he supposedly did not speak for several days (interrogation of Ernst Schaefer, 1 April 1947, NA RG 238, Microfilm series M-1019/Roll 62/frames 636-8, and Himmler's appointment book, NA RG 242, T-581/R 38A, 15 January 1940 in Breitman, p.433). Soon after that experience Himmler started to initiate discussion about destressing effect of mass shooting and a need for a new way of annihilating the Jewry. The above discussion regarding the impact of mass killing on the executioners and perpetrators is not aimed at adding a level of humanization to the process of mass murder, the procedure of Final Solution and its culprits. It is, however, a possible interpretation of morbid progression in a technique of genocide. As shooting actions started to be perceived as non-effective and damaging for Nazi soldiers it needed to be substituted by more efficient way that “Final Solution” could be performed with no harm to the Aryan Army. That open the door to experimenting, approving, and finally implementing toxic gas, mostly Cyclone B as a tool of extermination, responsible for deaths of millions potential “enemies of Reich”. The general need to replace a process of “Holocaust by Bullets” is therefore an important factor in creating a landscape for most brutal genocide in the history of humankind. 56 3.5. The introduction of KL Dachau and KL Ravensbrück as a training ground for genocide The infamous Auschwitz-Birkenau Concentration Camp was the biggest and most efficient tool of Nazi extermination plan for Jews, but it certainly wasn’t the only one, neither was it established as a first. The first concentration camp was created in 1933 in Dachau, near Munich, in the Bavaria province of West Germany to host political prisoners and the enemies of the Third Reich. Between June 1933; when Social Democratic Party came to power and November 1934, the number of Dachau prisoners fluctuated between twenty-seven hundred and seventeen hundred (Sofsky, p.29), however on Himmler’s orders and by late thirties, the camp has grown and underwent total restructuration and development. Until 1939, the camp was serving mainly as a political prison isolating the enemies of the state and other outsiders of the regime, where the forced work and elaborated tools of terror were not yet introduced. According to the testimony of one of the inmates, in 1938 people were not sent to Dachau simply by being Jewish, it was a predominantly political prison camp for Nazi regime opponents, often German themselves, where the tradition of Nazi terror was yet to be carried on (Fleck and Muller, 1997). It is consistent with Luttegenau’s (1995) research on Buchenwald camp, formally open as a prison in July 1937, and Beech’s descriptions, where its’ early inmates were “habitual criminals, political opponents of the Nazi regime, separatists, so-called social misfits, Jews, Jehovah’s Witnesses and homosexuals” (2000, p.32). KL Dachau performed one more important function in a pre-war Third Reich plan – it was national “school of violence” for future SS concentration and extermination camp personnel (Dillon 2013, p.373). Due to a privileged, almost domestic location near the Bavarian centres of National Socialists circles they were able to create first grounds for Hitler and Himmler to prepare for the mass execution plan of conquering Europe by Aryan race and quite directly cleaning Europe from the unwanted elements of the society such as Jews and natural political enemies of Reich. This was the place of creating the foundation, and in turn SS pursuit of a eugenic, racial Utopia (Longerich, 2012, p.148). Similar towers of terror were raised in Sachsenhausen, Buchenwald, Flossenbürg, Mauthausen and Ravensbrück. There is not much literature about the pre-war camps as they were named. The author, based on further history of those sites would call them concentration and extermination camps, because as long as they were created and build before 1939, their role in exterminating and contribution to genocide is very similar to sites such as KL Auschwitz-Birkenau, KL Sobibor, KL Belzec or KL Treblinka. Lack of extensive materials and research regarding those Germany-situated camps may stem from the simple unknown or clear lack of imagination towards what those camps; at the 57 time well-directed prisons would become in a matter of few years. Dillon (2013) while analysing social, cultural, and political influences in KL Dachau distinguished two approached reflecting the conduct of Dachau: ideals of militarism and soldiering and ideals of “tough” and “Intolerant” masculinity. These notions were embedded in guards’ regulations for Dachau, they were the guards “moral” code of behaviour and were issued by commandant Theodore Eicke in 1933, who famously open the concept with a maxim “Tolerance means weakness” (p.375). As a result, Dachau created many well prepared, “weakness-free”, sentiment-free, intolerant individuals to anyone but fellow Germans guards and their supervisors. Therefore, a previously mentioned description of Dachau as a “school of violence” is fully justifiable; many SS guards trained at Dachau were (already during Second World War time) sent to other camps (mostly east of Germany; Poland) to run them, keep the infamous German “ordnung” in place, show other; new or lower rank SS soldiers how to treat, or rather mistreat the inmates, how to execute forced labour and slightly later – how to implement the “Final Solution” in the camps. One of the most notorious absolvents of KL Dachau was Rudolf Franc Höss, who learnt his particular leadership skills in Dachau between 1924 – 1938. When arrived in KL Auschwitz-Birkenau with his family in 1940 as a first Commandant of the camp he put into action all the lessons about racial intolerance, as well as was also a very effective executioner of Himmler and Eichmann’s plan of “Final Solution”. KL Ravensbrück was as specific concentration camp in the respect that it was designed to hold women and be guarded mostly by women. Gender distinction in concentration camps proves to be yet another dilemma for understanding female prisoners and perpetrators; Third Reich Germany was very masculine society with traditional division of work with many conservatively saying that German women should be retained to kitchen, children, and church; Kinder, Kuche, Kirche (Allen, p.203). However, Germany was also weakened by the First World War, a time when many stereotypes crashed, and new ones needed to be rewritten. Nazi leaders were therefore not opposed to German women at work, on the contrary; Nazi Propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels strongly emphasised the need of women’s help in building the power of Reich. It all depended on the type of work they were to undertake. With the traditional views still imbedded, women were advised to conduct simple, repetitive jobs which required short training and still allowed them to contemplate their womanly functions as a pillar of a traditional German family. KL Ravensbrück was built in the end of 1938 by order of Chief of German Police Heinrich Himmler and, as many other camps initially was performing function of forced labour camp but with intention to be predominantly female oriented. In May 1939 first transport of 900 women; political prisoners arrived at the camp (www.encyclopedia.ushmm.org). Following the Nazi propaganda, SS leaders concluded 58 that to optimise women capabilities KL Ravensbrück would serve as a textile labour camp. Although initially, despite the forced labour element, women inmates in KL Ravensbrück did not suffer terrible conditions and starvation, that changed with regular influx of new prisoners. However not only the decreasing food rations, lack of space and diseases were contributors to suffering and death in KL Ravensbrück. Schmitd documents the testimonies of victims of medical experiments performed in Ravensbrück (2005, p.31). Mostly, the experiments were performed by a junior and unqualified staff and under inadequate hygiene conditions. Inmates served as ginny pigs; a free, available live organisms brought here for the purpose of learning and practising of new medics and new drugs which could improve the survival rate among German soldiers on the front line. Management of the camp, under the instructor of Himmler had however strong claim and rationale to use inmates to experiment on with wound inflicted drugs. SS at the time was specifically interested in testing sulphonamide as a miracle drug for battle wounds. The scale of research was reinforced after death of Reinhard Heydrich few days after assassination in Prague. It was claimed by some medical circles that administering sulphonamide drugs would save Heydrich, who finally succumbed to wound related gas gangrene. All the medical experiments performed at KL Ravensbrück caused unnecessary suffering to the victims, very often lifelong disability, or death. None of the victims were neither offered post-operative care. KL Ravensbrück became also a sinister training ground for another type of perpetrators, female guards. Historians of Second World War mention the number of around 3,500 women holding a post of female guard – Auseherinnen at various concentration camps (Brown, 2017; Orth, 2010; Tannetta 2023). However, that was in Ravensbrück when they were initially trained, instructed, and indoctrinated. There is a limited knowledge of female perpetrators (comparing to male ones) however some testimony will be demonstrated in further part of the literature review. In total around 140,000 women and children arrived at KL Ravensbrück between 1938 and 1945. The overall number of deaths is unknown and needs to be estimated in tens of thousands (Eschebach & Harch, 2011, p.131). In 1945 gas chambers were created and up to 6,000 women perished there in a quick succession. Additionally, from 1941 KL Ravensbrück became an extermination camp where number of killed, tortured, starved to death victims is unknown. 59 3.6. KL Majdanek – “Little Auschwitz” “Nobody was ever born whose language could describe Majdanek. It was—it is—impossible.” Unknown Jewish survivor In the time it was built, the site was acknowledged officially as KL Lublin as the camp was located in the outskirts of Lublin city, district Majdan Tatarski inside former occupied territories known as General Government. It was quickly nicknamed Little Majdan or Majdanek by the inmates and the name is commonly used until present. The author will be then referring to this camp as former KL Majdanek or State Museum at Majdanek in this thesis in order to distinguish from other places of Holocaust located in or around Lublin as well as to honour the location as a separate identity and the site of genocide. KL Majdanek was created by decision of Heinrich Himmler who personally visited Lublin and the site of future camp in summer 1941. Lublin’s vicinity to the camp, or rather Majdanek’s to Lublin was strategic and both from military position as well as from social and geographical ones. The armed aggression targeted at Poland beginning on the 1st September 1939 was brutally executed by Nazi Army and main cities such as Warsaw, Lublin, Radom, Kielce capitulated after few weeks of heroic but unequal battles (Mailander, 2015). On the 25th of September 1939 Warsaw, Lublin, and Kielce were by Fuhrer’s orders included into the General Government which was ruled and administered by German Military Authority; mostly Wehrmacht the brigades of SS troops. The autonomy of capital of Poland and the sovereignty of central Poland ceased to exist. The education and administrational tasks were firmly represented and executed by Germans, with a plan to conquer further territories of Poland. Lublin and its growing infrastructure were also contributing factor to yet another plan – it was a chosen location for concentrating Polish extremist (Enemies of Reich) and Jews with the further intention to have them sent to Soviet Union as forced labourers. After Operation Barbarossa however resulted in a conflict between Nazi Germany and Soviet Union this strategy had to change, and in a new spirit SS decided to fashion Lublin as a poster German city – resulting in bringing German settlers to Lublin and evacuate non-Aryan elements of the local community. Simply and smoothly Himmler, after the initial success of operation “Barbarossa”, planned to germanise Lubelszczyzna – terrain around Lublin. He instructed SS Police and the Nazi Police Leader for this region – Odilo Globocnik to germanise and populate Lublin with settlers from East Germany and consequently “cleared” the area of Poles and Jews. 60 Table 3.3. Locating KL Majdanek on the map of Poland Source: https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/gallery/deportations-to-killing-centers-maps As a result of “Final Solution of a Jew Problem” and “Einsatz Reinhard” starting in 1942 the plans for enlarging KL Majdanek were swiftly approved by Berlin SS officials. The Third Reich engineer Hans Kammler was tasked with creating an outlay for a camp with a capacity of 150,000 prisoner and in 1942 the plans of extending KL Majdanek assumed a site accommodating up to 250,000 prisoners (Mailander, p.567). Eventually only a fraction of that number of inmates were being imprisoned at the camp at a time. Initially smaller numbers of transports (comparing to KL Auschwitz-Birkenau) did not make KL Majdanek any easier to survive. If the hard daily labour and constant starvation was not mortal, after first year of its existence as a labour camp KL Majdanek began to change its purpose and role in Holocaust history; in the summer 1942 the gas chambers and crematoria started to be erected; the Cyclone B – new, efficient, and relatively “stress free” tool of killing was ordered from Tesch & Stabenow company in Hamburg (www.majdanek.eu). In October 1942 KL Majdanek changed its identity to an extermination camp as much as still functioning prison, labour, and concentration camp. Was it a premonition or planned action for near future? 61 Table 3.4. The original receipt for Cyclon B delivered to KL Majdanek First big influx of inmates brought to KL Majdanek was a result of unsuccessful uprise in Warsaw Jewish ghetto in May 1943. Ghetto in Warsaw was the biggest ever created, reaching 445,000 Jews at the most critical point in March 1941; this stems from the fact that in 1930ties Jews represented 30.1 percent of Warsaw population (Gutman, 1989). After invading Warsaw in September 1939, Nazis were particularly focused on separating and excluding Jewry from general Polish population. Eventually, in November 1940 the Warsaw ghetto was closed off with hundreds of thousands of local Jewry imprisoned inside (Gutman, p.43). The conditions in ghetto were unbearable; although many tried to find solace in faith and hope, most of the ghetto inhabitants were living in a constant fear of death. Halina Birenbaum, who was 12 years old when she and her family was locked inside the ghetto recollects that time in her book “Nadzieja Umiera Ostatnia” (p.12-13): “In Warsaw – my mother said – they can’t do it. It is simply impossible to imprison and demolish such a massive, half-a-million cluster of Jews! Order confirmation of 1474 Cyclon B cans to be delivered to KL Majdanek in www.majdanek.eu 62 (In the meantime) The street of Warsaw ghetto became overflowing with beggars wearing lice ridden, dirty rags. Hallways, gates and corridors between the houses were full of homeless families, bloated from hunger; the dead bodies were covered with some newspapers, or with snow in the winter… The death rate was so high they couldn’t make it to clean the streets from bodies to take them to nameless graves – trenches near cemetery. Those were conditions where I was growing up and learning how to understand the world” Warsaw ghetto existed in its initial, horrid conditions until 22nd July 1942. After that day the mass extraditions of Jews to various concentration camps begun. In the following seven weeks 75 percent of Warsaw Jews were deported to concentration and extermination camps; mostly to Treblinka which was serving solely as an extermination camp (Gutman, p.62). As there were some successful escapes from KL Treblinka, the escapees were coming back to Warsaw to report the truth behind Treblinka’s gates. That reinsured the remining Jewry that Nazis were not planning to keep anyone alive, which resulted in emerging resistance and armed uprise in ghetto in April 1943. With roughly 500 young men attacking Nazi cordons, the uprise did not have a chance to be successful. Einwohner (2003, p.666) suggests that the outcome was predictable for both sides and the main goal of the resistance and fight was not necessary to beat the SS troops and liberate the ghetto. It was to act, and subsequently die honourably. A notice posted by ZOB (Jewish Uprise Army) on the 18th of April 1943, just before the uprise begun, reads: “To fight to die, for the honour of our people” (Kurzman, 1993, p.92). SS troops under SS-Gruppenführer Jürgen Stroop took less than a month to fight the appraisers and the Warsaw ghetto ceased to exist in May 1943. Many civilians still working or hiding in ghetto died in burning ruins, the rest was deported to KL Majdanek. Jerzy Kwiatkowski: Majdanek survivor described arrival of Warsaw ghetto’s Jews in his book “485 days in Majdanek” (2018): “There is a big movement in the camp. Mid May there is a big contingent of Jews arriving. Few thousand people arrived: men, women, children, even babies still nursing. SS guards are not interested in us anymore – everyone is busy with the Jews. They came at night and were placed in Rosengarten (Rose Garden); a very romantically sounding name but there is no garden and no roses there. Simply next to the bath building and gas chamber there is a square field surrounded by wire. They kept the transport there until the morning when they started distributing them. Firstly, they separated men 63 from women and children… Then, with problems they close off the door. Unfortunately, they do not run water; in few minutes we can see a cloud of gas coming from big holes in the roof. SS guard watches through the peephole in the door until there is any movement among the bodies, then switches of the holes. The barrack stays closed off until the night when the tractors come and take the bodies to the crematorium” (p.145-146). Around October 1942, as the camp was getting more populated, the female sub-camp in KL Majdanek was being created. As most of the female inmates are put to work, younger, weaker females and their small children were directed to gas chambers; that was the case mostly after influx of Jews deported from Warsaw ghetto. The “field V” – female barracks were overseen mostly by female SS commanders (Kommanderinnen or Auseherinnen); they were recruited mostly from female staff working at KL Ravensbrück, male guards were coming from Dachau, Buchenwald and Sachsenhausen. The recruitment to KL Majdanek however was not voluntary; both male and female SS officers working in KL Majdanek perceived that place as brutal, cold, and simply “too eastern”. Staff at KL Majdanek was confronted with mostly Eastern European Jews (Ostjuden) and Soviets so even simple commands in German were not understood, when previously they only experienced controlling German and Austrian inmates with no language barrier. Cold and diseases were a constant element of a camp life, regardless the rank or function. Mailander (2008) arguments that brutality of surroundings, disorganisation in the camp, lack of water, difficulties to communicate or visit families, even weather conditions were an important factor in the level of cruelty among staff of KL Majdanek. Could a language barrier add to the level of barbarity, unnecessary punishments, and anger towards the inmates? In the post-war interviews or trials, they all admitted they were sent to KL Majdanek for disciplinary reasons. The example is the first Kommendante of KL Majdanek – Karl-Otto Koch, who has been transferred to Eastern Poland as a result of fraud investigation conducted by Koch while still serving in KL Buchenwald (Mailander, p.569). The above arguments analysing the behaviour of Majdanek Extermination Camp guards is not to seek logical explanation for their action, but to add to the understanding of multi-layered barbaric conditions in KL Majdanek and to underline the character of the site as a place of extreme cruelty, genocide, and mass murder. Halina Birenbaum; a survivor of Warsaw ghetto resurrection, KL Majdanek, KL Auschwitz-Birkenau and KL Ravensbrück describes her first image after arriving to KL Majdanek in 1943 in her book “To nie deszcz, to ludzie” (p.107-108): “Where is this bathroom, where are barracks? I can’t wait! 64 We did not know yet, what Majdanek meant. We did not know it was just barracks, hard floor, and beatings. Ghetto – even in the worst moment, worst time – it was still Warsaw. It was still a flat, it was still a roof, door, window, occasionally a towel. It was a tub, sometimes with running water. It was still existing. Here, here is nothing”. KL Majdanek was liberated by the approaching from East Red Army in July 1944 as a first of Nazi concentration camps. Due to the speed of progressing Red Army KL Majdanek was abandoned by Nazi in a rush – without leaving enough time for destruction of evidence and inhuman practices taking place at the camp. It is until today a unique and very useful characteristics both for the historians and suppliers of the museum as well as for the visitors. They have an unprecedented opportunity to experience the authentic environment of a functioning extermination camp; the gas chambers, crematoria and bunkers reminded, with the help of continuous efforts of conservation; in the original state. As Cole (1999, p.164) elaborates about this “special magic” of authenticity in the context of Holocaust memorials saying: “…it is not that this is the “kind of” barracks that inmates of Auschwitz lived in but that that is “one of” the barracks that Auschwitz inmates lived in”. The former KL Majdanek received a status of a Museum in November 1944 and since then it is focused on preservation and reconstruction of historical objects, cataloguing the camp documentation and education of the history of KL Majdanek during the time of its functioning (majdanek.eu). Although the official function of former KL Majdanek is a museum, its character goes beyond it. Stone’s typology (2006, p.151) would localise KL Majdanek as the darkest form of dark tourism converging strong educational orientation, being historic centre of concentration and commemoration, providing authentic location and product identification and offering lower tourism infrastructure. The authentic location of an extermination camp means therefore that KL Majdanek is a site of mass murder, place of terror and death, and inevitably – a cemetery hiding ashes of thousand victims of Nazi regime. Cemetery tourism has been identified as a genre of dark tourism in Light’s review (2017). Milan and Rojas (2019, p.165) explain their understanding of cemetery tourism as a place when tourists can wander along the paths of the graveyard discovering the artistic, architectonic, historic and landscape heritage which cemeteries treasure. However yet again, State Museum at Majdanek is not a cemetery when individual commemoration is straightforward. If we agree that grounds of Majdanek are a mass burial place, then we have to accept the lack of any grave – apart from a symbolic mausoleum – a Dome as a part of horrific historic authenticity of victims’ role – thousands of unimportant and under-human numbers in a machine of Holocaust. Magee and Gilmore (2015) 65 provide the findings where other concentration camps, in their case KL Dachau is also recognized as a cemetery by its management. 3.6.1. The case of Jadwiga Ankiewicz – the unknown Ann Frank A story of live and death of Jadwiga Ankiewicz, similarly to other narratives created in KL Majdanek is almost lost; forgotten, unquestionably a world apart from world-famous editions of Ann Frank’s Diary. This is however story like no other – Jadwiga Ankiewicz started writing her journal from the day she has been captured by Nazi for a suspected underground activity in one of the Warsaw’s streets. She was incarcerated and kept in infamous for its cruelty “Pawiak” prison and then transported to KL Lublin-Majdanek (Ankiewicz, 1943). It is the only known surviving diary fully written in the concentration camp. Her first entry starts with: 15/01/43 Friday I’m at the Pawiak prison. And how did it happen? T’was just another street round -up, the only difference being that they brough us here to Pawiak. They had caught me on Marszalkowska street. Then the paddy wagons arrived and started hauling people off. The inside of the paddy wagon was completely dark. Some of us tripped over the chains they put us in…. German man escorted us to a cell. (p.42) Table 3.5. The Nazi ruled Pawiak prison, Warsaw 66 The most unusual and unique part of the diary has been written by Jadwiga in her cell, in KL Majdanek as one of many political prisoners and enemies of Nazi state. Everyday she has been exposed to hard work, excruciating discipline, and malnourishment. Her most emotional entries however relate to a knowledge of the fate of the Jewry arriving at KL Majdanek. Jadwiga, as many others have had an awareness what crematories’ chimneys are spluttering into the air and why Jewish women experienced much worse treatment and punishment. 17/01/43 Sunday We are at the camp in Lublin. I don’t think I will be able to describe the terrible ordeal of our journey. 24 hours in a cattle car (normally it takes only 5 hours to Lublin). We spent the night crouched down on a wet floor, dreaming of even a handful of straw to plug up the wide gaps between the floorboards. (p.46). 19/03/43 Saturday New transports of Jews are arriving all the time. That horrid event with the bodies is now being repeated on a regular basis. When a transport arrives, the crematorium is working day and night. They hooked up a trailer to the large truck…Whenever we head towards the crematorium, we have to cover noses from very far away. 28/04/43 Wednesday A massive transport of Jews from the Warsaw ghetto arrived today (the victims of Warsaw ghetto uprise). The Jewish women we talked to had terribly swollen and reddened faces. They said it was because they have spent three weeks hiding underground, and when they were suddenly driven out into direct sunlight, they all went blind initially, and this was what made them swell up so badly. The crematorium was again working at full capacity all night. They must have pulled out new victims from among the newly arrived Jews. Jadwiga Ankiewicz was released from KL Majdanek on the 17th of May 1943 – she was a Polish political prisoner and as such KL Majdanek’s rules allowed her to be set free after her ordeal. Although she came to Warsaw safely, she was killed as a random civilian in one of the Warsaw shootings at the 67 beginning of 1944. She was 17 at the time of her death. The story of her life, especially during the time of imprisonment at Majdanek is compelling, fascinating and sad at the same time, yet still unknown to the public. The popularity of visiting Ann Frank’s House in Amsterdam it could be an opportunity for State Museum at Majdanek to create their own narrative and promote story of Jadwiga, creating educational and emphatic environment for the visitors. 3.7. Author’s reflection on visiting State Museum at Majdanek I have arrived at Majdanek Museum on a very hot July morning in 2022. What struck me first was the absolute silence surrounding the extensive, partially empty space ahead of me. After interviewing for my primary research, I have decided to walk around the grounds of Majdanek alone. The system of information and descriptions of special places is very well organized, and it was almost therapeutic to be able not to rush, rather acknowledge the site in my own pace. There were not many other visitors, mostly couples or single visitors were visible walking slowly around the camp. There was one organised group of Israeli. KL Majdanek was never fully destroyed – Nazi did not have enough time to dismantle the buildings before arrival of Red Army in summer 1944. The most incriminating archives were burned, most of the prisoners were forced to march towards the West, some barracks were destroyed. What left however is a silent reminder of a crime committed on the site; the gas chambers are intact; the crematorium and it’s six furnaces remained authentic. 68 Table 3.6. The crematorium furnace at KL Majdanek Picture: Author’s own gallery Most barracks require constant maintenance, as they were built over eighty years ago and were kept in a very rough conditions during functioning of the camp. What is remarkable is that most of the barracks are available for visitors and some hold temporary or fixed exhibitions. A special attention could be drawn to an exposition called “Shrine”; a barrack which showcases light bulbs enclosed by 69 wires. Some lights are on, some are off and the is a soundtrack in the background of the prayer “Our Father in Heaven” in few different languages. The inclusion of music of singing prayers could be amplifying reception and emotions occurring at the site; Vuoskoski and Eerola (2015) confirmed that the solemn narrative appeared to intensify the sadness induced by a sad-sounding piece of music or recording. Their research has suggested that the specific kind of music can strengthen the emotions of sadness with a help of visual but also can be used to manipulate or stimulate the content of visuals seen at the location. Table 3.7. A former living barrack with the lighting exhibition “Shrine”, Majdanek Picture: Author’s own gallery The exhibitions and artefacts are having both a symbolic and an authentic meaning, however there is also a strong educational and self-reflecting element incorporated in some tours. The Director of 70 Education at State Museum in Majdanek explained her approach to present an exhibit of the shoes of the victims which had to be obligatory left behind as they entered the camp: I guide them into (the barrack), ask them to stare a little while, stay silent and pick a shoe. Then to think who the shoe was belonging to, how that person was dressed, where could he / she go to, how could that person look like. Earlier I ask whether they think shoes can tell a story about the owner, but I say it outside only; not inside; place I treat like a sacrum. I want them to have time and space for reflection, for their emotions, I inform them that whenever they are ready; I would be waiting outside. I do not ask how it was, I do not ask what they were imagining there, I just leave them some space. It is not my purpose to create additional emotions, I just want… the world is so fast now, everything is happening so quickly, and we have quite limited time, if any for reflection. I just want them to imagine all of that without my moralising, because it is not the right way, there is nothing achieved by doing that. Table 3.8. A former living barrack with the exposition of the victims’ shoes, Majdanek Picture: Author’s own gallery 71 3.8. Auschwitz-Birkenau – a capital of Holocaust “People doomed people to this fate” Zofia Nalkowska, 1944 Although Auschwitz-Birkenau was briefly introduced in chapter 1, there is a need to shed a light on Auschwitz-Birkenau as one of the most important and influential places on a geographic map not just of Holocaust and genocide, but of dark tourism as well. KL Auschwitz-Birkenau is widely mentioned by the literature related to dark tourism and described “a pinnacle of European dark tourism” (Tarlow, 2004), “fulcrum of Holocaust memory” (Benton, 2010), “the epicentre of the Holocaust” (Dwork, van Pelt, 1998), “Holocaust encapsulated” (Nesfield, 2015, p.47), “best-known location of the fate of the Jews during the Holocaust” (Vice, 2019, p.88), or simply – “a capital of Holocaust” (Hayes, 2003), although it is also acknowledged that it should not be the legacy of solely Holocaust. Second World War, although present on a global scale was extremely concentrated on few regions; occupied by the German Nazi Poland was one of them. This country, ridden by the hostile occupants was also geographically convenient to host concentration centres; camps and forced-labour prisons for people who dared to questions the Third Reich, or their image of genetic purity and superiority of Arian race; people considered undesirable to the Nazis; mostly Jews. It also had a strategic spot; located between Germany and Russia it was serving as a showing ground of the power and terror display between two enemies; Germany and Russia in their quest for supremacy in Europe. At the beginning of September of 1939, the Jewish population in Poland numbered approximately 3.3 million (Buntman, 2008). However, the rough calculations made around the mahogany table at Wannsee Conference accounted for around 6 million Jewry spread around Europe that needs to be “dealt with”. KL Auschwitz-Birkenau alone is approximately accounted for taking 1.1 million of those lives. It is a great figure but does not institute KL Auschwitz-Birkenau as a sole or even a main culprit in the history of Holocaust. Auschwitz-Birkenau played however, a crucial role being one of the prime locations in the process of “finalising the Jewish problem”; since March 1942 all the Jewish transport were directed to KL Auschwitz (Langbein, p.22). As the numbers of prisoners in KL Auschwitz started to soar in 1942; a result of the “Final Solution” with many of them being too old, young or sick to become force labourers, Nazi leaders became to examine quicker and more effective ways of mass extermination. 72 The “selection” at the ramp in Auschwitz was the historical hinge where the genocide was linked with the efficient organization of the concentration camps. As the population of KL Auschwitz inmates grew, the camp’s officials felt empowered enough to decide independently about the fate of newcomers. Selection meant therefore sending everyone who seemed unfit for work, too young or too old to death in gas chambers, that including the weaker population of KL Auschwitz force-labourers (Langbein, p.17). The fact of this unhuman cruelty is strengthened by the fact that the deception was kept till the last minute; the condemned to death were giving away all their possessions, but they were also receiving a personalised receipt so they made believe the possession will be given back to them. Following, they were being promised a shower after the long trip which for the newcomers, especially in the early years of Auschwitz functioning was a great relief – many travelled there for days or weeks squeezed in a cattle trains (general calculation was 100 people in the carriage); Many of those people died during trip due to lack of water or food, there was often no possibility to remove the bodies from the carriage, not mentioning about the proper burial. Mothers were losing children; daughters were being exposed to death of their parents. Hence, the shower and new clothes promised upon arrival were the glimpse of hope after days of absolute horror. Unfortunately for many; instead of water the shower tabs were delivering toxic gas; Zyklon B aimed to kill the human body in a matter of several minutes in a raw way where hundreds of humans were crashing into each other while the toxic gas was tormenting their lungs and making them suffocate and die in horrible pain. The first experiments with poisonous gas Zyklon B were conducted in KL Auschwitz in September 1941. Since then, gas chambers became, along diseases, chronic hunger and working till death in the local stone quarries, the most direct tools of extermination in KL Auschwitz (Sofsky, p.38). Langbein (p.25) argues that developing poisonous gases and gas chambers has given a new meaning to the calculated and industrialized killing by simply making it more economic. This argument is however disputed by Snyder (2005) who recognises shooting over pits as first available methods, also the one who killed the most Jews and the one who demonstrated that “final Solution” by mass-killing was possible. From the educational point of view, although it is not possible to learn the scale of Holocaust from the short visit, KL Auschwitz-Birkenau is very often recognised as multi-faceted location ideal for interrogating the scale and breadth of the Holocaust (Nesfield, 2015). It is quintessentially a place where the history of Second World War’s genocide happened in its worst impersonation and it biggest approach. Berlin, for instance, where many artefacts of Nazi regime could be also found is considered “confusing” for the visitors, especially young ones, as being too multi-layered and cosmopolitan. To 73 dissect historically burdened places like Cracow and the nearby Auschwitz offer clearer and simpler narrative (Watters, 2010). Arguing the importance and the wide recollection of KL Auschwitz, Pettigrew and Karayianni offer the results of study conducted with the UCL Centre for Holocaust Education among 11-18-year-old English students (2021). The study was aimed to examine the level of knowledge about Holocaust amount secondary school students. Auschwitz was second, after Adolf Hitler, most regularly associated term with Holocaust. When 71% students identified Auschwitz with Holocaust, only 15% of them made the same connection with other concentration camps – Bergen Belsen and Treblinka (p.66). While prompted, 71% of respondent were able to recognise the entrance gate to Auschwitz with the infamous “Arbeit Macht Frei” quote and 87% of the respondents were aware of the tattooed prisoners’ numbers and what their lives meant in the camp (p.65). 3.9. Generation post memory History of KL Auschwitz-Birkenau is a complicated one and so is the process of experiencing the former death camp from the lens of dark tourism demand. Pettitt (2021) laments that the “real place” accessible today is different from the “real place” from the historical point of view. Isn’t it however natural progression and respectful preservation? The barracks which are present today at Auschwitz are not filthy and disease-ridden places where the victims were living. Much of the authenticity of Auschwitz was robbed either by leaving Nazis who in their panic burned the buildings, crematoria and gas chambers, or indeed, time. KL Birkenau was almost totally destroyed by Nazis; the remains of gas chambers and crematorium are hardly visible for today’s visitors. Yet, it is still present as possible as the history and time allows; since 1970-ties scholars are engaged in transmitting the memories of Holocaust and preserving them for the future generation (Gorrara, 2018). It is a task not without responsibility; being a custodian of Second World War’s genocide site requires an awareness of historical and personal losses. It needs to integrate the interest of the survivors and their families; a group described by Hirsch as “generation of post memory” (1997) as well as educate a general public in the part of history that is for many only known as a brand picture of hell. With the raise of general interest from the media, writers and academics, Hirsch expanded the group of “generation of post memory” beyond second and third generation of Holocaust survivors (2012) to recognise the authors, academics, and researchers with no family linkage to the Holocaust victims. Her original view was criticised by Weissman (2017), who opposes the “generational consciousness” which in his view creates the unnecessary selectiveness and the specialness to the Holocaust family members. His 74 perspective offers equal “rights” to analyse the subject of Holocaust for anyone interested in the history. It also provides an opportunity to extend the narrative of Second World War’s atrocities in time; beyond the time of first and second generation of survivors. Preserving the memory of difficult past is important, especially in locations not directly affected by the Holocaust or geographically distant from destinations of concentration camps. A study conducted by University College London among British secondary school students has shown relatively generic way of understanding Nazi regime (Pettigrew and Karayianni, 2021). When asked, year 9 -13 students identified Holocaust as “concentration camp for Jews” or the “gas camp the German controlled to kill Jewish people” concentration camp within the world wars that Jews would be sent to work as slaves and eventually be gassed to death”. This way of understanding the history of Holocaust proves to be difficult to understand for some historians. Snyder (2015) laments that Holocaust being synonymous to gassing Jewish people steers away the general knowledge from other ways of extermination such as mass-shooting – previously mentioned Holocaust by Bullets or other ways of excluding and rejecting Jewish populations in total. Huener (2003) writes about Auschwitz: “Auschwitz, its victims, and its prisoners defy generalisations and convenient categorisations. Just as the history of the camp was multifaceted, so too have collective memories and public manifestations of those memories been diverse and at times even contradictory, to the extent that the commemoration of one prisoner or prisoner group has offended or silenced the memory of another.” 3.10. Auschwitz-Birkenau today The place of former death camp KL Auschwitz-Birkenau was never to be seen, visited, not least commiserated. Any physical artifact or a testimony coming from live witness regarding true nature of Auschwitz were to be vanished. When the future of the war and the camp itself was clear, Germans still forced around 66,000 remaining alive and able to move prisoners to walk in the death marches towards western boarders (Bauer, 1983). Yet, in 2015; the year of 70th anniversary of the camp’s liberation 1,725,700 people visited Auschwitz Birkenau Museum (www.auschwitz.org). Griffith perceives Auschwitz-Birkenau Museum as an answer to ever growing supply – demand relationship, present in all forms of tourism, including Holocaust “consumption” (2019). Although most of the crematoria have been destroyed by Nazis in 1945 in an attempt to cover the atrocities conducted and hide the potential scale of mass-murder committed, Auschwitz-Birkenau, especially Auschwitz I and its’ main structures survived the war relatively intact. The tourists today can 75 visit 191 hectare of land, 155 original buildings which were serving as barracks, camp blocks and outbuildings, 300 ruins including the remaining of gas chambers and crematoria as well as 13kms of fencing, railway tracks and the infamous platform where the selections were carried out. The Museum preserves around 110,000 shoes, 3,800 suitcases, 40kg of eyeglasses, 470 prostheses and 570 items of camp clothing. (http://auschwitz.org/en/museum/preservation/). In comparison, there are no similar in size nor authenticity visiting sites in the locations of other concentration camps such as Belzec, Treblinka or Sobibor, where Nazis were more successful in the process of destroying the traces of murderous procedures (Gilead et al, 2010). Auschwitz-Birkenau Museum has opened to visitors in June 1947 and was granted a museum status by the decision of Polish Parliament in July 1947. The legislation stated that “the grounds of the former Nazi concentration camp in Oświęcim, together with all the buildings and equipment found there, shall be preserved for all time as a Monument to the Martyrdom of the Polish People and other People”. “Oświęcim-Brzezinka State Museum (Auschwitz-Birkenau Museum) has the task of collecting and gathering together evidence and materials associated with the Nazi crimes, making them accessible to the public, and studying them in a scientific way” (www.auschwitz.org/en). As some might question the “museum” status as being misleading and incomplete (Miles, 2002), Auschwitz-Birkenau site serves in fact as a museum, memorial, heritage place and an authentic site with all the functions complementing rather than excluding each other (Swiebocka at al, 2010). If Auschwitz-Birkenau Museum is indeed a museum; a place of visiting, interest even; are the traditional rules for visitors different from any other place? The basic information of visiting Auschwitz includes the following warning: Table 3.9. The sign regarding the visitors’ behaviour at Auschwitz-Birkenau Source: http://auschwitz.org/en/visiting/basic-information/ 76 As some of them may seem logical and relevant such as no smoking nor eating, many, such as no photography or no filming, may be questioned or be simply disrespected. Is there indeed a need to introduce or strengthen an “Auschwitz ethic”? Can some visitors through their disrespectful or uneducated behaviour lessens the reception of this site for others? Part of my primary research will be considering the impact of inappropriate behaviours demonstrated on Auschwitz-Birkenau site and how they are received by the tour guides. Nesfield helpfully reports that 70% of Auschwitz Concentration Camp’s visitors were “young people”, particularly high school and college students, mostly belonging to bigger, organized group (2015, p.44). One of the mainstream way of communication for those people are online platforms, such as Instagram which globally gathered around 1.1 billion active (at least once monthly) users (https://www.emarketer.com/content/global-instagram-users-2020). Those online platforms are being actively used also in historic, dark sites such as Auschwitz, as young people in particularly like documenting their experiences, especially controversial experiences or the ones giving an option to simply “showing off”. The use of Instagram in heritage and sensitive sites remains an open debate among the ethics, academics, and museum curators. It could be argued that a vast exposure of such places by young people encourages awareness, historical knowledge and can create a sense of empathy as a result of posted images. Social media have therefore an educational benefit; young people contribute to the general remembrance of history, in this case; a Holocaust and Second World War genocide. Commane and Potton (2019) argue that one of the benefits of Instagram seems to be its encouragement of conversation and emotion through its use of captions, hashtags, and comments. As Pettigrew at al (2009) lamented the history of Auschwitz and Holocaust was not granted a significant or detailed scholar time and despite relevant widespread familiarity, very few secondary school students in her study were able to display significant understanding of the complex history of Auschwitz (p.73). It could be therefore argued that the presence of Auschwitz on Instagram might enable emotional engagement or re-engagement with the site. Some users may even feel responsible to educate others about the dark site of the history, may expect a dialog or feel a need to express their own sympathy for the victims or the condemn for the proprietors (Commane and Potton, p.161). Nevertheless, there are many critical voices debating the use of social media in places like Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum. The question then arises of what the ethical difficulties and ethical issues are involved in presenting the unpresentable (Lyotard, 1991). Sanctioned narratives (such documentaries, films, diaries, historical books, or accounts of the witnesses) are universal and communicate the atrocities of the Second World War and the Nazi regime in structured, often neutral informative form, 77 which is also appropriate to the importance and sensitivity of the matter. This however assumes certain chosen representation responsible or even privileged to talk about history of Holocaust and may exclude the point of view of following generations, of “generation of postmemory” and visitors who can be perceived more like tourists than historians. That however poses a question whether Auschwitz-Birkenau Museum is a regular tourist destination and can be treated as such? Ashworth (2004) discusses present in the common tourism trivialisation of difficult heritage, Johnston et al echo that concern with the example of travel companies categorising Auschwitz as “theme park” (2016). Would such a debatable practice grant Auschwitz an appropriate attitude when comes to social media exposure or would that exposure complicate and overshadow the Holocaust narrative? As Instagram for instance is open and accessible for everyone, not every user is able to generate a respectful space and communication platform while visiting and documenting Auschwitz. Commane and Potton investigated the use and translation of #Auschwitz among Instagram users and the findings are occasionally alarming (2019); one of the users while visiting the Concentration Camp posted a picture of woollen scarf and a comment “Brrr… freezing my tits off in Poland” (p.168). This lack of sensitivity, empathy or just simply understanding of the true nature of the place is therefore granting the scholars the right to emphasise yet again the importance of the visited place. Miles (2002) perceives Auschwitz-Birkenau Museum as a place evoking “unparalleled emotions through name and location alone” (p.1179) yet complaining about the cold in the winter while wearing warm clothes and scarves seems shockingly unemotional if not brutally selfish while being posted in the exact place where many people died of hunger and cold itself, but without the comfort of warm clothes or protective shelter. The author of this comment conveniently or subconsciously forgets the exact narrative of the place visited and focuses instead on her/his own feelings and physical experience as a tourist. Different visitor posted an image of prisoners’ headshots taken upon arrival to the camp. This picture creates another ethical dilemma; from one perspective it could be perceived as a visual souvenir of visiting a memorial site; from another however it poses a question of the right of displaying pictures of prisoners (who most likely died in the camp) not only without their or their families’ agreement (Crane, 2008) but also taken in the moment of their extreme distress. 78 Table 3.10. Selection of posts of the Instagram user while visiting Auschwitz-Birkenau Source: Commane and Potton (2019) One can also start debating the presence of moral principles while posting selfies on Instagram from sensitive heritage sites like Auschwitz-Birkenau and the actual meaning behind it. Christou et al attribute self-image taking and posting to characteristics of narcissism (2020); an expression originated from the Greek mythology (Karakis, 2019) and portraying a young hunter Narcissus who falls in love with his own reflection in the water. Narcists tend to develop exhibitionistic behaviour and narratives when the main priority and focus is the self (Canavan, 2017). Those individuals, highly concerned with the physical appearance seek to be the centre of attention and will prioritise the opportunity to fulfil this need, even to the extent of being shocking, provoking or over-sharing (Carpenter, 2012; Hawk et al, 2015, Sorokowski et al., 2015). Social consequences of narcistic behaviour could include reduction in empathy (Golomb, 1995) and increase of selfish, self-centred behaviour (MacCannell, 2002). Canavan (2017) argues that the tourism is becoming more narcistic; the ease of reaching social media and technology enables behaviour of self-centre importance, person- rather than site-focus when travelling becomes a way of self-portraying, including social media exposure. A study of tourists’ self-picturing resulted in data suggesting that selfies are taken in moments of happiness, joy, and when the individual is feeling good about themselves (Christou et al, 2020), generally, positive moments. The cases of taking selfies at Auschwitz demonstrate two important dilemma which indeed require more detailed research and scholarly attention. Firstly, the statement of feeling happy is somehow unrelated to the place of the massive genocide. While further research 79 will aim to discuss the elements of positive / negative and neutral emotions in the dark site, the elation and happiness might seem difficult to be accepted while touring Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum. Secondly, in the process of taking and posting selfies, the tourist becomes the main attraction of the picture (Dinhopl and Gretzel, 2016), the process which Christou describes as selfie attraction-shading effect (p.292), and a process which leaves the main site’s attraction, heritage, or importance, outside the main focus of the picture and the whole communication. 3.11. Author’s reflection on visiting Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum Visiting Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum just few days after touring State Museum in Majdanek is a daunting experience. The infrastructure is unproportionally bigger than at Majdanek; the parking, que lines, bag scans and grouping for a tour – everything works like a well-oiled machine. It is not possible to tour either of camps; Auschwitz I nor Birkenau individually; due to sheer volume of visitors every tour is timed and there is little time for an individual reflection or pause. Auschwitz I – the primary part of the camp is maintained well and showcases the initial barracks, original entrance with “Arbeit Macht Frei” manifesto, former offices or the execution wall. Table 3.11. Main entrance gate to Auschwitz I Source: Author’s own collection 80 One could argue that the nature of recurring tours, passing outside and inside the buildings of a former camp could be reassuring in the process of witnessing the site of the biggest genocide in a living history. One could feel better being surrounded by other people who are witnessing the same room filled with the victims’ shoes or corrective glasses; being part of a group who follows the guide feels more like being in a museum, rather than site of mass-murder. Although Auschwitz-Birkenau is essentially a museum, this term does not give the site its justice – there is a specific eeriness in following the steps of victims and perpetrators, looking at the original hanging platform built for Rudolf Hess – the only Kommendante of the camp hang for his crimes onsite the grounds, just meters away from his former family villa. Table 3.12. The gallows for Rudolf Hess’ execution. Auschwitz I Source:. Author’s own collection 81 Birkenau is essentially an almost empty field where the centre scene is taken by the infamous railroad which finishes on the platform. Stepping on that platform during Second World War, enclosed by other exhausted people and being rushed by gunman and baying dogs was only 20 minutes away from being executed in nearby gas chambers. Table 3.13. The railway to Birkenau Source: Author’s own collection Today there is almost nonphysical evidence of the horrors of mass murder happening at Birkenau – the Nazi, unlike at Majdanek had enough time and knowledge to prepare the liquidation of the camp – the gas chambers were blown out, the papers burner or taken inside the Reich, the reminding able 82 to walk victims were hurried in “Death Marches” towards Germany located concentration camps. It requires a dose of imagination to process the amount of grief, death and corruption which happened on the grounds of Birkenau, as there are no exhibitions nor pictures. It does not lessen the overall impact of the experience, however, on the contrary – it intensifies the respect for unknown and untold. Table 3.14. The remaining of the gas chambers in Birkenau Source: Author’s own collection 83 Although Majdanek and Auschwitz-Birkenau are linked by their unhuman chapter in history, the demonstration of the sites is very different. One, perhaps main reason of the difference is the state both former camps were abandoned in – Majdanek hardly destroyed, while Auschwitz-Birkenau torn and demolished beyond recognition. The question arises whether that might be a factor responsible for potentially different emotions experienced by the visitors of both camps? To understand that aspect, the second objective of this research was formed: Objective 2: To compare the emotional experiences of visitors at different Holocaust sites. 3.12. Holocaust in populo? Cohen coined term “in populo” (2011) in response to his disgust in simplification of dark tourism sites such as museums and monuments which were referred to as secondary or created sites and were (only) commemorating tragedy and death (Lennon and Foley, 2000, Wight, 2006, Wight and Lennon, 2007). Cohen argues that sites “in populo” represent places which embody and emphasize the story of people to who the tragedy befell (p.194) and, in their new dichotomy respond to theoretical gap in heritage or dark tourism research. He also promotes an advantage of “in populo” sites, which, although retain all the historical facts are often eased from very disturbing images or artefacts, which could be exposed more often at the primary sites (p.196). Anne Frank House in Amsterdam is an example of dark tourism site “in populo” and a multi-serving one as well. It is a memorial site, a place of education and a literary landscape attracting millions of visitors every year (Hartman, 2013), and also a lesson material about human rights (Chyrikins and Vieyra, 2010) and tolerance education (Polak, 2010). Young (1999) called Anne Frank House “a monument of innocence” and attributed it to the fact that “the Anne Frank House is the most likely introduction to the Holocaust, for it is an easy, accessible window to this period” (p.224). The House gained a post-war attention due to Secret Annex where Frank’s family and few friends; all Jewish origin were hiding in occupied by Nazis Amsterdam between July 1942 until August 1944 (p.628-630). While in hiding, Anne Frank was writing a diary (Frank, 2010) which described their everyday life in hiding as well as Anne’s reflections and plans for the free future. This activity has been brutally stopped when Secret Annex has been discovered by Nazi soldiers and it’s all inhabitants have been sent to Concentration Camps. Anne Frank and her sister Margot were directed to Bergen-Belsen when Anne died in March 1945 aged just 15 (Verbraak, 2001). Her diary left in the Annex has been discovered by the House’s only war survivor – Anne’s father and published for the first time in 1947 (p.28) giving another testimony of Holocaust history across Europe. After the end of Second World War, Anne Frank House has transformed from as small and relatively local heritage site in 1960ties, to 84 a place of learning, education, and research by 1999 (Harman, 2013, p.637). While recognising the importance of this heritage site, one may indeed observe that The House and Secret Annex is a place of live and tragic fate of Anne Frank, not per se the place of her death. Death did not happen on that sunny August day 1994 on 263 Prinsengracht, Amsterdam, but months later in one of the concentration camps. Cohen (2011) proposes Yad Vashem Memorial Museum as another dark tourism “in populo” site documenting Holocaust (or Shoah in Hebrew). Museum was established in 1953 by the decision of Israeli Parliament and, while holding many original documents and primary artefacts, stays as a current source of information, education and research ever since. Oren and Shani (2012) describe it as “a centre for humanity to address with the global moral crisis brought on by the Holocaust” (p.258). In fact, the Museum is committed to four main aims: commemoration, documentation, research and publishing, and education (Gross, 2010). An extreme attention is given to reassure the authenticity of exposition and storytelling. The narrative of Holocaust is presented chronologically in nine galleries of the Museum: - ‘From Equals to Outcasts’ – the anti-Jewish policies which Germany operated against the Jews of the Reich, from the rise of the Nazis to power until the beginning of World War II. - ‘The Awful Beginning’ – the eruption of World War II, the occupation of Poland and the implementation of the anti-Jewish policies on the local Jews. - ‘Between Walls and Fences’ – the ‘ghettoization’, that is, the process of confining Jews in tightly packed neighbourhoods (Jewish ghettos) in various occupied European countries and cities. - ‘Mass Murder’ – the radical change in German policy that was implemented in the occupied areas of the USSR. This policy included the systematic murder of Jews carried out by skilled units (‘Einsatzgruppen’), in the USSR and additional European countries. - ‘The “Final Solution”’ – the systematic extermination of European Jewry. - ‘Resistance and Rescue’ – the Jewish resistance in the ghettos, with a focus on the insurrection in the Warsaw Ghetto. The gallery also calls attention to the Jews who joined the partisans and the underground organizations, and to the rescue of Jews by various organizations and by the ‘Righteous among the Nations’. - ‘The Last Jews’ – this gallery presents the fall of the Third Reich, with a special emphasis on the participation of over one million Jews serving in the Allied 260 G. Oren and A. Shani armies. In this gallery, the visitor is also exposed to life in the concentration camps and to the life of the prisoners, as well as to the ‘Death March’ – when endless numbers of prisoners were 85 evacuated from the concentration camps and were forced to walk long distances under heavy guard and inhumane conditions, particularly toward the end of the war. - ‘Return to Life’ – the ninth gallery is entirely devoted to the survivors, and focusses on the process they underwent, in the following areas: searching for relatives, coping with loss, searching for children and setting up children’s homes in various places, fleeing the growing anti-Semitism in Poland; arrival and life in the displaced persons’ camps in Germany, as well as the departure and immigration to various destinations. - ‘Facing the Loss’ – the visit of the museum ends with a visit to two concluding points: the ‘Hall of Names’ – an extensive collection of short biographies of victims of the Holocaust, and a hall in which a film is screened, in which messages and statements of Holocaust victims are conveyed (Oren and Shani, p.260-261). It could be argued that this deliberate chronological storytelling and structural design, such the one in Yad Vashem Museum are extremely important in “in populo” sites to almost recompensate the authenticity of the actual place of death with the museums related and connected with death. The dilemma of authenticity is however complex and very dependent on personal understanding of genuineness and substance of the site. Selwyn (1996) differentiates between “cool” authenticity relating to cognitive knowledge about objects and experiences and “hot” authenticity which describes and emotional experience. Wang (1999) contributes to the dilemma by analysing the authenticity as objective (museums artefacts), symbolic (socially constructed symbols of authenticity) and existential one (providing the tourist with an authentic sense of Being). Cohen (2011, p.196), while reflecting on the historical authenticity of dark destinations suggests that “in populo” sites may hold a purpose of gentler introduction and less traumatising exposure of various atrocities such as genocide, while primary (in situ) sites present disturbing images, possibly even too difficult to digest for educational purposes. He provides the example of genocide memorials in Rwanda, which display unburied bones and blood-stained stones, which prove to be; in their sheer authenticity and brutality; too difficult to accept for younger visitors. At the same time, he also understands the limitations and drawbacks of “in populo” sites, which, like Yad Vashem Museum are often incorporated in a modern, comfortable, and attractive architecture and can therefore lessen the overall, potentially “dark” experience of visitors. Berghof in Obersalzberg, Bavarian Alps is not an obvious location related to dark tourism. It is neither a well know tourist destination, nor a place generating a considerable scholar attention, however it has an important role in the history of Second World War. Nevertheless, unlike locations such as Auschwitz-Birkenau, Dachau or Yad Vashem Museum which are considered “Sites of Victims”, 86 Documentation Obersalzberg is considered a “site of perpetrators” because war crimes were discussed and agreed there, but carried elsewhere (Aschauer et al, 2017). A picturesque village in Bavarian province of Germany started to be frequented by Adolf Hitler since 1923 and in the course of following years has become a strategic location for the top Nazi officials including Marshal of the Third Reich; Hermann Göring, Heinrich Himmler and Reinhard Heydrich (Kaplan, 2007). Aschauer suggests a complex and not unambiguous set of emotions connected with visiting Documentation Obersalzberg; visitors are confronted by idyllic location, breath taking landscapes and undisturbed, rich architecture of the place, at the same time being challenged by the effects of actions and decisions manufactured there. They progress from seeing relatively neutral artefacts like a radio built in 1933 to a picture of Jews in 1941 taken minutes before their execution (Aschauer, p.165). Documentation Obersalzberg can be argued as an important location for dark tourism, or more precisely; Holocaust tourism, and as such, more scholarly research could be undertaken to define the motives and effects of the site on visitors. The formerly presented sites of Holocaust, both in situ and in populo share a common objective of demonstrating the legacy of Holocaust and different ways the Holocaust can be portrayed to the younger generations, how the “difficult heritage” can be managed and, in a way – promoted. Therefore, this chapter is trying to conceptually address the third objective of the research: Objective 3: To compare supply and demand side perspectives of emotional responses at Holocaust sites. 4. Emotions and emotional experience 4.1. Introduction to the chapter Emotional experiences are rising in the importance in the subject of behavioural knowledge about customer and in the commercial sense. According to Shaw and Ivens (2002) experiences in general create higher competitive advantage than prices, product, or quality for 85% of companies. This chapter will be aimed at presenting the genesis of emotional theories and the way they have been evaluated and evolved though the years of research. It is focal to this thesis to demonstrate the stages of forming the understanding emotions over the decades through the research. Some researchers’ findings would be naturally contradicted by their successors, as an accepted knowledge about 87 emotions expands and reaches new domains and challenges. Other theories would be using the previously established bases of theory of emotions but building on it and expanding the understanding of true nature of emotions. The chapter will be discussing what basic emotion is and the differences between distinguishing and classifying emotions; a question will also stand about labelling emotions as either negative or positive, as valanced-based approach suggests will be contradicted by the categorical approach which allows to establish emotionally neutral emotions. Finally, the chapter will attempt to shed a better understanding on emotions experienced at various tourism related events, finally focusing on the overall emotional experience at dark tourism sites with an emphasis on former concentration camps. Two theoretical frameworks chosen to support understanding the plethora of various emotions and additional tourism experiences are Plutchik’s Wheel of Emotions (1980) and Aho’s (2001) experience model. In this respect the chapter will attempt to answer the fourth objective of the study: Objective 4: To consider the role of emotions in the wider dark tourism experience to further our understanding of the emotional experiences at the dark sites. 4.2. Introduction to the theme of emotions To this day, and despite the plethora of proposed definition, scholars cannot on a single, paramount definition of emotions. The current meaning of emotion is however more complex than it was at the rise of scholarly drives on emotional experience; emotions have grown from simple physical reactions to dense, multi-layered actions; from instrumental behaviour to cognitive and subjective processes which are often difficult to understand or to predict; Woodworth and Schlosber (1954) as one of first noticed that the topic of emotions is perhaps the most controversial of all among the psychologists. Since the early attempts to conceptualise emotions in academic literature, the subject gained vast interest and offered a peculiar conundrum; Kleinginna and Kleinginna (1981) lamented that the main problem in the field of emotions was too vast variety of definition; they cited 91 definitions and 9 sceptical statements describing emotions. Scherer (2004) for instance consequently argues that after more than 120 years since the first definition was coined by James, there is still no acceptable single definition of emotions implying how complex of an issue it is. Some researchers agree that emotions are so complex that it is impossible to grand them one, consistent definition accepted by most scholars (Young, 1973, Mandler, 1979, Chaplin and Krawiec, 1979). Young (1973, p.749) complains that “almost everyone except the psychologist knows what an emotion is” and add that “the trouble with the 88 psychologist is that emotional processes and states are complex and can be analysed from so many points of view that a complete picture is virtually impossible. Even the main label of the “emotional plethora” is not free from unanimous agreement; while some authors use the label “emotions” (Darwin, 1965; Delgado, 1973; Watson, 1924), there is also a practise of using terms “affect” or “affective process” (Chaplin, 1975; Lewis and Rosenblum, 1978; Young, 1943; 1961). The taxonomy of emotions as a phrase is not the only problematic one, on the contrary; once term “emotion” is permitted there are subsequent differences in labelling the specific emotions by the researchers. Different emotions terminology is used to refer to unique emotion theorists and there is a problem with the vagueness of language, especially with respect to terms that refer to psychological status (Ortony & Turner, 1990); the same emotions could be labelled differently by various authors it could be that what Izard (1971) called “distress” would be termed “anxiety” in Gray’s typology (1982). 4.3. Description of emotions This subchapter will be presenting various chosen theories of emotions. it will help to establish what emotion and emotional experience really is and how the understanding of emotional state evolved. The selection of the theories presented in this chapter is not a random one. On the contrary, it serves to understand the systematic rise of theories of emotions and shows the development of scholarly work in this area. 4.3.1. Physiological Theories of Emotions One of the first debates aimed at understanding emotions was raised by William James in 1884 in his paper titled “What is an Emotions” as a critique to negating “aesthetics” of the mind such as logic, pleasure, pain, and emotions in scholarly works (p.188, also Smith and Lazarus, 1990). James defined emotions in the subsequent way: My theory...is that the bodily changes following directly the perception of an exciting fact, and that our feeling of the same changes as they occur IS the emotion (1884/1983, p.170; 1890b, p. 449; 1892, p. 375; 1894/1983, p. 299), or similarly: 89 If we fancy some strong emotion, and then try to abstract from our consciousness of it all the feelings of its bodily symptoms, we find we have nothing left behind, no ‘‘mind-stuff’’ out of which the emotion can be constituted, and that a cold and neutral state of intellectual perception is all that remains (1884/1983, p. 173; 1890b, p. 451; 1892, p. 379). Over the years and with the evolution of understanding of emotions, James’ theory was critiqued for the limited scope he observes emotions in; for instance, Plutchik calls James’ simply a “psychophysiological” approach (2001, p.344), where physical effects overshadow other states of emotional experience. Damasio argues that James purely confused emotions with feelings in his theory (2000); according to Damasio those processes must be distinguished; feelings being an internal experience of emotions, and therefore invisible, and emotions being verbal, facial, or other shown (visible) declaration of experience. According to earlier critique proposed by Damasio (1994), “James had little to say about the possible roles of emotions in cognition and behaviour” (p.130) which agrees with Plutchik’s assessment. Damasio’s another complaint points out dismissing the role of experience in James’ theory; “James postulated a basic mechanism in which particular stimuli in the environment excite, by means of an innately set and inflexible mechanism, a specific pattern of bodily reaction” (p.130). Because James’ theory is based on physiological stimuli and does not include any patterns of behaviours it could be suitable for the first emotions or experiences in life, but not the others. Yet another criticism comes from Oatley (1992, p.133) who emphasises simplicity of James’ theory and calls it “froth on top of the real business of behaviour. Clarifying James’ theory could diminish the latest criticism. It was not James’ intention to postulate that every emotion arrives from bodily sensation, not that bodily sensations are all that emotions comprise. In emotions which he called “standard” (1884/1983, p.170), and only those; the bodily sensation is prior to the experience of emotional feeling. James’ theory, when followed in details, unravels the connection between emotions and experiences and further behaviour analysed by this scholar (Barbalet, 1999). It analyses the behaviour from three points of self-awareness; firstly; the empirical self-awareness relates to material elements like clothes and body itself, secondly it is a social Me with recognition the self receives from others and thirdly it is a spiritual Me – a self-reflection (James, 1890, p.292-300). James strongly marks the role of emotions and further decision making (1897) by the example of Alpine climber (p.96-7). In order to escape difficulty, the climber must execute a difficult road. He can either act upon the emotions of self-believe, hope or confidence and bring himself to safety as a result, or be consumed by emotions like 90 fear, mistrust and hesitation which will result in his fall. Whichever emotion is felt and engaged with will be commensurate with different behaviour and different outcomes. Barbalet contributes to the overall “physiological approach” critique by claiming that James simply infantilizes emotions by understanding them mostly as bodily responses to experience (1999). Indeed, the last critique could be supported by the view that physical reactions are just a part of the emotional balance but do not determine it. Although some physical responses are unconditional such as sweating, shaking, crying, some other could be camouflaged. People, especially in social situations learned to mask some emotions, such a dissapprovement, annoyance or even anger to manage public outcomes and communicate better. That assumption is heavily supported by the theories of facial expressions supplied by Ekman (1993) and Turner and Ortony (1992). James’ definition however only partially covers the narrative of emotions, at the same time ignoring other emotional characteristics such as subjective emotional experience, cognitive actions or physical behaviour performed by the individual as an action to the experienced emotion. James’ theory, although not without critique, should be however perceived as important for the further psychological analyses of emotions and overall development of what could be called somatic theory of emotions. Moreover, whether emotions are the result of psychological, neurological, or cognitive factors, Darwin (1965) already suggested that a simple fact of having the emotions helped the natural evolution; emotions like love and lust helped people to reproduce, and emotions connected with fear helped people to hide or fight for survival. Half century after William James, James Drever (1952, p.60-61) presents his definition of emotions in Dictionary of Psychology as: “Emotion is differently described and explained by different psychologists, but all agree that this is a complex state of the organism, involving bodily changes of a widespread character – in breathing, pulse, gland secretion, etc – and, on the mental side, a state of excitement or perturbation, marked by strong feeling, and usually an impulse toward a definitive form of behaviour. If the emotion is intense, there is some disturbance of intellectual functions, a measure of dissociation, and a tendency towards action”. That explanation seeks to address still undeveloped discussion between scholars about what emotions are, while it also tries to include the impact of physical reaction and cognition in emotional behaviour. This definition indicates the rise of more complex insight into issue of emotions, mostly recognising considerable link between the cognitive elements and subsequent subjective emotional experience. 91 4.4. What are basic emotions? Once it was proposed what was an emotion, a subsequent process of distinguishing and deciding what a basic emotion is, has not been absent from struggles. Ortony and Turner (1990) aimed to determine basic emotions (also; primary or fundamental, p.315) based on facial expressions, however failed to reach overall scholar agreement in a matter what emotions are basic and why. One of the first and most compact way of naming basic emotions was proposed by Watson (1930) who listed fear, love, and rage as fundamental ones. Mowrer (1960) cited just two emotional states: pleasure and pain. Panksepp (1982) has proposed four basic emotions: expectancy, fear, range and panic, Kemper (1987) offered different four fundamental emotions: fear – anger, and depression – satisfaction, while Oatley and Johnson-Laird (1987) mentions happiness, sadness, anxiety, anger, and disgust. Frijda (1986) severely enlarges the list of primary emotions listening 18 of them, including some more complex such as arrogance, humility, indifference, and more common, such as anger, fear, and sorrow. Ekman at al while observing facial expressions present in Western cultures was able to identify six basic emotions; happiness, surprise, fear, sadness, anger, and disgust combined with contempt (Ekman, Friesen and Ellsworth, 1972). Very swiftly there has been a strong suggestion to distinguish disgust and contempt and threat them as two separate emotions (Ekman and Friesen 1975, 1986). Ekman (1992) also suggests that a basic emotion is not a single emotional state but rather “a family of related states” (p.192). The table 4.1. collects a selection of basic emotions theories reported by various scholars over the last century. The main aim of this table is to chronologically sum up the achievements of various researchers and demonstrate how the understanding of basic emotions evolved in time. It also suggests that there is no ultimate, agreed approach to the subject of emotions and each of those theories is available to be applied for the purpose of the particular study. Table 4.1.: The collection of theories demonstrating basic emotions Author Basic emotion James (1884) Fear, grieve, love, rage McDougall (1926) Anger, disgust, elation, fear, subjection, tender-emotion, wonder Watson (1930) Fear, love, rage Mowrer (1960) Pain, pleasure 92 Arnold (1960) Anger, aversion, courage, dejection, desire, despair, fear, hate, hope, love, sadness Izard (1971) Anger, contempt, disgust, distress, fear, guilt, interest, joy, shame, surprise Plutchik (1980) Trust, anger, anticipation, disgust, joy, fear, sadness, surprise Panksepp (1982) Expectancy, fear, rage, panic Gray (1982) Rage, terror, anxiety, joy Ekman, Friesen and Ellsworth (1982) Anger, disgust, fear, joy, sadness, surprise Frijda (1986) Desire, happiness, interest, surprise, wonder, sorrow Source: Adapted from Ortony and Turner, 1990 Ortony and Turner (1990) attempted to explain the importance of explaining and interpreting basic emotions by reminding that some emotions are so universal that they exist in all cultures and in some higher animals as well, and they are characterised and easily recognisable by accompanying facial expression. Those scholars proposed two main approaches to basic emotions: a conception of emotions being biologically primitive and conception of emotions being psychologically primitive (p.317). The first concept (also argued by Ekman, 1992) rests with the assumption that emotions can be explained by understanding evolutionary origin and biological triggers of emotions. Biologically based basic emotions can be therefore found in most cultures as being more neutral or generic. Second approach explains basic emotions as psychologically primitive by assuming there is limitless set of emotions, many of them are built on the previous ones. This however already vary across cultures and species (possibly some displaying a greater variety of emotions that the others). The summary of basic emotions is considered twofold meaningful for this stage of literature review. Firstly, it introduces the valanced approach to identifying emotions, as presented in the following subchapter. Secondly, it underpins the different views and understanding of what basic emotion is; some early scholars have quite congested opinion on basic emotions resulting in Mowrer’s acknowledgement of just two emotions; pain and pleasure. As some other scholars were more flexible and accommodating in their views, they tend to include emotionally valances processes as basic emotions. It is therefore important to acknowledge the work of Plutchik who’s Wheel of Emotion is recognising positive, negative, and neutral emotions as basic ones. 93 4.5. Emotions as a process The following part is designated to demonstrate how emotions function and what influences emotions in the individual. Process of emotions proposed by Frijda and Mesquita will mention the element of appraisal as an important in shaping an emotional response. Turner and Ortony’s theory (1992) would attempt to add the significance of facial expression in demonstrating emotional state. Plutchik’s theory will be attempting to add additional layers to basic emotions so the process of creating emotional experience could be lessen or enlarged. The coping mechanism proposed by Lazarus’ theory (2006) is also mentioned as valid in establishing the methods of adjusting to certain events and also as fulfilling social expectations of certain behaviour. 4.5.1. Theory of emotions by Frijda Much more holistic theory of emotions than previously mentioned James’s was presented by Nico Frijda in 1998. Frijda stated that emotions are short-lived, subjective feelings that occur in the foreground of consciousness, demand immediate attention, and motivate behaviour (1998, p.349). Frijda and Mesquita demonstrating their theory recognised a considerable impact of appraisal in creating emotional experience. Appraisal, as a subsequent stage of an event is defined by Frijda and Mesquita as information process that link perception of an event to emotional meaning (1998, p.279). Although appraisal is strongly linked with cognition, Smith and Lazarus (1990) argue that not all emotions are a result of cognitive processes, neither not every cognitive activity is relevant nor productive in terms of emotions. Frijda (2009 p.1446) further agreed that some appraisals are simple and hardly cognitive at all; for instance, appraisals of intrinsic pleasantness or unpleasantness. The understanding of individual circumstances and personality are important to predict certain emotional actions and behaviours; two individuals could cognitively read the situation in the same way (understand the facts), but their emotional reaction might be different depending on possible influence on well-being, hence knowledge and appraisal are two different objects. The emotional reaction to the stimuli can be also dependent on the level of emotional intelligence of individual (Goleman, 1998), which also underlines the subjectivity of emotions mentioned by Frijda earlier. Lazarus and Launier (1978) earlier identified two types of appraisal; primary and secondary one. Primary appraisal seeks to establish the overall situation, e.g. “Am I in trouble or am I going to be benefited?”, while secondary appraisal evaluates the options for the future and for best outcome of the individual; e.g. “What is anything can be done about it?” (also; Lazarus and Folkman, 1984). The 94 Primary appraisal could lead to three outcomes; situation could be assessed as irrelevant for the individual, as positive if the situation can preserve or enhance the individual’s well-being or can be assessed as stressful if the situation endangers the person’s current situation (Lazarus and Folkman, 1984). It could therefore lead to three behavioural reactions: flight, fight or freeze. The two scholars further identify three types of stressful appraisals categorised by possibly negative conditions like: harm / loss, threat, and challenge. Results of both threat and challenge are situated in the future, however as threat produces negative appraisal (distress; negative stress), challenge could possibly create both or simply eustress (positive stress) (Selye, 1974); depending on crucial in appraisal theories individual characteristics. Secondary appraisal might lead to best option identified at this time by an individual and it could lead to three states: fight, flight, or recently acknowledge – freeze. The final element of emotional process presented by Frijda and Mesquita is an experience. Table 4.2. Process of emotions by Frijda and Mesquita Frijda and Mesquita (1998, p.273) defined emotions as individual’s response to events appraised and relevant to self-concerns, self-motives, values, and emotional sensitiveness. Smith and Lazarus (1990, p.616) added, that an appraisal is an evaluation of an encounter to a personal well-being, which then forms an emotional reaction to that encounter. In other words, emotions following the evaluation 95 are extracted from one’s subjective evaluation (appraisal) which forms the basis of cognitive or appraisal theory (Arnold, 1960; Frijda, 1986; Lazarus and Folkman, 1984; Leventhal, 1984; Roseman, 1984, Smith and Lazarus, 1990). Subjective element of emotional experience, acknowledged by Frijda and Mesquita (1998), Lazarus and Launier (1978), and further Ortony and Turner (1990) and Parkinson (1996) is becoming to perform a significant role in further description and analysis of emotions in tourism, especially dark tourism. The same sites, artifacts and conditions will be evoking different, occasionally contradicting emotions, as will be examined in further chapter and analysis of the current thesis. 4.5.2. Lazarus and his addition of coping mechanism in expressing emotions Richard’s Lazarus contributes to the plethora of emotion definitions with his views that emotions are created through, some other dimensions; a cognitive process (2006) and are rational in nature; there is an appraising rational process resulting in a certain emotion. He emphasizes a link between emotions and adaptation, adding adaptation, or “coping process” (p.10) the more traditional division of the mind into cognition, motivation, and emotion. Lazarus therefore breaks down emotions into four important components: cognitive component, motivational component (addressing Maslow’s hierarchy of needs), relational component and coping process as an effort to manage the demands that the given emotion generates. Coping process is an interesting and valuable component of producing emotions, especially in the process of experiencing (visiting) situations which could create discomfort or distress. Richard Lazarus, as a leading scholar in examining the emphasis of coping mechanism on final emotion, attempted to understand the mechanism of copying while exposing it to stress from early 1950ties. Addressing coping mechanism as a contributor in creating emotion is a fairly new concept and not one that is clearly distinguished through other theories. In further research, Lazarus gives an example of gratitude; a relatively simple in its intensity (comparing to anger or hate). The gratitude was portrayed by the act of giving – receiving when doner might experience series of emotions such as pleasure, happiness, satisfaction, depending on his appraisal of the act. The receiver may as well experience variety of emotions ranging from positive such as happiness to negative such as anger, shame, or guilt, depending on his personal appraisal of situation. Coping process – connected to psychological reaction may contribute here to final emotion being either one of positive or one of negatives. The gratitude as a result of giving – receiving is also connected to relational component of emotions – we might 96 react differently receiving a present from a loved one and differently from person we do not have a good relationship with. Lazarus mentions that to understand emotions people are eliciting it is important to know the background relating to the event which created emotion – something that Frijda and Mesquita (1996) explained as antecedent event and the personality of an individual subjected to an emotional response. The personality includes goals, hierarchy, and beliefs (motivational elements) of an individual as well as level of intelligence, health and energy, education, wealth, and social presence (p.14). It is therefore yet another scholarly confirmation that real emotions are individual therefore subjective in nature and should be treated as such bearing in mind any internal (upbringing) or external factor (social expectations) which could alter the credibility of emotions. 4.5.3. Dimensions of emotions - Plutchik’s Wheel of Emotions Robert Plutchik firstly presented his contribution to the science of emotions in 1960 when he proposed first version of Multifactor-Analytic Theory of Emotions (Plutchik, 1960). It stood as an answer to earlier proposed theories of James’ theory, which Plutchik agreed to understand as a hypothesis rather than a theory (1960, p.154). It also seeks answers to more multileveled evaluation of emotions rather than leaving them as per Leeper’s (1948) understanding: as motives which lead to certain reactions. Plutchik (1960) revealed his own interpretation of emotions using a cone where primary emotions are organized in a circle. The following table presents four pair of tentatively chosen opposite emotions, so joy is an opposite of sadness, acceptance is an opposite of disgust, surprise is an opposite of expectancy and fear is an opposite of anger. 97 Table 4.3. Eight basic emotions by Plutchik’s Source: Plutchik (1960, p.161) Plutchik also formed the following principles creating a base for his theory (1960, p.160): Postulate 1: There are small number of “pure” or “primary” emotions. Postulate 2: All other emotions are “mixed”, that is, they can be synthesised by various combinations of the primary emotions. Postulate 3: Primary emotions differ from each other both with regard to physiology and behaviour. There are definite differences between emotions such as anger and fear, disgust and depression, and pleasure and resentment. Postulate 4: Primary emotions in their pure form are limiting states whose properties could only be inferred from various kind of evidence. Emotions of daily life are mixed and there are many measurements involved to establish them all. Postulate 5: Primary emotions can be conceptualized in terms of pair of polar opposites. Postulate 6: Each emotion can exist in varied degrees of intensity or level of arousal. There are some reflections worth mentioning while looking at the Wheel of Emotion originated in 1960. Firstly, Plutchik is not trying to explain his set of emotions by using a state of being emotionally valanced – as positive or negative ones, quite opposite; one of the basic emotion; surprise is regarded as a neutral emotion. The example could be anger and fear put as their opposites, nevertheless we would generally describe them both as being negative. On the contrary, Plutchik (1982) wants to demonstrate emotions in their polarity, when opposite emotions do not have to be necessarily 98 oppositely valanced. The argument is that anger would be geared towards aggression and attack, while fear would create an opposite reaction – a need to escape, hide and freeze. On that note, another factor influencing Plutchik’s decision around the Wheel was looking for patterns, which was a novelty in the science of emotions. Plutchik’s polar opposite emotions followed therefore a link, a certain pattern: fear was determined by Bull (1951) as strong compulsion to escape together with freezing the body, while anger was recognised as a compulsion towards aggression or attack. This is also consistent with Lazarus appraisal theory when they suggested that fear and anger are two sides of the same coin and are hard to be detached (also Gal and Lazarus, 1975). Wang et al (2017) supports this pattern recognition implying that fear and anger come in tandem at stressful events, fear is the scariness at the stressful event, and anger is coping with the threats. Secondly, even in the simpler form The Wheel of Emotions presented in 1960 is based on the claims mentioned above which are assuming a higher number of emotions in a sense of their spectrum. Postulate 6 acknowledges that the emotions are varied in intensity, so more levels must have been taken into account to present that argument. Plutchik admitted that naming primary emotions is therefore difficult as they range in their intensity, so there is clearly a question towards what level of intensity will be generating a primary emotion. The intensity of emotions as one of the most important, although not non-problematic aspects in analysing their nature was recognised also by Sonnemans and Frijda (1994) who demonstrated their findings on intensity as a result of some joint function of different subjective dimensions. Over further years of his work, Plutchik improved the Wheel of Emotions to three-dimensional model which recognises the intensity of emotions and primary dyads – emotions which are created as an effect of two neighbouring primary emotions. 99 Table 4.4. Extended version of Plutchik’s Wheel of Emotions Source: Plutchik, 1980 The eight basics, and opposite to each other emotions (joy – sadness, trust – disgust, fear – anger, surprise – anticipation) are in the middle circle while the intensity is shown in two step progression. For instance, elevated apprehension may lead to fear then to terror with the indication that unmanaged emotions tend to intensify themselves. Primary dyads on the outside of the wheel demonstrate the mixture of closest primary emotions, e.g.: anger and anticipation may result in aggressiveness but mix of joy and trust would likely result in love. The intensity of emotions demonstrated in the Wheel (1980) is also successfully targeting Postulate 6 of Plutchik’s principles; the variety and the presence of intensity resulting from the core emotions. Plutchik’s Wheel of Emotions has been widely used in research around emotional experience. Mohsin and Beltiukov (2019) used Plutchik’s model to analyse written expressions of people posted on Internet. The study of online shopping feedback appreciated the variety and different intensity of main emotions; however, the presence of neutral emotions became complicated for their overall results. 100 Molina Beltran et al (2019) used Plutchik’s theory to label the lexicon intensity values of words to test their WordNet Similarity software. Similarly, Wang et al (2020) used “The Wheel of Emotions” to interpret expressions of sentiments, comments and reviews about various products in China. In their most recent study Wang et al (2022) employed Plutchik’s Wheel to analyse the feedback in gastronomy industry during the COVID-19 pandemic, while Rahmani et al (2019) researched tourism emotional experience posted on blogs. Plutchik’s Wheel of Emotion (1880) is being found by myself as enormously valuable study tool, it is aimed to analyse netnographic results using emotions and their variety. While conducting in-depth interviews demonstrating The Wheel of Emotions might assist on focusing on negative, positive, and neutral emotions with the same attention. 4.5.4. Theories of Ekman, Turner and Ortony – a focus on facial emotions To begin with Turner and Ortony stated that, as the basic emotions were listed by certain scholars, so can facial expressions corresponding with those emotions be identified. Ekman, reinforced by the works of Turner and Ortony focused their behavioural study and research on emotions in a form of facial expressions while emotions are accruing (Ekman, 1993; Turner and Ortony, 1992). However, Ortony and Turner (1990) questioned the integrity of the variety of emotions stated by various scholars as primary given their various numbers; from two (Mowrer, 1960) up till ten (Izard, 1971) basic emotions, and their intensity. It could be argued that through evolution facial expressions rather than oral communication could have helped with the survival of people or species. Nevertheless, the research on facially expressed emotions can be a complicated one, and in some cases – impossible, if not counterproductive, therefore it should be treated with full understanding of its consciously or even unconsciously formed limitations. In first case for instance a feeling of great happiness could be manifested by crying – an outcome generally related to sadness. An expression of furrowed brows might be a result of emotions such as anger, mental blockage, frustration, or puzzlement (Ortony and Turner, 1990, p.321-322). However, it can also mean that the individual is facing one of the following dilemmas: “I want to do something”, “I think I can't do it now” or “I didn't think this would happen” (Wierzbicka, 1993), therefore be multi-meaningful. Another difficulty in establishing emotions by observing facial expressions is the fact that they can be purposely misleading. It would require a concrete conceptual framework and Ortony and Turner themselves admit that their proposed theory is not without misinterpretations (Wierzbicka, 1993). Social situations and norms of behaviour, especially collective expectations could further limit the credibility of the real emotions; if we are expected to react with a shock or surprise hearing a sudden 101 news we might demonstrate it, even if the news is already known fact. On the other hand, if we are expected to be happy with a received present, we would facially express happiness and joy even if the present is not to our taste. This facially misleading behaviour could also be linked to further mention of coping mechanism proposed by Lazarus (2006); we try to cope with social expected behaviour masking our real emotions in order to avoid confrontation or unpleasantries; as Parkinson’s (1996, p.664) contribution suggests that other people are one of the most common causes of emotions. Some basic expressions to the reactions such as fear, panic or terror are purely physiological – especially when the life is immediately endangered or in risk hence the facial emotions are almost a reflex and are easy to decode, although different type of the same emotion – fear might manifest differently – going to the doctor with suspected illness might bring emotion of fear while waiting for the diagnosis, but it would be manifested with more settled and reserved expressions. Nevertheless, some emotions could be also staged, forged, frozen, blocked or hidden for the benefit of the situation or due to social constraints. Furthermore, Ortony and Turner aim not to limit the research on facial expression based on basic emotions only, as emotions claimed as basic do not account for the whole spectrum of emotional range, therefore fuller range of facial expressions. They give an example of embarrassment, which does not appear in any basic theories of emotions, although it could be clearly classified as an emotion; corresponding facial expression would be blushing or sweating. It could be argued that the theory of emotions based on facial expressions is semi-physiological – demonstrating facial expressions is somehow connective with James’ theory of articulating emotions through bodily behaviour. However, although it can be so in certain cases (extreme fear, joy or shock), social norms and individual personalities can alter facial expressions and emphasise or constraint current emotions, e.g., old fashioned saying “Men don’t cry” can restrict a need of showing tears. 4.6. Two main approaches to analyse emotions Aside of the clarification of the emotional theories existing in the literature, there is a need to catalogue emotions in order to have a better understanding of how to apply them, measure or compare them. Different sources focus on two main approaches to classify emotions: dimensional, also known as valence-based approach (Watson et al, 1988; Nawijn, et al., 2015) and categorical (emotion specificity). Bagozzi et al (1999, p.1) for instance clarifies that emotions are “positive or negative reactions, or mental stages of readiness that arise as a consequence of specific events or circumstances”, supporting hence the valence-based theory. It is consistent with previous studies which also suggest that emotions can be characterized by being valenced as positive and negative 102 ones (Oliver, 1994; Phillips and Baumgartner, 2002). Although both approaches to categorise emotions are widely used, as Prayag et al (2017) suggest, the dimensional approach neglects to recognise the emotion beyond labelling them simply as either positive or negative. It is useful for emotional scales which are based on emotions undoubtedly positive or negative such as pleasure and pain, but it does not relate to the growing plethora of emotions, especially ones which are difficult to be valanced. The valenced approach is however an appropriate attempt to categorise emotions, it is also useful method to analyse unexpected emotions or “illogical” emotions which escape the circumstances and environment they normally exist in. The examples illustrated further in this chapter will show firstly how hedonistic in nature, leisurely taken holiday could be a source of stress and anxiety and, secondly and as an opposite scenario, how visiting places connected with dark tourism; places of tragedy could be a basis for calm, optimistic collection of emotions and overall positive emotional experience. Categorical approach to clarify the emotions as a second most described one on the other hand, conceptualises emotions as set of affective states presenting an insight to a character of the emotion. This approach also allows to release the distinction between purely negative or purely positive emotions allowing to see beyond that difference; it allows to pose the question how to categorise the emotions which are neither such as surprise, amazement, anticipation, and interest. Those emotions are expressed in Plutchik theory of Wheel of Emotions (1960), yet they would be probably abandoned in emotionally valanced approach. Lerner and Keltner’s appraisal-tendency theory (2001) for instance proves that both angry and happy individuals (different valance of emotions) appraised the environment in a similar way, which led them to making similar risks assessments and similar decisions, although the individuals’ actions stem from two opposite ends of emotionally valanced spectrum. On the other hand, emotions of the same valence have different effects on judgment, decision making, satisfaction and behavioural intentions such as willingness to repurchase (Lerner and Keltner, 2001; Raghunathan and Pham, 1999; Soscia, 2007), hence here, opposite reactions can stem from similarly valanced emotion. 4.6.1. Surprise as a basic emotion. Questioning the valance-based approach to emotions Surprise as an emotion escapes the realms of valanced approach (Ortony, 2022), hence its presence in emotional spectrum is often questioned and its results on a person are often misjudged. Surprise is known to have an effective influence on customers; a surprise promotional offer can lead to increased sales and improved satisfaction; however, an unexpected cancellation of a trip can result in dissatisfaction (Valenzuela et al, 2010). Recognising a surprise as an emotion carrying cognitive reaction and instrumental behaviour can be very beneficial for suppliers of products and services to 103 determine the authentic reasons for observed behaviour of customers. Subsequently, for the demand of tourism, especially dark tourism case, an emotion of surprise (both positive and negative) can act as an educational trigger to investigate the site further or as an accelerator to generate interest in the site among fellow visitors. Despite differences in distinguishing elementary emotions by scholars, surprise is consistently mentioned as one of basic emotions (Izard, 1971; Plutchik, 1980; Ekman et al 1982; Frijda 1986). This view is recently critiqued by Ortony (2022) who argues that as surprise hardly satisfies characteristics of an emotion as such; then subsequently cannot be taken into account as a basic one. As they analysed valanced approach to emotions, it could fall into a debate whether surprise falls into positive or negative category adding to his argument about excluding surprise from emotional range, or at last from the list of basic emotions. Ortony and Turner (1990) debates that if surprise; similarly to interest; could be negative, positive or in fact, neutral it should be treated as a cognitive state, rather than full formed emotion. Nevertheless, can one emotion be both; positive and negative, or in fact; neither? Valenzuela et al (2010) assume that if surprise is indeed an emotion it is an unusual one, as it does not indicate immediately neither pleasure nor pain. It could be considered as pre-emotional stage, when cognition is going to form either positive or negative response to the stimuli – that would support Ortony’s point of view, however it is difficult to neglect the interpretation of many scholars who indeed recognise surprise as a valid, and often – a prime emotion. Hence the question remains whether we can use emotionally valanced approach to surprise or whether surprise should remain neutral-valanced but important emotion? As subsequent chapters of this thesis demonstrate, an initial negative surprise in visiting dark tourism sites can result in positive overall experience hence it is considered important in this chapter to conceptualise the emotion in surprise. Surprise is a result of unexpected event, possibly an interruption, therefore Noordewier and Dijk (2019) argue that the first response tends to be negative. According to those scholars even if the final result of the surprise is positive the initial stage of unknown is unpleasant for most people; surprise represent inconsistency, disruption to the routine, lack of structure; something that most people prefer to avoid. Noordewier and Breugelmans’ (2013) experiment gave yet again, ambiguous answer towards the valency of surprise. Firstly, the researchers determined that surprise has a short-time effect – it is, as mentioned before a pre-emotional state which then leads to different outcomes (emotions) depending on what the nature of surprise is. Their further research brought some confusion, as it was identified that a word “surprise” on its own carries more positive connotation that negative ones. Additionally, their finding was coupled with rather necessary use of intensity of emotions – something that Plutchik noticed after his first proposal of emotions. Even if we retain surprise as a negatively 104 valanced emotion, the intensity of its negativity is lesser than for instance anger or disgust. Plutchik’s Wheel of Emotions (1960) also localise the surprise as a middle stage between distraction (lesser form) and amazement (more intense form). Valenzuela et al (2010) researched a valance of surprise from the point of pleasure suggesting surprise can exist as a positive emotion; as the astonishment, wonder or amazement that grows with the unexpectedness and importance of an event (p.792). The research proposed by Valenzuela involved surprising two groups of people: East Asians and Westerners with unexpected incentives or gifts. The findings were hugely thought provoking; East Asians did not feel comfortable receiving gifts; as an unexpected event, even a positive one, it was not emotionally well received. The group of Westerners attributed receiving an unexpected gift to a pleasurable experience, underlying their own importance and value to the giver. As the discussion concerning valence of surprise between the scholars is still ongoing, there are some common elements admitted through the research. Firstly, it could be fascinating to establish deeper whether surprise can function as an independent emotion, or rather it should be working in conjunction with what nature of the surprise is and what emotion would follow a surprise. Additionally, the ambivalent nature of surprise could suggest that we might be attempting a distinction by treating surprise as two different emotions: positive surprise and negative surprise. While Plutchik recognised different intensities of his basic emotions, surprise with higher intensity became amazement – relatively positive or neutral emotion. However, if the surprise has been followed by a cognitive meaning and understanding of the effect, the higher intensity could elevate it to emotions such as grief (e.g., sudden death of a relative), ecstasy (e.g., surprised proposal), or terror (e.g., information about military aggression on the region where we live). The emotion of surprise; with subsequently mentioned amazement and distraction is hugely important in conceptualising the emotions in tourism, especially dark tourism when negatively and positively valanced emotions are interlinked, and the need to establish a “space” for a neutral sensation is needed. It is believed that the discussion around the emotion of surprise is justified here. Firstly, as a neutral emotion it questions the emotionally valenced approach. Secondly, it is a complex emotion, as it may be demonstrated by the unique pattern of facial expressions, at times as a fear, or joy, or sadness. As surprise may proceed valenced emotions surprise Valenzuela et al (2010) suggests it is an emotion itself as well as amplifier to other emotions. Finally, surprise will be analysed as one of most possible emotional outcomes of visiting dark tourism sites. 105 4.7. Cultural and personal differences in emotional display Although scholars such as Ekman (1992) supports the opinion that emotions are a result of evolution and biology, they do not deny the role of cultural and social processes impacting emotions; the control over emotions, the display of emotions and resulting coping mechanisms. The area of culturally induced emotion is another complex one in the science of emotions. In Ekman’s experiment (1972) Americans and Japanese were exposed to a stress-inducing film; showing bodily mutilation and to the neutral one; showing nature scenes. While believing they watch the material alone, the facial expressions at both cultures were virtually the same. However, when the observers assisted with watching, Japanese much more than Americans masked negative expressions with smiles (Friesen, 1972). Their study ignited the general debate about the role and influence of culture on emotions. Eid and Diener (2001) addressing two basic emotional concepts suggested that the biological approach is too limited and the full understanding emotions could be achieved through a cultural context in which emotions are experienced, expressed and perceived (p.869). Hispanic and Euro-American cultures for instance tend to emphasize good feelings, self-belief and self-enhancement (Heine at al, 1999, Triandis at al, 1984). Those groups perceive positive emotions as more desirable and appropriate than negative emotions (Diener at al 2000). Personal differences are, next to cultural characteristics another valued element in evoking emotions. Lazarus (2003) argues the importance in knowing the “background” of an individual. It is difficult and too complex to understand why certain people react different to similar events; hence paramount is to know additional variables like personality, characteristics of an individual or the history of relationship with similar events. The characteristics might include individual’s goals, goal hierarchies, beliefs about self and world and personal resources. Resources include intelligence, social and work skills, health and energy, education, supportive family and friends and physical and social attractiveness (p.14). There is a hope that this chapter successfully demonstrated chosen theories of emotions and their vast intensity as well as their practical applications. As it was stated, emotions could be demonstrated with full bodily (physiological) reaction, which makes them possibly more readable. Other emotions are creating a barrier in order to properly define them; there could be a study of facial emotions when due to situational constraints true emotions are hidden. Another challenge lays in the internet study when all there is to analyse is text which needs to be interpreted and understood not only as solitary worlds which could be fitted into theories such as Wheel of Emotions, but also underlaying sense – overall experience which could be described by potentially contradicting emotions. 106 5. Emotional experience in tourism sector Hosany et al (2020) suggested that tourism industry is being proclaimed a “fun” industry, where the activities connected with it are performed for hedonic reasons. This chapter aims to discuss the emotions present at general tourism sites – sites visited as a holiday destination, purely for a leisure reasons. Those emotions will be expressed by someone who Cohen (1979) declares “travellers for pleasure” and the available literature will be focusing on positive emotions in tourism – in the line of understanding that leisurely and voluntarily tourism should bring positive feelings. Although the plethora of research would be suggesting a positive cluster of emotions around tourism experience, much more complex picture is required to certain aspects of tourism such as adventure tourism which, however performed voluntarily, can bring elements of stress or anxiety – commonly recognised as negative feelings. 5.1. Emotions in tourism “What the tourist performs is first and foremost a feeling, not an action” Knudsen, 2011 In the last few decades, the subject of emotions of customers have reached a considerable interest of scholars and practitioners. Soodan and Pandey (2016) argue that the general act of acquiring a product or service reflects in an emotional response, a way that makes customer feel different. Marketers and behaviourists joined the forces to expose the products and services to the best of their abilities and create an initial interest, ideally resulting in purchase; for instance, sensory attributes such lighting has been investigated and granted a considerable value as emotional contributors (Quartier et al, 2014, Boyce, 2004, Ariffin et al, 2012). Emotions as a result of a purchase are also considered as an important element of the FMCG market (Kagita, 2018; Saraniya et al, 2020; Joshi and Nema 2015; Devi, 2021; Gopalakrishna et al, 2018; Kiseleva et al, 2016; Bloemer and De Ruyter, 1999; Tinne, 2010) and luxury goods market (Snakers and Zeidman, 2010; , So and et al, 2013; Chen et al, 2015; Kim et al, 2016; Straker and Wrigley, 2016). The research on emotions in tourism is a complex and multi-layered discipline. Hosany and Gilbert (2010) argue that the emotional scales and theories are proving difficult to adapt to tourism as they 107 do not consider the individual characteristics of tourists and destinations. Yet, number of studies attempted to understand the role of emotions in tourism and, or tourists’ experience (Aho, 2001; Adhikari and Bhattacharya, 2016; Belhassen et al, 2008; Bond et al, 2015; Christou et al, 2018; de Rojas and Camarero, 2006 and 2008; Faulland et al, 2011; Filep et al, 2013; Filep and Deery, 2010; Filep. 2016; Hosany and Gilbert, 2010; Hosany 2012; Hosany et al, 2015; Jorgenson et al, 2019; Knobloch et al, 2017; Li et al, 2015; Malone et al, 2018; Nawijn, 2010; Nawijn et al, 2010; Nawijn and Biran, 2019; Park and Santos, 2019; Prayag et al, 2013; 2017; Prebensen et al, 2013; Rahmani et al, 2018; Servidio and Ruffolo, 2016; Wong and Yeh, 2009). Hosany et al (2020), although focusing mostly on hedonic benefits of travelling, acknowledged that tourism experience is significantly based on emotions. 5.2. Emotions and tourists’ experiences Although occasionally used interchangeably, tourists’ emotions and tourism experiences are two different concepts, sporadically also included in an umbrella concept of “emotional experiences” (Rahmani et al, 2018). Walls et al. (2011) acknowledges tourist experience as multidimensional concept which would include internal and external factors and the interaction between them. Internal dimensions of experience include emotions and cognition of a tourist, while external factors incorporate human interactions during the travel (with supplier’s representatives or co-tourists), physical experience and situational factors. Gentile et al (2007, p.397) propose the idea that customer experience originate from the set of interaction between customers and a product, a company, or part of its organization, which in return would provoke reaction. Meyer and Schwager (2007, p.2) defined tourism experience as an internal and subjective response customers have any direct or indirect contact with the company. Brakus et al (2009, p.53) argue that it is a subjective, internal consumer response (sensation, feeling and cognition) and behavioural responses evoked by brand-related stimuli that are part of brand’s design and identity, packaging, communication, and environment. The subjectivity as an element of emotional experience was already acclaimed by Smith and Lazarus (1990), Ortony and Turner (1990), Parkinson (1996) and Frijda (1998), however according to research conducted by Rahmani et al (2019) subjectivity can be also challenging as it may obscure the effect of a destination’s identity on tourism emotional experience. According to those observations, emotions are one of the determinants of overall subjective emotional experience, with the experiences being more complex and multi-layered concept, frequently staying longer in the memory of the visitor often influenced by either internal beliefs or 108 external factors; hence the subject of subjectivity of tourism experience is important to understand and to encourage. This view is also supported by Aho (2001) who recognised emotional experience as one of four types of tourist experiences presented below with details. Godovykh and Tasci (2020 p.100694) proposed, not utterly different to Aho (2001), comprehensive definition of visitor experience with four main components – emotional, cognitive, sensorial, and conative, when the last – conative component might be comparable to Aho’s practical experience. Those components according to work of Godovykh and Tasci (2020) as well as Aho (2021) reflect elements of tourism experience from more human-centred (demand) perspective, rather than firm-centred (supply) approach. As a result of that status, it can be expected than their research findings would be more “genuine”, as they do not affirm to reach any promotional gain. Nevertheless, it is also vital to recognise components of experience including the role of supply; Cutler and Carmichael (2010) distinguish between influential realm (supply) with physical aspects and product aspects and personal realm (demand) which includes knowledge, memories, perception, emotions, and self-identity. 5.3. Aho’s approach to tourist experience Seppo Aho (2001) attempted to determine his elements of tourist experience as an answer to previous concepts, which, in his opinion, were neglecting experiences such as curing (being healthier), or personal achievements (activities resulted in self-satisfaction). Aho (2001) listed core essential components of tourist experience as being: 1. Getting emotionally affected – emotional experience. 2. Getting informed – informative experience. 3. Getting practised – practice experience. 4. Getting transformed – transformation experience. Emotional experience according to Aho is not only a core one, but also a universal experience as it is, to an extent, present in most tourism experiences. It is valid to argue that emotions most likely participate in other elements of tourism experience, even if the emotional result is in fact neutral. Informative experience is the process of gaining or enhancing knowledge of the visited site by the tourists, while the process of learning may happen intentionally or randomly. As the information can be gained through those two different ways, the co-existing emotions, or emotional experience could be accordingly different; for instant unplanned exposure to certain facts might create higher levels of 109 surprise than a planned learning of a site visited deliberately. The interrelation proposed by Aho between different types of informative experience and emotional experience suggests a gap in the literature of emotions in tourism and initiates need for further research in this area. Practice experience is understood in Aho’s framework as leisure or professional experience endeavoured during the visit; it could be practicing favourite sport or speaking a foreign language in the native environment, which, if successful or at least satisfactory may lead to the emotion of joy or even ecstasy, while getting transformed by visitor experience represent deep, structural changes in personality (2001, p.34). The transformation is suggested to be permanent or long term lasting; it could possibly be altering visitors’ behaviour in the future as an action of visiting and experiencing the site. The proposed by Aho’s framework could be related to Lazarus’ earlier approached theory (2006), where emotions also show cognitive, and coping mechanism. Aho (2001) insists that subsequently that one, two or more experiences can be occurring at particular time; they are not exclusive and any of those experiences can exist or coexist on various level of intensity. This thesis will be adapting Aho’s framework and will try to determine not only how much of the core tourism experience can be generated at the same time, but also, what is the link between them; especially between emotional, informative and transformation experiences. Emotional experience is most likely being present in majority of tourist experiences – even at the basic scale tourists would express likes or dislikes towards their experience, interest, or disinterest. Other experiences might vary; it would be questionable if not impossible if all the tourists have been given an informative preparation before the visit, have practical experience of the site and also received a stage of transformation by their touristic experience. As Aho considers all the types of experiences as core it is not necessary that they all exist during the undertaking of tourism experience. It is also necessary to mention the importance of educational experiences playing an important role in an overall long-lasting experience, which in some cases can have beneficial reaction to the visitor. Bell et al. (2009) suggested that connections with visitors, and the potential for meaning making, is maximized when informal learning settings promote a range of emotional responses, such as surprise and awe, and engage multiple means of processing (observation, discovery, critical thinking). Emotional responses, including joy, wonder, surprise, care, and love have been identified in visitor experiences of informal science learning centres as being deeply connected to visitors’ meaning making (also in Beaumont 2005; Korn 2004; Myers, Saunders, and Birjulin 2004). In a broad review of 110 the literature on learning science in informal contexts, Bell et al. (2009) propose that strong emotional responses and excitement related to experiences in science and the natural world may lead to further learning by the visitor. Similarly, Barriault (1999) and Pedretti (2002, 2004) also identified that expressions of positive emotional responses can enhance meaning-making. While emotional responses and connections to prior experiences are important in supporting learning in informal contexts (Bell et al. 2009), such responses are evident primarily in visitors’ interactions with live animals at zoos, aquaria, and butterfly conservatories, as well as with specific emotionally charged issues. Aho (2001) recognised emotional experience as one of four types of tourist experiences. His total four observed and documented singular experiences which contribute to the core of tourism experience are: • emotional experience. • informative experience. • practice experience. • transformation experience. Although it is extremely useful framework and as a theory it allows to look at the tourism experience as a multilayered process, occasionally it left us free to interpret exactly what types of emotions are constructing emotional experience. Additionally, Aho (2001) turned more towards “classic” – hedonic sense of understanding tourism experience. If then Aho’s model is being used as a demonstration of what experiences can be reached at any tourist location, then Plutchik’s emotion – specific framework might be feeding into the emotional experience or transformational experience providing them with emotion-specific content. Comparison nor contrasting those two frameworks, to a current knowledge has not been achieved in the plethora of academic papers, however the author perceives vast benefits in doing just so. Firstly, Plutchik’s Wheel of Emotion (1980) is a theory strictly deriving from socio-behavioural science; it is more universal and available to use at any point the emotions are being researched. Aho’s framework (2001) is already strictly related to tourism, and despite many variables of experience available, tourism experience stays always as a focus of this framework. Table below demonstrates those two discussed theories and the visible link, indicating a considerable interaction between them. 111 Table 5.1: Link between Aho’s (2001) model and Plutchik’s Theory of Emotions (1980) s Emotional experience Informative experience Practice experience Transformation experience Serenity Joy Ecstasy Apprehension Fear Terror Distraction Surprise Amazement Acceptance Trust Admiration Pensiveness Sadness Grief Boredom Disgust Loathing Aho’s Model (2001) Interest Anticipation Vigilance Annoyance Anger Range Emotions based on Plutchik’s Wheel (1980) Although emotions listed to the left are categorical (emotion specific), they still do not exhaust fully the range of emotions presented at various locations, in this case – the sites of Holocaust. Having said that it is also expected that transformational experience would be enriched with similar emotions, for instance: high level of surprise, interest or sadness. Source: Author’s own interpretation 112 5.4. Memorable tourists’ experience Servidio and Ruffolo (2016) lament that although the recognition of significance of memorable experience overall, especially in tourism is increasing, the scholarly work on tourism experiences and their variety is still scarce. One of the earliest works comes from Cohen (1979) who defined tourism experience as the relationship between people and their total world-view dependent on the location of their “centre” with respect to the society to which they belong. The mentioned “centre” can have various meanings; it could be political, religious, cultural, or individual spiritual one. As argued by Cohen, traveling for pleasure (as opposed to necessity) assumes that there is some experience “out there” (1979, p.182). In other words, those who will not desire a positive outcome or better possibilities outside their own realms and “centre” will not travel for pleasure. This may provoke a generalised idea that the experiences born out of excitement and from the state of reaching for better will only be positive. Indeed, the literature of positive tourism experience is much wider and better grounded that the one examining negative experiences (Filep and Pearce, 2013; Pearce, 2009) and tend to describe positive experiences under the general term of memorable tourism experiences (Tung and Ritchie, 2011; Kim et al 2012; Chandralal and Valenzuela, 2013; Wei et al, 2019). For instance, the study of Wong et al (2020) concluded that tourists memorable experience relates to the feeling of tourists’ satisfaction, revisit intention and willingness to recommend the destination; all of them arriving from positive state of trip assessment. In the current era those individuals are more likely to share their (positive) memorable experiences through social media while establishing themselves as opinion makers or (positive) experience messengers. Those memorable experiences also contribute to the general willingness of the individual to research, visit or recommend similar places or destinations (Wong et al, 2020). Kim et al defines positive memorable tourist experience (MTE) as a tourism experience positively remembered and recalled after the event has occurred (2012, p.13). Why however we might ask, the tourists’ memorable experiences are most often described and analysed through the lenses of being positive and fulfilling? Ryan’s work (2010) suggests that one of the reasons comes from the manufacturing of the supply of tourism; the organisers and planners must enhance a risk avoidance policy at their destinations in order to satisfy tourists’ needs. There is an ongoing debate among the scholars concerning the level to which destination is being manufactured by DMOs. Destination Marketing Organisations (DMO) are non-profit entities aimed at 113 generating tourist visitation for a given image of the area. They are generally responsible for creating a unique image of the area, coordinating most private and public tourism industry constituencies, providing information to visitors, and leading the overall tourism industry at a destination (Prideaux and Cooper 2002). Ashworth and Voogd (1990) in contrast argue about the pivotal role of geography in the destination image; certain places and sites cannot be manufactured without the presence their natural location and attractiveness, in other words; some destinations would be desirable without many elaborate marketing efforts. Other authors perceive destinations as packages of opportunities to fulfil perceived wants, thus they are the places of constructed (manufactured) meaning. Beerli and Martin’s research show a high role of travel agent in projecting a positive image of sun and sand destinations (2004, p.676). Several approaches have been adopted to explore positive memorable experiences and several features have been taken into consideration to define these experiences in a thorough way, among these features a prominent role is played by the relationship between emotions and the tourism experience (Tung & Ritchie, 2011). A substantial body of studies has examined, for instance, the relationships existing between emotions and tourism experiences (Hosany, 2012, Hosany and Gilbert, 2010, Houge Mackenzie and Kerry, 2013, Kim, 2012, Morgan et al., 2010, Li and Cai, 2012, Nawijn et al., 2013, Servidio, 2015, Nicoletta and Servidio, 2012), underlining how “tourist emotional reactions are fundamental determinants of post-consumption behaviours” (Prayag, Hosany, & Odeh, 2013, p. 118). 5.5. Valenced based approach to emotions in tourism Since the first attempts have been made to describe emotions, the dilemma connected with emotional valency occurred. According to Prayag et al, (2017) the valence-based approach is the preferred way of defining emotions in tourism. Christou, Sharpley and Farmaki (2019) conclude that due to lack of definitions of emotions among scholars it is reasonable to distinguish the emotions between positive and negative ones. This approach is however not without issues and limitations; Zeelenberg and Pieters (2004) argue that valenced based approach simplifies the potential outcome of similar emotions; the scholars have used the example of regret and disappointment – two emotions which are both negatively valenced but could lead to different evaluations. When disappointment occurs, customer is more likely to put responsibility on the provider of the service, while regret generally is a 114 result of customer’s own decision hence the element of blame is slightly shifted. Additional conundrum arises with applying the emotion of surprise to tourism’ experiences. As mentioned before, surprise is included in just a few theories of basic emotions (Plutchik’s including) however it is tentatively being evaded as a neutral emotion – difficult to determine and contradict. In tourism however, the emotion of surprise could be double-edged. A study of Andrade and Cohen (2007) conducted on tourism experience of visiting Great Wall of China discovered a presence of both positive surprise (visitors did not expect the Wall to be so solid), as well as negative surprise (visitors were shocked with the length of the queue to enter). Although the critique of emotionally valanced approach was presented earlier in this chapter, the author finds it useful to apply it to the tourism experience and confront some common assumption related to tourism emotions. 5.6. Positive emotions in tourism Cohen (1979) laments that superficially tourists are often perceived as “travellers for pleasure” (p.179). Aho (2001) declares that tourism is a voluntary activity, therefore it is an assumption that tourists would more likely be prepared to expose themselves to pleasant, satisfying and generally positive emotions having a notable impact on emotional experience. The literature of tourism feelings is therefore dominated by exploring positive emotions linking them often with a feeling of joy or satisfaction (Unger and Kernan, 1983; Hosany et al, 2015; Hirschman and Holbrook, 1982; Bolton and Drew, 1991). This co-relation is equally important for consumers and suppliers of tourism. Oliver and Bearden (1983) started to analyse the level of satisfaction related to the vital role of involvement in purchase when more involved customers were able to make stronger level of recommendation, however their satisfaction was more difficult to obtain customers representing low involvement levels. Matilla (2001, p.75) mentioned that “Emotionally bonded customers tend to invest more in their relationship than customers lacking affective commitment”. Zeelenberg and Pieters (2004) agrees that positive emotions lead to satisfaction and then positively influence any future purchasing behaviour. Achieving customers’ satisfaction could be slightly more complex from the suppliers’ point of view – they are tasked with creating a positive experience, and as previously mentioned emotions are one of many elements of experience, other being physical experience and situational factors. For instance, even best prepared event with fully involved participants can be spoilt by bad weather conditions. 115 Williams (2006) arguments that consumption of tourism is generally received as a hedonistic activity; created by pleasure seeking, as well and the way of depositing a statement about self and the preferred way of self-indulgence. Williams also associates postmodern tourism with experiential marketing defined by Pine and Gilmore (1999, p.2) as follows: “when a person buys a service, he purchases a set of intangible activities carried out on his behalf. But when he buys an experience, he pays to spend time enjoying a series of memorable events that a company stages to engage him in a personal way”. According to this definition tourism and touristic experience is based on a sense of enjoyment and creating positive memories with the assistance of tour operators and destination creators. Hosany et al (2020) follows the hedonic understanding of tourism by reminding that tourism is a fun and pleasurable activity, often planned and anticipated for certain time. Connected with financial commitment travelling is expected therefore to contribute to positive emotions such joy, excitement or even ecstasy. Hosany brings to the attention studies focusing on festivals, theme parks, heritage sites and adventure tourism which exposed positive emotions and reactions leading to satisfaction (possible recommendation) and repeat visits. Subsequently tour operators attract the customers with positive slogans such as: “Fill your heart in Ireland”, “Inspired by Island”, “All you want is Greece”, “Happiness is Travelling”, “Happiness on Earth”, “You’ll be happy to back”, “Greatest moments delivered”, “Magical Kenya”, “Inspiring Tunisia”, “Cyprus in your heart”, “Live Love Lebanon”, “Saudi the Kingdom that inspires”, “It’s more fun in the Philippines”, “Epic Estonia”. Those slogans accompanied by attractive visuals follow the imperative of marketing destination, a term which derives from Kotler’s et al (1999) place marketing described as: “a place planning procedure concerning the satisfaction of the needs of target markets”. It could be successful if it satisfies two main parameters: a) The enterprisers and the resident’s satisfaction from the purchase of goods and services that the place provides b) the satisfaction of the expectations of potential target markets (enterprisers and visitors), as long as the goods and services that the place provides for them are those that they wish to get (Kotler et al, 1999). This definition assumes that destination marketing would be contributing to the overall satisfaction of both supply and demand of tourism and it that is the case it might result in not only positive tourists’ emotion but also overall positive emotional experience. Returning to the meaning of positiveness in tourism there is a substantial plethora of work suggesting that tourism and travel should be exactly such; an activity considered and contributing in a positive and optimistic way to the meaning of life, being ultimately as Bouchet et al (2004) noticed – a leisure. 116 Emotional arousal is a major motivation for the purchase and consumption of products such as sports, plays and travels (Bloch, Sherrell, & Ridgway,1986; Goossens,2000). Tourism produces hedonic consumption experiences (Alistair,2006), involving adventure, challenge, escape, and fun (Otto & Ritchie,1996), happiness (Gretzel et al.,2006) and pleasure (Floyd,1997). Fantasy, feelings, and fun are a central part of hedonic experiences (Holbrook,2006) and positive and pleasurable emotions and feelings are important components of tourism experiences (Tung & Ritchie,2011). Therefore, it is clearly important for both academia and industry managers to better understand the vital role of emotion in customer experiences of tourism. 5.7. Negative emotions in tourism Hedonic nature of tourism was pointed out by Williams (2006), Hosany and Gilbert (2010), Kim et al (2012), Mitas et al (2012), Hosany et al (2020). Positive emotions are also most desirable by travel and destination suppliers; Bigne and Andre (2004) provided empirical evidence suggesting that proper segmentation of tourists and their needs results in higher level of pleasure and higher level of satisfaction which in return brings desirable behavioural intentions in terms of loyalty and willingness to pay more and recommend the destination further. Nawijn (2016) explains that analysing tourism experience is more likely analysed from the positive perspective as the consumption of tourism serves purposes of experiencing pleasure and positive affect, while tourism economy provides positive value for the customers (also Cohen et al, 2014), therefore tourism experience studies have almost entirely focused on hedonic context indicating of presence of positive emotions, at the same time neglecting potential presence of negative emotions. If tourism and visitors experience is expressed predominantly in positive meaning, is there a gap for negative emotions in tourism? Is there a reason why voluntary and leisurely tourism could bring a feeling of dissatisfaction? Indeed, the research addressing negative emotions in tourism (excluding genocide or difficult heritage tourism) as previously mentioned, is slightly neglected. Only recently Nawijn and Biran (2019) addressed the gap in the literature by analysing both positive and negative emotions in tourism. Based on earlier research of emotions they dispute that positive and negative emotions could exist at the same time, therefore analysing emotional experience from valence-perspective is not the only rational one. For instance, Cohen et al (2008, p.22) argued that a person can feel sad and guilty or happy and proud at the same time. This statement can draw an attention to 117 observe negative emotions as a part of fully valid experiences rather than just evolutionary leftovers with negative minor implications. Nawijn and Biran (2019) reflected on a thought that negative emotions in tourism may lead to overall positive memorable experience and embody positive behaviour and psychological consequences as well as growing recognition and widened knowledge. Research conducted by Knobloch et al (2017) have shown that activity of skydiving generally connected with hedonic reasons might bring negative emotions to the tourists such as fear and anxiety, which after completion changed into a positive overall experience of achievement and self-pride. This research also stresses the element of eudaimonia, when eudemonic effect might result from activities that are not particularly pleasant or enjoyable at the time, but bring positive experience when the results are achieved. The phenomenon of eudaimonia might be a useful connection linking positive and negative emotions arising simultaneously and negative emotions with corresponding positive overall lasting experience. Mentioning negative emotions connected with dark tourism sites is purposefully ignored here, as this subject will be heavily analysed in the further chapter, however another tourism related activity supporting a co-existence of mixed emotions is volunteering tourism. Crossley (2012, p.235) giving example of volunteering activity encourages to consider tourism at the level of tourism subjectivity in order to understand tourists’ motives more holistically and recognise what leads people to travel to poor parts of the world and the responses that tourists have to their encounters with poverty. Simpson (2004, p.689) while analysing young people from Western Countries visiting underdeveloped community used the phrase “learning to be lucky” to describe their emotional encounter to the discovered poverty at their destination, while at the same feeling shocked, and negatively surprised with the living conditions of natives. In a rather different way of analysing examples of volunteering Zahra and McIntosh (2004, p.117) describe the cathartic and transitional experiences of young volunteers and their encounters with the host communities which led them to consequent reflections on their own behaviour and attitudes during their service, which in turn enabled them to reassess and even identify their core values and assisted in their maturing process. They observed that, ‘Suffering provoked emotive reactions including sentimental outbursts of grief, tears, action, giving away money, and even escape’ (Zahra and McIntosh 2007, p.117). Their findings aimed to demonstrate that envisaging human poverty and suffering was a catalyst of emotional events not found in a mainstream tourist; something that Aho (2001) described as a transformation experience. The following subchapter will present the presence of negative emotion in hedonic-based tourism, while next chapter will be focusing on emotions of dark tourism sites where negative emotions are much more poignant and more often demonstrated by visitors. 118 5.8. Adventure tourism – could one desire to feel fear during tourism activity? Adventure tourism as a specific genre of tourism may create an interesting and much needed interrogation regarding emotionally valanced approach to tourists’ emotions. Described by Buckley (2007) as guided commercial tours, where the principal attention is an outdoor activity that relies on features of the natural terrain, generally requires specialized equipment, and is exiting for the tour clients. Janowski et al (2021) based on previous literature collected emotional responses to adventure tourism experiences which presents an eclectic and mixed results; together with what we can assume are positive experiences such as fun, excitement, enjoyment accomplishment and well-being there are some relatively negative emotions such as fear, anxiety, risk, danger, and uncertainty. How do we essentially interpret an emotion such as fear as a part of voluntary, paid tourism experience? Janowski et al, offer a more holistic approach to analysing fear, by putting it in the context of adventure tourism. Although presenting some elements of danger, adventure tourism might offer a “safe”, organized, and supervised form of fear. In their approach, fear is a confrontation with self, a battle with own weaknesses and conforming fear for a better outcome in the future. Cater (2006) argues that pursuit of fear is one of the central attractions in adventure tourism, which offers its participants “play with their fears” (p.322). Confronting own fear could be stressful experience, however in some cases it is treated as a form of therapy; for instance people afraid of flying can participate in a programme explaining rationally that flying is a safe and reliable mode of transport; in this case it could be a form of help and ultimately a positive outcome for people who have to fly or who’s fear of flying prevent them to spend time with friends or family or stops them from appreciating travelling as an educational experience. Cater (2008) underlines that to face the fear and coin it as a long-term positive or at least useful experience there is a need for trust in organizers of adventure tourism; if they do not manage the experience well fear might not only stay with the participants but also intensify – it was however confirmed that I was right to be scared of… flying, rafting or mountain climbing. Carnicelli-Filho et al (2010) in his research in adventure tourism in Brazil acknowledge that fear during adventure tourism experience could be a cognitive analysis of risk connected with performed activity; respondents in parachute experience said that their fear was created by knowledge how high they are in the air and that the parachute might not open. Rafting participants were aware that they might fell off the raft and not be able to return. Climbing participants were scared of crashing down the mountain. As demonstrated by Carnicelli-Filho et al adventure tourism could be burdened with one 119 the greatest fears of all; fear of death, understood by participants through the cognitive sense and as a physical fight-fly reaction to extraordinary situation such as being thrown out of the plane. Gudykunst & Hammer (1988) state that anxiety is a state which evokes fear and most likely refers to negative experiences so there is a further conundrum as to why tourists would voluntary exposed themselves to a negative emotion. Vidon and Rickly (2018) also present an element of anxiety as another corresponding emotion with adventure tourism. In their work however, anxiety is explained as a motivation to participate in adventure tourism experience – possibly as a way of managing difficult emotion and facing state of anxiety which is not serving in regular life. Their research also suggests that the process of evaluation of potential risk (through the cognitive process) might decrease anxiety as more elements of the trip are under control and the danger is explored with a certain degree of preparation. Dickson and Dolnicar (2004) contributed to the literature with their view that risk is rather something that tourists desire rather than want to avoid. There is however a need to analyse the perception of risk which could be very individual and vary in dimensions such as gender, personality, wealth, and nationality. Hofstede in his cultural dimensions model has proven than some nations are more prone to risk, while other are extremely risk avert. Sandman (1990 and Segal & Sandman, 1990) identify main perception of risk in adventure tourism: - The level of voluntary choice to accept or reject the risk. - The level of control the individual has to prevent or mitigate the risk. - How “fair” the level of risk is given the expected benefits. - The public’s perception of the organization, such as the level of trust or carrying. - The familiarity people have with the activity, such as football versus BASE jumping. 6. Emotions in Dark Tourism By their nature, dark tourism sites can elicit strong emotional reactions (Seaton 2009), and it is often that they do just so (Miles 2002; Podoshen 2013). Negative emotions would be present during visiting of dark tourism sites (Foley and Lennon, 1996; Rojek, 1999; Stone, 2005) however the assumption of dark tourism sites corresponding exclusively with purely negative emotions will be challenged by the recent research also showing a positive emotional experience resulting from visiting dark tourism places. The complexity of emotions and 120 tourist experience at the dark tourism sites would be presented by much recent research imbedded in Plutchik’s Wheel of Emotions (1980) and Aho’s (2001) concept of tourism experience. Emotions while visiting places connected or of death and mass murder might naturally show a contradiction with the regular tourism destinations and question the hedonic feelings felt during those visits. It would also question Hirschman and Holbrook (1982) theory that people tend to talk about their tourist experience in positive meaning. That view could be however easily understood; tourist choose their destination, endure an anticipation time, finally contribute financially to the experience. As a result, and in a way protecting and defending their own choices visitors tend to hold to the positive elements of touristic experience which have been endorsed. Williams (2006) argues that consumption of tourism is generally received as a hedonistic activity; created by pleasure seeking, therefore exposing themselves to difficult places, envisaging suffering and death is less likely tourism behaviour. Mitas et al (2001) lament that research on tourists’ emotions have focused mostly on hedonic trips or sites. Stone and Sharpley (2008) agreed that the studies on emotions at dark tourism sites is scares and most likely descriptive, which suggested further elements of research in order to fully understand motivations and mostly emotions experienced at those places. Consequently, Nawijn and Fricke (2015) emphasise that less attention is being granted to sites with no hedonic context, hence there is a lack of empirical research to such places, including difficult heritage and dark tourism sites. The need for qualitative research on emotion in dark sites was also articulated by Best (2007); Biran et al., (2011); Isaac and Çakmak (2014). Weaver et al (2018) notices that the knowledge about actual dark tourism experiences, including naming emotions and subsequent postexperience effect is still relatively unknown. Selected studies argue that certain group of visitors would actively search difficult and sombre places, be interested in sad music and movies. Vess et al (2009) argument that being exposed to death (in a safety realms) or being reminded to death can turn into better and more aware appreciation of life. Hofer (2013) analysed the need of watching terror creating movies such as Green Mile based on Stephen King’s novel. This multifaceted story takes place in the death row of one of American prisons and often includes scenes of unnecessarily brutal executions of the convicted felons. However, watching those scenes according to Hofer can, in reality, help people coping with terror and provide a wider scope of life and beyond – almost finding a meaning and value in death; it performs a role of searching of meaning of life and death. 121 Although the motivation of tourists stays beyond the research undertaken for this thesis it is unquestionably one of the reasons for different scope of emotions elicited by the act of travel. Recent experiences however, as well as development and popularisation of dark tourism category might create a niche when although the general tourism experience is positive there are many negative emotions encountered during that time. According to Knudsen (2011), while visiting a tourist site, visitors are encoding and understanding it through site materiality, through the use of communication strategies (guides, tours, texts, visuals) and through technological devices and site design (p.57). By the materiality of site, especially a difficult heritage one; through the visual and physical artefacts visitors became witnesses of historical events and witnessing is an equivalent to the emotional and affective impact a certain event has on a tourist (Knudsen, p.59). Zillmann (1998, p.200) agreed with this observation by stating that “some people may adopt “a witness perspective where “[people] adopt the position of observers, who, as third parties, allow [them]selves to succumb to the illusion of watching real events unfold before [them]”. Knudsen also concludes that what tourist performs at a site is a first and foremost feeling, not an action. As not all the feelings have to result in actions, all the actions performed at the site (slowing down, asking questions, taking pictures) or because of visiting the site (discussions, feedback) are results of emotions evoked by the site. Dark tourism sites’ connected emotions are having to be however revised by the intensity of “dark” – as per mentioned earlier work of Philip Stone in his Dark tourism Spectrum (2006). It is because it is difficult if now impossible to expect that dark sites with evolve the same feelings and intensity of emotions. The assumptions we can follow is that certainly dark tourism sites carry strong emotional responses (Seaton, 2009). Due to the complex nature of the emotions, dark tourism behavioural study gained a considerable attention among scholars in the recent decades (del Bosque and Martin, 2008; Fredrickson, 2013; Miles, 2002, 2014; Nawijn and Biran, 2019; Podoshen, 2013; Stone and Sharpley, 2018). Although dark tourism or thanatourism was practiced for hundreds of years, without being labelled as such; negative emotions connected with seeing places of death or macabre were under-researched, even treated as undesirable – again as a contradiction to the full process of tourism which creates positive and negative emotions. Nawijn and Biran (2019) started to examine negative emotions related to tourism experience after a previously mentioned in a subchapter critique of negative emotions being treated as an unwelcome 122 leftover of positive emotions (Nawijn, 2016), where Nawijn simply disagrees with Fredrickson’s statement that “negative emotions carried adaptive significance in the moment that our human ancestors’ experienced them, as their associated action urges—for example, to fight, flee, or spit—drove behaviours that saved life and limb in dire circumstances. Positive emotions, by contrast, carried adaptive significance for our human ancestors over longer time scales.” (Fredrickson, 2013, p.815), rather supporting Stone and Sharpley (2018) claim that while visiting dark places and being exposed to sites connected or of death gives the same if not more meaningful meaning to the tourist’s experience. In other words, hedonic tourism creates almost entirely positive feelings, but it does not consist of full spectrum of tourism experience there is available for visitors and simply; excludes certain type of touristic practice. While examining valanced emotions in tourism it is not enough however sufficient to stop at simply determined bad and good emotions, positive and negative ones in separate discussions. There are numerous cases, (especially at difficult historic sites), where positive and negative emotions are interlinked and lead to emotionally mixed long-term effect. It is also possible that negative emotions result is an overall positive experience as Oren et al (2022) suggested in their recent research titled “The positive role of negative emotions in heritage-sites visit: the case of Auschwitz Death Camp”. It is however intertwined with the visitors’ expectation, which include a cognitive element stressed by Frijda’s research (1987, 1988); tourists visiting dark tourism place are generally aware of the significance of the place; of its’ character. Even if they would be unaware of many historical facts or figures connected with the site, through the process of planning, booking, or paying for a visit they would be conscious of general role of the site; in other words, most tourists visiting dark tourism sites do not expect to be entertained. The role of expectations is also confirmed by del Bosque and Martin (2008, p.555) research when the authors confirmed that higher expectations result in higher satisfaction with the destination. This does not mean that the expectations were here to obtain a moment of fun, like with the hedonistic destination. The understanding is that as long as destination meets the expectations it leads to overall satisfaction, however those expectations may include learning about the past, commemorating or paying respect to the victims of the site in question and even experiencing emotions such as sadness, anger or upset. Graham et al (2008) and Forgas (2013) concurrently noticed that negative emotions can result in positive outcomes and behavioural actions such as straightening of relationship, improved motivation, improved memory performance and reduction in judgmental error. Additionally, Baumeister et al (2001) argue that bad is better than good – his way to underline that negative emotions are preserved longer and create more learning curve which may lead to development of some unknown or unrepresented feelings. Guilt is one of them; nearly forcing visitors to reflect on their actions or actions of others. As the guilt is store in long term 123 memory it generally initiates pro-social behaviour, better understanding of difficult heritage and the lasting consequences of it. The area of expectations in dark and difficult tourism is an important one as it leads to the lasting emotions however, as Ward and Hill mentioned the subject of creation of expectations and the tools used to those creations is vastly unresearched (2018, p.225). 6.1. Towards an analysis of dark tourism sites using relevant theory Although chapter 6 demonstrated that visiting dark tourism sites might most likely gather negative emotions (Foley and Lennon, 1996; Rojek, 1999; Stone, 2005) describing them using similar terminology of emotions might be misleading. This subchapter aims at demonstrating various, occasionally opposite emotional experiences at different dark sites, where purposefully the literature used for this aim covers three locations with diverse “shade” of darkness, according to Stone’s spectrum (2006). To have a better understanding of emotions at dark sites, it is suggested here to analyse some in situ places in order to compare and contrast the emotions recognised while visiting the sites. The selection of sites purposefully combines places of different side of “darkness” as per Stone’s (2006) classification beginning from lightest to darkest ones. This diversity allows to compare emotions and distinguish them through the sites rather than placing them in a general portray of dark tourism. The following table presents location or placement of chosen analysed cases of Dark Tourism sites on Stone’s Dark Tourism Spectrum (2006). The framework has been previously analysed in Chapter 2; hence detailed description is overlooked here. It is however worth reminding that Stone (2006, p.152-153) classifies London Dungeons as part of the lightest site of the Spectrum and classic example of Dark Fun Factory. The exhibitions are gruesome, highly visual and display morbidity, yet they offer socially acceptable, almost family friendly experience, safe mode of fear and socially acceptable environment portraying death and suffering. Body Worlds exhibitions varied in the sense of intensity of the display of death by focusing on different functions of human physiology, however the samples displayed originated from human doners. Although the expositions are less frightening and less shocking, the ambience is kept with a focus on calm and serenity of passing, visitors are exposed to cadavers, not wax figures. Stone (2006, p.153) classified Body Worlds as the second lightest category of his Spectrum naming it “Dark Exhibitions”. Former KL Auschwitz-Birkenau is, perhaps without a surprise, counted as an example of darkest site of Spectrum and labelled by Stone (2006, p.157) as Dark Camps of Genocide and provide the ultimate 124 emotional tourist experience, as they remain universal symbol of evil as murder, cruelty and suffering were ever present during functioning of the camp. Table 6.1.: Placement of chosen cases of Dark Tourism sites Source: based on Stone’s Spectrum (2006) The following cites of Dark Tourism were then consequently associated with the types of tourists experience their provoke for their visitors based on Aho’s typology (2001). London Dungeons offer all four types of experience; the visitors talk about being excited and occasionally scared (emotional experience), the place also has an educational historic meaning (informative experience). Some additional role playing is supplied by the site’s team (practice experience), while some visitors also mention certain type of transformation and realisation and appreciation of the times they live in as against the past (transformation experience). Body Worlds is similarly generous with supplying different type of experience, where mostly education and transformation of a lifestyle is documented by the visitors. Literature of the subject mentions that the concentration camps as an example of difficult heritage sites may evoke emotions such as disgust, compassion, and interest (Ashworth, 2004), sadness and fear (Kracover, 2005), sadness and hope (Thurnell-Read, 2009). Isaac and Cacmak (2014) also mentioned interest, while Shaller (1993) touches on catharsis allowing emotions of joy and relief. Kidron studies on Israeli descendants visiting Holocaust sites suggest a broad and multi-valenced spectrum of emotions, such as shock, surprise, joy, and sadness. This is close to Nawijn and Fricke’s (2015) study from former concentration camp in Neuengamme who determined emotions of fascination, shock, sadness, anger, and positive surprise. The following analysis is vital for few reasons. Firstly, regardless the importance of studying the emotional responses of visitors at Holocaust memorial sites, there are limited research documenting emotions at the concentration camps; until now only few single studies attempted to measure emotions at former concentration and extermination camps (Nawijn and Fricke, 2015; Nawijn et al, 2018; Nawijn et al, 2023). Secondly, there is a lack of a known research undertaken using Plutchik’s Wheel of Emotions (1980) to demonstrate emotions at key concentration camps located in Poland: 125 former KL Majdanek and KL Auschwitz-Birkenau. The use of the mentioned tool allowed to provide one scale for both negative and positive emotions as well present possibilities of different intensity for the same basic emotion. Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum as an authentic historic site brings the educational values during the visit. Emotional experience is highly visible and would be documented in this chapter and as a result of a primary research. The site is deficient with practice experience; however, it could be easily understood; the practices connected with functioning of the camp are aimed never to be repeated again and it does not serve any moral purpose to produce any opportunities for such. Table 6.2: The elements of tourist experience at the chosen Dark Tourism sites Emotional experience Informative experience Practice experience Transformation experience London Dungeons √ √ √ √ Body Worlds √ √ √ √ Auschwitz-Birkenau √ √ √ Source: Author’s interpretation based on Aho’s model (2001) Although the table presented above is based on literature reviews describing tourists experience at the chosen sites it does not fully presents the intensity of the existing experiences, therefore has some limitations. There is a visible gap in academic study which would be aimed at comparing strength of experiences at those three sites simultaneously. For instance, although all sites offer informative experience it is difficult to say that education about concentration camps gained at Auschwitz-Birkenau is more intense than the knowledge about the functions of the body offered at the Body Worlds exhibitions. There is also a question about balancing emotion and transformation experience; it is for now up to speculations which place evoked highest level of intensity of emotions and which site provoked longest lasting emotions. The following subchapters analyse three chosen dark tourism sites in more details. As mentioned before, although all sites are appropriately labelled dark tourism sites, there is a purposeful distinction across their spectrum of “dark”. 6.1.1. Case of London Dungeons London Dungeons is a well-known tourist attraction which presents medieval death, torture, and suffering, as a form of dark entertainment which is “safe”, “fearless” and generally not disturbing in a long term. Using Stone’s spectrum of dark tourism site (2016, p.152) London Dungeons can be classified as “dark fun factory”. Use of the word “fun” in the terminology of this site itself suggests 126 element of joy, healthy adventure, possibly challenging self-fear in a safe environment and without more sombre emotions such as grief, anger. “Fun” is opposite to sadness or remorse; hence it requests a further dialogue whether indeed London Dungeons is a dark tourism site, whether either supply or demand for London Dungeon essentially perceive it as a dark site. Ivanowa and Light (2018) although primarily focused their research on visitors’ motivation to visit London Dungeons were able to shed a light on their quality of experience after the visit. Their study demonstrated that visit to London Dungeons have had a vast educational meaning being twofold; firstly, the visitors enjoyed receiving historical education about the past events, secondly – morally educational. The visitors also expressed the emotions of appreciation; gratitude for the times we live now as against the times portrayed in Dungeons. They also indicated element of fun – they were able to participate in some events re-acting scenes of tortures and violence in a safe environment. That element is for obvious reason impossible in the sites of darker tourism; it would be treated as disrespectful for victims of those places. Experiential plethora at London Dungeons could be analysed according to Aho (2001) classification of components of tourism experience on the site. Feelings of excitement, fun and joy are still functioning emotions, hence emotional experience is demonstrated at the site. A prominent sense of education is also recognised while visiting London Dungeons, as well as element of play and reliving the historical events which would suggest the presence of practice experience. Many respondents of Ivanowa and Light’s study (2008) admitted that informal learning and discovery was an important part of the visit experience, with one visitor stating, ‘I am very interested in the dungeons and the history” (p.363). Several visitors declared that the visit could be educationally beneficial for children or young adults in order to involve them in the history and create an interest in the subject. Also, majority visitors declared that they have learned something during the visit, with one participant admittingly saying ‘I personally came out learning a lot which I guess was the purpose of me coming here in the first place’ (p.364). Other visitor said: “It’s good because you learn different things about the history of London which sometimes you wouldn’t necessarily know”. The statements above might suggest the process of informative experience, however not without emotional experiences one visitor mentioned “It give me an insight into the reality of how they lived” (p.364). Some other visitors put a stress on their practical experience; London Dungeon allows an interaction with the actors at different stages; historical event, hence visitors feel like they are a part of an event: ‘I think that learning about the dark side of our past is interesting and it is exciting because you have the live actors making it a little bit more real … it gets rid of the museum atmosphere” (p.364). That 127 participation according to another visitor offered an additional value and enhanced the general learning experience even further. Visiting London Dungeon can also promote transformational experience; a time for the visitors to reflect on the past times and the different set of values, punishments and lifestyle existing centuries ago versus values we have today. Some visitors admitted that the visit was “morally educational”, in particular – it gave them opportunity to reflect on Selves: “I feel safe, definitely, from how things have changed. It is different and now it’s changed. But I think we should know, even though it is gruesome … you just have to see it somewhere along the line that things have changed” (p.364), while another visitor expressed gratitude for the times we live in, and another just summarised their visit by stating: “it was an enjoyable and thought-provoking experience while still being light-hearted”. Those statements shed a light on type of experiences demonstrated at one of the lightest dark tourism sites. Mostly visitors underlined informal learning as a main experience while visiting London Dungeon, even if their primary expectations related to having fun. What is important is that the research has not identified any interest in death, simply interest in horror similar to interest in watching horror movies. Visitors merely identified London Dungeons as yet another attraction in London, without it being morbid or solemn. Regardless of the analogous “lightness” of the site Ivanova and Light (p.366) do not accept it being a place of hedonic tourism, instead labelling it edutainment tourism when education plays a big role in emotion forming. In this case, as research shown, an education element of visitors’ experience was visible as essentially a leading experience. The overall emotional experience is positive in terms of emotional-valanced approach and benefiting from Plutchik’s model it could be classified as joy, positive surprise and interest. 6.1.2. Case of Body Worlds Exhibition by Gunter von Hagen Body Worlds is a fixed and remote exhibition of plastinated cadavers – bodies infused with polymers and resins to prevent decay and allow the bodies to be staged, posed and exhibit for a particular image. Since the beginning in 1995, the exhibitions were equally mesmerising and shocking for visitors. The exhibitions were labelled freak shows and their creator – Gunter von Hagen – Doctor Death. However, is it really that scandalous or immoral? Bodies used in the exhibitions all come from voluntary donors who agreed to leave their earthly remaining for the cause of enhancing knowledge and education; they remain anonymous, and the cause of their death is not revealed through 128 exhibition. One of the main advantages of Body worlds is that it can be used by medical students as well as by general public – the body parts or whole figures are described in detail and have a pure educational purpose. It was suggested by Stone and Sharpley (2008) that dark tourism itself allows death to be brought back into public realm and aid the social neutralisation of death for the individual. Nadja Durbach (2014) argues with branding Body Worlds a “freak show” as the cadavers are not presented as freaks, rather than specimen captured between death and decay when a common person can observe particular elements of body like brain, muscles or bone structure. The ambiance of the museums is very subtle if not uplifting – some generic music, no sound or light effects are used to maximise the drama of the place. Isn’t it an educational element deriving from the exhibition by showing cadavers in a way which demonstrate to us what is inevitable – death? Controversially to the exhibits being long dead, von Hagen wants to teach the public not how to die but how-to live-in terms of carrying and preserving our body and mind, so it prolongs our health and life span and life-quality. Various exhibitions are themed based a particular body part or a system; there is an exhibition dedicated to the work of heart, muscles, brain, or reproduction process. Based on the dissection of those organs Van Hagen wants to bring our attention not to death, but to processes delaying death and making our lives more satisfactory. According to Aho’s visitors’ experience determinants it appears that there is one main goal surrounding all Van Hagen’s Body Worlds exhibition – it is mainly educational experience. However seeing disturbing images, for instance a woman in various stages of pregnancy, dead foetuses we must not ignore an accompanying emotional experience being presence while visiting this type of exhibition. It is also understandable, that the emotions at this site would be ambivalent and do not follow the classic valance approach to emotions. Although not free from much negative feedback, where disgust and shoch is clearly expressed towards the exhibition, Moore and Brown (2007) detected an emotion of what according to Plutchik’s Wheel of Emotions (1980) would be labelled as positive surprise and awe: “Most awesome thing I’ve ever seen.... I wish everyone could see this to appreciate the miracle of life and the certainty that God exists!”, as well as emotion existing in Plutchik’s Wheel of Emotion such as interest, acceptance: “Makes me appreciate how fantastic a machine the human body is. At the end, I began to wonder who these people were in life” and gratitude: I’m grateful for the experience of being able to see myself in our truest form”. Jagger et al (2012) also mentions that to his surprise visitors of Body Worlds while or after being exposed to cadavers and plastinated examples of decay in the bodies were enthusiastic and willing to 129 share their personal stories about illnesses in relation to the demonstrated specimen. They almost identified themselves with the Other by simply being human, therefore predestined to get ill and die. One of the most remarkable experiences often happening after visiting Body Worlds is transformation experience (Aho, 2001). According to the Museum’s own data 87% of visitors stated that they knew more about the human body after their tour, 68% left the exhibition with valuable incentives for a healthier lifestyle, 47% of the visitors reported that they appreciated their body more after having seen the exhibition. As personal health-contributing consequences 68% of the respondents resolved to pay more attention to their physical health in future by reducing smoking, excessive drinking and increasing physical and mental activities (https://bodyworlds.com). Linked with previously mentioned strong emotional reception those changes can have a long-term effect as they are continuously stimulated by the transformational experiences from visiting Body Worlds. 6.1.3. Case of former KL Auschwitz-Birkenau Auschwitz-Birkenau former concentration camp is a crucial part of the Holocaust history receiving a status of “a capital of Holocaust” (Hayes, 2003). It represents the darkest side in the spectrum of tourism as per Stone (2006). The dilemma that requires attention here is that about the experience encountered by the visitors of Auschwitz-Birkenau Museum, and precisely; what kind of experiences, according to Aho (2001) framework, are noticeable. Although, as mentioned before motivation as such, does not remain a research objective in this thesis, it is worth mentioning that Oran et al (2022, p.161) in their most recent paper suggest that general motive for visiting former KL Auschwitz-Birkenau stems from “heritage motives”. Considering that Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum is (among any other meanings) a heritage site; a historic site it shifts attention from artefacts presented at the site, while moving it to the purpose of travel and visiting the site itself. We assume at this point that emotional experiences should be taking place, if yes, what kind of emotions are recognised in both valanced approach and categorical one (following taxonomy from Plutchik’s Wheel of Emotions, 1960). Oren et al (2021) and Oren et al (2022) present interesting findings from their research on expectations and emotions of visitors of former KL Auschwitz-Birkenau. In the first research (2021) quantitative methods were employed hence we can receive a general understanding of tourists’ experience cumulating while and after visiting the place and gathered 130 immediately after the visit. That clearly demonstrates that emotional experiences of visitors are mixed with a strong distinction between negative and positive ones. The negative emotions were mentioned as being concerned, angry, terrified, restless, distressed, ashamed, nervous, frightened, hostile, guilty. The positive emotions declared by the same sample were: interested, attentive, excited, alert, determined, strong, energetic, inspired, proud, enthusiastic (2021, p.104194). Another question remains how such strong, and often contradicting emotions can be inflicted on the same group of people by envisaging the same images of the site? How visitors could be terrified but excited, proud, and guilty at the same time? To understand the conundrum more qualitative results were employed by Oran et al (2002) and will be as well in the primary research of this thesis, so the more in-depth explanation of such emotions could be shown. It is for instance necessary to recognise when the pride felt by Auschwitz-Birkenau Museum comes from – as a positive and elating emotion it could equally stem from a fact that the visitor is pleased to confirm the grandiose and elaborated ways the concentration camp was built and was functioning. However, it can also represent pride of challenging self with a difficult past, a site which forces facing the horrid acts from a history not long ago, hence the taxonomy of emotions merits further explanation. The further research (Oran et al, 2022) showed experience of the visitors and they will be demonstrated using previously mentioned Aho’s theory of tourists’ experiences. Firstly, the expectations of visiting the camp were expressing emotions of apprehension or fear; suggesting visitors were mostly aware of the uneasiness they might encounter by confessing: “I expect myself to be very emotional on site”, “I am sure it will be emotional. I have no doubt it will be more emotional than reading or watching movies about it”. However, the emotion of fear or anxiety is existing here twofold; firstly, as mentioned fear from seeing physical evidence of the genocide site, secondly; many visitors were afraid of their own reaction to the site by admitting: “I don’t know if I can do it…. I am terrified of the things I’ll see there or feel there”, “I’m not sure if I will be able to cope with the visit. Even though I was trying to prepare myself. I am not sure one can prepare himself for Auschwitz.”, “I am not sure if I can take it…you ask what is there to be afraid of…there is certainly something to be afraid of…I am scared of what I will see and feel there”, “I saw it [the site] in the movies but I know it is going to be scarier”, “I’m afraid of crying and being sad. I am extremely fearful of this place, but this is why I came here”. Analysing the results of Oran’s studies through the lenses of Aho’s framework there will be evidence of establishing emotional, informative, and transformational experience while visiting Auschwitz-Birkenau Museum. The practice experience is omitted while visiting the camp for understandable 131 reason; Aho understood practice experience as a leisurely activity such as undertaking a sport or a hobby; this simply cannot happen in Auschwitz-Birkenau Museum. As long as the Museum offers extended tours and workshops, they have purely educational value rather than entertaining one. Experiences in Auschwitz-Birkenau have thereof three out of four dimensions mentioned by Aho. The following expressions suggested that the visitors encountered emotional experience on the site: “For me, the visit to Auschwitz is an unforgettable experience”, “During the visit, I underwent a strong emotional experience”, “I felt satisfied, this visit was something I had to do”, “Why does someone come here? Only for the emotional experience. For all the rest, it is easier to read”, “I am pleased that I visited Auschwitz”. While looking at those statements, they are not demonstrating any negative feelings or emotions after the visit; on the contrary, the general level of satisfaction from visit is clearly visible. It is important to underline that those statements might contribute to the argument that the negative and dark site created a space for positive emotions and experience. Other statements from this research show the willingness to recommend the site to friends – a conventional sign of general approval of visit, as well as a pure satisfaction itself mentioned by the visitors. The social reasons (e.g., bringing their friends or relatives, a meaningful day out) were also identified as the key reasons for visiting dark site by Wang et al (2021). The visits with friends or relatives, a possible co-feeling leave longer lasting emotions and affect the general experience of the visit on a deeper level. The positive reception of visiting former KL Auschwitz-Birkenau might be also a result of the authenticity of the place; for example, Lennon and Foley (2020) mentioned that authentic places increase the visitors’ empathy and sympathy towards the site. Prior to the visit, participants highlighted that the reliable emotional involvement could take place only onsite, as it is the place “where it happened”, creating another substantial link between the intensity of emotion and authenticity of the place, something than one of the visitors described as: “This is the real thing”. On the other hand, unmet expectations for an emotional experience resulted in disappointment: “I am a little bit disappointed. I thought I would be much more emotionally moved”, “If you don’t manage to feel strong emotions, you aren’t satisfied with the visit”. This disappointment might potentially arise from different sources and be interpreted differently by visitors. Dalton in his study mentions that not all visitors enter the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum with the respect that the place warrants (2009) and bring an example of a visitor wearing a T-shirt imprinted with the metal band called “Megadeath” (p.189). It is possible that while observing other visitors breaking an unwritten code of peacefulness and solemnity might dim or lessen the intensity of the experience for other visitors. Additionally self-built expectation, or an image of “perfect 132 reaction” to Auschwitz-Birkenau; crying if too high might lead to disappointment. When the author of the thesis was visiting Auschwitz-Birkenau one was told by the guide that “not crying in Auschwitz does not make you a bad person”; it is therefore argued the context of disappointment should be researched and analysed more. It also reminds that heritage sites should not be categorised with the scope of emotions usually reserved for hedonistic travel and should be instead gathering an understanding of mutually existing positive and negative emotions. There is solid evidence that the visitors to former KL Auschwitz-Birkenau were faced with educational experience during touring the camp. The research however was not expanding whether there is stronger educational experience encountered by visitors who have not had a previous (more detailed) knowledge about the history of the camp than group who were aware of the Holocaust and the artic facts they might have been exposed to. The educational benefits, regardless of the previous knowledge were however described as biggest advantage of the visit. Education from visiting Auschwitz-Birkenau Museum stem from learning purely historical facts about the camp (“I learned about the camp and about what happened there”, “I got a better understanding of what happened there”), as well as acknowledging the atrocities committed in that place (“The visit to Auschwitz taught me about the man’s evil nature”, “In Auschwitz you can sense death coming from the walls”). Oran’s study also detected a strong transformation experience the camp had on its visitors. This experience is perceived as long lasting, going beyond intermediate occurrence of the visit. Although Aho did not specify how long the transformation experience would last for, or even, if it is long-lasting, we can assume, based on previously mentioned work of Body Words Amsterdam exhibition, that it last more than 6 months. The transformation experience was exposed by admitting by visitors that they feel closer to their own heritage or became more sensitive to the issue of the Holocaust. Some visitors stated that “The visit to Auschwitz turns the visitors into better people”, “The visit will have an impact on my life” or even more extremely: “Thanks to the visit to Auschwitz, my life is more meaningful”. The study into transformation experience during visiting dark tourism site has shown that this area of tourists’ experience is still in its academic infancy and more research could have been undertaken to determine the strength and the length of transformation recognised by the visitors. Thurnell-Read (2009) has contributed to the discipline of dark tourism experience with his study of young adults – millennials visit to Auschwitz- Birkenau State Museum. Although there is not known whether the research which would determine the quality of emotions based on age groups (apart 133 from survivors and their immediate families) his findings could be closely compared to those of older adults and interestingly, find some similarities. The emotional experience of the young people, as recorded by Thurnell-Read was an intense one – perhaps due to age the scale of emotions was amplified, and a 21-year-old American female explained: “I looked though those gates, so they curl up and there’s wire and stuff, and I stood in the middle looking through them and was, like, oh my god I just pictured the people marching and that was really, really disturbing. I tried not to picture as much as I could, but it was kind of inevitable.” Those testimonies cover the result of both positively and negatively named emotions, yet there is again; a positive overall experience arriving as a result of them. That view has been proposed by Nawijn and Biran (2019) who argued that negative emotions may even have positive psychological and behavioural implications in such non hedonic context and are certainly not exclusive. The educational experience is one of the most commonly mentioned benefits of the visit. That finding is also consistent with the research of Wang et al (2021) who has uncovered that learning about the site was the most important factor for the visitors of Jeju April 3rd, Peace Park, Korea. The above findings are also reinforced by the subsequent Oran’s et al qualitative research on the experience of visitors in Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum (2022). This study demonstrated a plethora of expressed emotions and authentic experiences which on a primary level could be classified as negative, however it yet again argues that negative basic emotions do not result in overall negative experience. Auschwitz-Birkenau is not a typical tourism destination, and it escapes a typical tourism reasoning that positive emotions lead to positive experience and overall satisfaction. As a dark tourism site, it promotes the reality when positive and negative emotions can coexist at the same time rather than be conceptualised as polar opposites. Rather, this study suggests that tourist can feel positive and negative feelings simultaneously. Nawijn (2016) already suggested that negative emotions are evolutionary leftovers which are essential to tackle life-threating scenarios, and although visiting Auschwitz-Birkenau as much as other death camps is not life threatening for visitors, the authenticity, the remaining of a camp and death chambers makes it difficult to disengage from the events creating a narrative for most unhuman genocide in history. Oren’s et al study (2022) suggests that emotions (differently valanced) are independent; most importantly it suggests that positive and negative, or unpleasant emotions can coexist at the same during the visit and this is more prominent with visits to heritage, difficult or dark tourism sites. There is however a lack of extensive academic research on emotions at dark tourism site which would call for a need to improve the knowledge of emotions, especially mixed emotions at dark tourism sites. 134 The findings from Oren et al (2021, 2022) were applied to Plutchik’s theory (1960) of The Wheel of Emotions in table 6.3. Table 6.3. Emotions at Auschwitz-Birkenau – application of Oren’s research Source: Oren et al (2021, 2022) The statements retrieved from Oren et al (2021; 2022) findings were matched with the main (basic) eight emotions listed by Plutchik. Those both theories, to the author’s knowledge based on extensive research has never been analysed together, apart from the general description and analysis one theory separately from the other. By linking qualitative study from Oran et al with the main emotions of Plutchik’s Wheel of Emotions the result will give us a clear indication of what emotions are acknowledged by the visitors of former Kl Auschwitz-Birkenau. It also, within further research, which currently still reach a state of infancy, can establish a ground, genesis or development for certain emotions, especially strongly positive ones, and strongly negative ones. The limitation of the above application stems from the facts that the Wheel of Emotions presented above considers simultaneously pre-visit and onsite emotions. There are not enough substantial citations found in the paper refereeing to the negative emotion while researching onsite emotions. As pre-visit emotional “I felt satisfied, this visit was something I had to do.” “The visit to Auschwitz turns the visitors into better people.” “It is the most frightening trip I ever made or planned.” “The visit to Auschwitz taught me about the man’s evil nature”. “I’m not sure if I will be able to cope with the visit.” “If you visit this site, you will cry. It is a must”. ANTICIPATION “I saw it [the site] in the movies but I know it is going to be scarier”. “They knew what’s going on in Auschwitz”. 135 attitude and engagement can be different to onsite or post-visit one, displaying the results together is a potential imperfection of. Regardless of the mentioned mis-proportion of demonstrated emotions at different stages of visit, the paper by Oren et al, (2022) is still leading research into linking positive, negative emotions and emotional experience. The scale of emotions experienced by visitors of Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum demonstrates what is consistent with establishing from the work of Vess et al (2009) and Nawijn (2016) where dark tourism site might evoke both positive and negative emotions, although negative emotions needn’t lead to negative overall experience. Positive emotions: joy and trust are expressed as overall satisfaction from visiting the site and hope that the overall experience will change people for better. Negative emotions such as sadness and disgust are communicated by being tearful and by having a strong aversion to the perpetrators of concentration camp. Neutral emotions are happening mostly before the visit and are mostly a result of uncertainty towards one’s reaction to the site and ability to process it; a state which Lazarus (2006) described as a coping mechanism. Although there is no clear expression of emotion of anger among visitors of Auschwitz-Birkenau Museum, there is an underlying degree of anger represented by Jewish visitors towards perpetrators but also towards local Polish communities who “knew what was going on in Auschwitz”. Abraham et al (2022, p.272) also established that the grief is still present in second generation of Holocaust. Their findings suggested that grief might lead to empathy: “I feel that it is unfair that I should live when they died” but has also has a strong association with anger towards perpetrators: “I cannot help feeling angry about the victims’ death, or even perceived culprits: “I still feel angry with Poland over WWII”. Silove et al. (2017) investigated survivors of the Timor-Leste conflict, finding empirical evidence of an association between symptoms of explosive anger and grief. Additionally, Damousi (1995) recognized a strong connection between grief and anger. Considering the event of Holocaust – a genocide leading to witnessing family members murdered, constant feeling of oppression, and embedded torture we might assume that the connection between grief and anger is exceptionally explicit. According to Valent (1999) grief felt by the Holocaust victims may directly translate into anger in a second generation of Holocaust. Apart from above, there is however still a very limited knowledge about the notion of anger in darkest sites of dark tourism spectrum – those which could create the most intensive emotions. It is possible that expressing anger could be too embarrassing for the visitors or too revealing. The identified gap 136 in the knowledge of dark tourism could be therefore recognised by conducting more specific, emotion-specific study on visitors of dark tourism locations. This thesis will attempt to fill a gap of comprehending emotional state of visitors by naming the emotions in categoric sense (based mostly on Plutchik’s Wheel of Emotion, 1960, 1980) as well as by observing the link between different tourism experiences (as suggested by Aho, 2001). 6.2. Summary This chapter is aimed at showcasing a current knowledge about emotions. It is divided into three emerging themes: emotions overall, emotions in tourism and emotions and tourism experience in dark tourism locations. There is also a suggestion that emotions are not only elements contributing to tourism experience and in many cases, including the cases of former concentration and extermination camps elements such as learning or transformational sensation are as important as emotional experience itself. 137 7. Research Methodology 7.1. Introduction In this chapter the researcher will explain their approach to using different methods of obtaining primary data and justify their appropriateness at the time of conducting the research. Saunders et al research onion - see Figure 7.1. - provides a well-established structure for the explanation, moving from broader philosophical issues to more operational practical ones. Figure 7.1. Research onion. Source: Research onion (Saunders et al, 2016) The following chapter will be introducing the process of undertaken research based on levels of research onion (Saunders et al, 2016), see above. The research philosophy will be analysing positivism and interpretivism line and will suggest following interpretivism method as more suited to data received from in depth interviews and netnographic studies. The approaches will be benefiting from using a mixed method; data regarding emotions of visitors retrieved from in depth interviews will utilise deductive approach, as it is based on demonstrated theory of emotions (Plutchik, 1980). The data displaying the emotions of visitors retrieved during the netnographic research will be analysed inductively, as the findings are exceeding the realms of interpretation through any known emotion framework. Although both deductive and inductive inferences are widely used in contemporary futures studies, Kuosa (2011) reasonably notices the shift towards abductive reasoning. According to Paavola et al (2006) abductive reasoning is a form of inference, starting with observation of clue-like signs, which provide the basic notion for further research. Thus, abductive inference is a best guess or conclusion based on available evidence. 138 Referring to Kuosa (2011) three research approaches may be distinguished for futures studies: 1) deductive – aimed to direct knowledge and functions control, involves the use of physical argumentation; 2) inductive – aimed to control information, involves the use of structural and categorization argumentation; 3) abductive – aims to identify structures, connections, contexts and constraints, involves the use of cognitive argumentation. For these reasons the reasoning after retrieving all the qualitative data will be also of an abductive nature. Research strategy can be referred to as a general way which helps the researcher to choose main data collection methods or sets of methods in order to answer the research question and meet the research objectives (Melnikovas, 2018). While many authors (Blackstone, 2018; Greene et al, 2005; Kelle, 2006; Lieber, 2009) distinguishes two main types of research methods in futures studies – quantitative and qualitative, Kosow and Gaßner (2008) besides quantitative and qualitative distinguish explorative and normative groups of research methods. Explorative methods are aimed at studying multiple futures and exploration of possible developments, while normative methods aim to shape the desirable/undesirable future and build the pathways or chain of events for reaching it. This research is highly qualitative, and, adding Kosow and Gaßner (2008) understanding – explorative. It is believed that certain locations and areas of emotions of visitors have not yet been thoroughly investigated hence the need of explorative method has been visible to the researcher. Saunders et al. (2016) define research choices with reference to the use of quantitative and qualitative research methods, as well as the simple or complex mix of both or the use of mono methods. Qualitative research methods involve numbers and mathematical operations, while qualitative methods imply collection of a vast descriptive data. Mono method is used when the research is focused either on quantitative or qualitative data gathering as was the case with this research. By Kosow and Gaßner (2008) understanding, the research is also of a short-term nature (under 10 years of data spread), however it could be suggested that in order to understand better the nature of emotions through the lenses of years (and possibly; generations) the long-attitudinal study would be recommended. 7.2. Research Philosophy A research philosophy is concerned with establishing, regulating, and improving the methods of knowledge creation in all fields of intellectual endeavour, including the field of management research (Chia, 2002, p.2). In practical terms and while conducting research, a philosophy would be able to address the questions such as what the nature of reality is, whether there are any patterns or 139 regularities we can observe and would help us understand the reality. Also, what type of reasoning should be deployed for the particular research aim in order to receive the best possible answers. Research philosophy, occasionally known as research paradigm is a general umbrella or rather a selection of choices researchers have for their disposal when they approach a specific question. Paradigm as defined by Scotland (2012) and Kuhn (2015) will include its own ontology, epistemology, methodology and methods, as it shown in the table below. Table 7.2. Research philosophy Philosophical assumption Question Positivism Interpretivism Ontological assumption (the nature of reality). What is the nature of reality? Reality is objective and singular, separate from the researcher. Reality is subjective and multiple, as seen by participants. Epistemological assumption (what constitutes valid knowledge). What counts as knowledge? How are knowledge claims justified? What is the relationship between the researcher and that being researched? Researcher is independent of that being researched. Researcher interacts with that being researched. Axiological assumption (the role of values). What is the role of values? Research is value-free and unbiased. Researcher acknowledges that research is value-laden and biases are present. Methodological assumption (the process of research). What is the process of research? Process is deductive. Study of cause and effect with a static design (categories are isolated beforehand). Research is context free. Generalizations lead to prediction, explanation and understanding. Results are accurate and reliable through validity and reliability. Process is inductive. Study of mutual simultaneous shaping of factors with an emerging design (categories are identified during the process). Research is context bound. Patterns and/or theories are developed for understanding. Findings are accurate and reliable through verification. Source: Adapted from Creswell (2012) and Collis and Hussey (2014). 140 Guba and Lincoln (1994) and Scotland (2012) listed four main paradigms, which although applicable for either qualitative or quantitative research are analysed for the purpose of qualitative methods. Those paradigms are positivism, post positivism, critical theory, and constructivism. However, Alharahsheh and Pius (2020) proclaim the dominance of two key paradigms: positivism and interpretivism and both of those approaches will be used to explain the methodology approach for this research. As the research philosophy can also very basically be divided into quantitative and qualitative approach the question could emerge towards what methods is simply better to yield the required results. Cloke et al, (2004, p.17) observed that the debate among academics about holding the domain of one of those methods became “unhelpful and overloaded with misunderstandings”. As it is understood through the literature, both approached have their advantages and limitations, however at this point it is claimed that qualitative approach will be used for the purpose of this research. 7.2.1. Positivism Howell (2013) argues that positivism arises from the philosophy which demands truth of theories and statements to be verified empirically. Ryan (2018) supports these arguments with his claims that positivism requires logical relations, and the research objectives are meant to be justified by the means of rational tools. Park et al (2020) suggest that positivism is fairly simplistic way of approaching findings, it is based on natural science laws, basic laws of nature which are derived from the empirical results, therefore might be tarnished with a generalization. Ryan (2015) argues that the positivism is as much paradigm as a culture. The positivist believes that the truth is exact and can be uncovered by testing hypotheses and by using mathematical and statistical methods. The ontology of positivist paradigm is based in the assumption that a single tangible reality exists; one that can be understood, identified, and measured (Park et al, 2020). The laws are interchangeable which then leaves a question what there is a natural change of laws and mechanism or new developments in understanding science. The epistemology of the positivists contend that knowledge can and must be developed objectively, without the values of the researchers or participants influencing its development. Knowledge, when appropriately developed, is truth—that is, it is certain, congruent with reality, and accurate (Park et al, 2020). Knowledge in positivism is scientific, provable, and free from more flexible or elastic interpretation. 141 The methodology and research methods used in positivism are in majority quantitative. Park et al (2020) insist that positivism methodology is based on setting which could be manipulated and controlled. The research methods in positivism therefore oscillate around various quantitative methods, which seemingly give a strict and scientific answer. The positivism as a research paradigm is not free from some general limitations. Park et al (2020) reminds that as positivism-based research is mostly quantitative it would require a significant sample to justify the results; greater samples would increase the confidence in findings. The researcher then must be extremely scrupulous in identifying groups who would be meaningful for the study. Positivist philosophy admitting that entities such as ideas or social structures exist independently of human beings, does not take into account the role of individual in a social reality, hence it is less suitable for analysing individual or clustered emotions after visiting a site of Holocaust. House (1991) argues that although it is possible to predict certain social behaviour, and therefore apply a simple statement, those predictions are exposed to lack of certainty a stability in a long term; as social interactions are not constant there should be one universal law applied to it. Additionally, Houses’s arguments include an assumption that some variables can be hidden from the researcher, possibly revealed after, therefore not taken into an account in creating a single narrative. Berliner (2002, p.20) contributes to the criticism by reminding that no scientific explanation of human behaviour is ever complete, there is always a need to endure in further research. As positivism was a dominating philosophy of research in the last several decades (Guba and Lincoln, 1994) this paradigm is also leading one in tourism study (Prayag, 2018). Riley and Love (2000) report that quantitative based research (rooted in positivistic and post positivistic paradigms) is the dominant form of research published in travel and tourism journals. To exemplify this statement, most travel and tourism journals and conference calls reinforce the positivistic and post positivistic hegemony by nature of the headings researchers must address in reporting of research: introduction, background, literature review, methods, findings, results and recommendations. These headings are predicated on the ‘hard’ sciences report writing genre emanating from positivistic and post positivistic theoretical paradigms (Jennings, 2007). Although it is most eligible approach to social science, which tourism is a part of, it could fail in explaining more complex tourism behaviour; tourists are not always present logical behaviour when positivism is most useful. For instance, mentioned in the earlier chapter willingness to undertake a dangerous tourism activity (e.g., extreme sport) might not be easy to comprehend using a universal truth and behavioural laws. Further, exposing themselves to sad or terrifying images and stories (while 142 visiting former concentration camps) needs more qualitative approach to understand the behaviours of tourism, therefore it asks for more open minded and occasionally multilayered methods of exploration the observed reality. Hasan (2016) argues that human behaviours are too complicated to be limited to some quantitative claims and predetermined variables. Jennings (2010) adds that both quantitative and qualitative research are currently equally popular in tourism studies. Flyvbjerg (2001, p.57) also maintains that knowledge produced by research contains many variables and “cannot be encapsulated by the universal rules, or specific cases”. This research in terms of methodology tools was using semi-structured interviews and netnographic data. Although both will be described later and generally arrive from interpretivism phenomenon, there are elements that link the methods to both positivism and interpretivism philosophy. In a part of in depth interview the respondents are asked to point out emotions which they observed in visitors of former concentration camp using the Wheel of Emotion (Plutchik, 1980). Although they were free to point out any number of emotional signs, they were clearly limited to 24 emotions demonstrated on the Wheel. That would suggest a structured element in the interviews, therefore drifting towards positivism related methods of research. As the rest of the questions in the interview are semi-structure and open it demonstrates an example where the line between positivism and interpretivism might be very sublime and the identities of the philosophies reach some common grounds. 7.2.2. Interpretivism Interpretivism started to exist as a paradigm being a response to positivism and simply – challenging it. It brings the need of subjectivism, to question the status quo, the ultimate correct truth. Interpretivism is to handle the grey areas of research, not the yes and no’s and maybe’s but the maybes and in the middle answers. Naturally and consequently in science the interpretivism developed through critique of positivism with subjective perspective. Interpretivism is more concerned with in depth variables and factors related a context, it considers humans as different from physical phenomena as they create further depth in meanings with the assumption that human beings cannot be explored in a similar way to physical phenomena. Interpretivism deliberates differences such as cultures, circumstances, as well as times leading to development of social realities (Alharahsheh and Pius, 2020, p.41). The philosophy of interpretivism does not request one universal truth or answer but assumes that there are various interpretations of social behaviour due to complexity of the world and it is not in the 143 best interest of the research to find one answer or commit to generalization of the findings. Social research in particular has a need of leaving generalization behind and due to complexity of social science follow the philosophy of interpretivism (Saunder et al, 2009). Despite this fact Jennings (2007) laments that the representation of the use of a qualitative methodology which corresponds with interpretivism in core tourism and business research textbooks tends to be somewhat pejorative and / or dismissive in regard to the nature of its potential contribution to research enterprises. It could not be the case, if tourism research turns more into studying and analysing particular social behaviour of subjects in tourism. The interpretive social sciences paradigm and related approaches reflect that: “...[h]uman beings do not find or discover knowledge so much as we construct or make it. We invent concepts, models, and schemes to make sense of experience, and we continually test and modify these constructions in the light of new experience. Furthermore, there is an inevitable historical and sociocultural dimension to this construction. We do not construct our interpretations in isolation but against a backdrop of shared understandings, practices, language, and so forth.” (Schwandt, 2000, p.197) This study is widely using interpretivism philosophy; the research is strongly imbedded in social science; it tries to identify emotions created by the act of visiting a specific tourist site. As mentioned in previous chapter the science of emotions is reluctant to be put in norms and theories in certain grounds; it escapes any final summaries, and it evolves constantly. With that in mind, interpreting qualitative narrative or even trying to understand and explain data going beyond any earlier established conscience calls for strong direction towards interpretivism paradigm used to analyse primary research. 7.3. Phenomenology Within this research paper, and its predominantly qualitative approach, it would be beneficial to mention the discipline of phenomenology which is a study of experience or consciousness (Smith, 2013). The taxonomy of phenomenology derives from Greek words phainomen (an appearance) and logos (reason) and translates into a reasoned appearance (Stewart and Mickunas, 1974). Edmund Husserl who is considered as a father of phenomenology insisted that the reality of the outer world is neither confirmed nor denied (Paley, 1997). Phenomenology (also: a study of “phenomena”) research how certain things are experienced and what the meaning of these experiences is. Van Manen (2017) mentions phenomenology as a way of looking at lived experience. According to them, the 144 phenomenology is the study of what gives itself “as” lived experience (Van Manen, 2017, p.810-825). Littlejohn and Foss (2009) considered phenomenology a variation of interpretivism. Phenomenological examples are usually cast in the practical format of lived experience descriptions: anecdotes, stories, narratives, vignettes, or concrete accounts. Phenomenological examples are always carefully taken from experiences. But they should neither be treated as “illustrations” nor as empirical “samples” of factual data (van Manen, 2014, pp. 256–260). Polinghorne (1989) understands phenomenology as an exploration of human experiences. The question therefore might arise towards the timeframe between the action (e.g. talking to a neighbour, having a day out) and the “when” the experience will be processed, understood, and possibly learned from. As phenomenology is a study of human experiences it also started to be gaining a momentum in tourism study (Pernecky and Jamal, 2010), although as Szarycz (2009, p.48) laments it represents a “potpourri of ideas” as some research struggle to identify and distinguish reality and objectivity in the perceived experiences. More recent examples, however underline the surge of interest in phenomenological approach in hospitality and tourism research (Stierand and Dörfler, 2012; Ziakas and Boukas, 2014; Gnoth and Matteucci, 2014). Ziakas and Boukas (2014, p.5) while looking at the events management concluded that phenomenology can shed light on the multifaceted nature of event meanings and their polysemic grounds that are conveyed symbolically, often patterned by culture, to manifest local values and meanings. To effectively employ the phenomenological perspective, it is essential to understand the ontological and existential nature of events as described in the social and cultural anthropology. Another critique could arise the fact that phenomenology is often linked with a positive tourist experience (Cohen, 1979) when tourists are seen as travellers for pleasure, hence it could also limit the usefulness of phenomenology to study difficult tourism, or; as this thesis covers – a Holocaust tourism. That view fortunately changes with the further progress of research on dark tourism experiences when Swer (2023, p.165) argues that phenomenological approach could be beneficial to study experiences created by visiting a dark tourism site where phenomenology serves as a theoretical avenue towards describing or understanding the existence of tourists, guides, locals, service providers and other stakeholders (Pernecky and Jamal, 2010). Methodology in phenomenological approach is focusing more on philosophical assumptions and theoretical influences, which would then feed the process of data gathering. This purpose built and holistic approach is convenient in case of this thesis for two reasons; firstly, the methodology had to be amended due to Covid-19 epidemic and the social restraints not permitting planned face to face quantitative research, while aim and objective stayed unchanged (this aspect will be discussed further 145 in research design section). Secondly, the relative flexibility of research tools allowed the researcher to utilise and promote netnographic study as an effective apparatus in researching tourism emotions and overall experience. 7.4. Hermeneutic phenomenology Hermeneutic phenomenology is understood by van Manen (2007) as belief that informs, reforms, transforms, performs and pre-forms the relation between being and practice. It can be perceived through the lenses of clarifications for pedagogy, psychology, so also, in the process of understanding human’s behaviour. Further van Maned (2007) suggests that hermeneutic phenomenology has been evolving from a philosophy to a qualitative methodology. Table 7.3.: Hermeneutic phenomenology: preliminary guidelines for researchers in tourism study Reason for research To study lived experience and understand how experiences are interpreted and understood Ontology Realist: The Word and Nature can be assessed by means of our being-in-the-world: we make sense of our being and lifeworld (the world we live in) through a reflective representation and analysis. All understanding of our being-in-the world is perspectival and shaped by pre-understanding, historicity, culture, practice, background etc. Epistemology Hermeneutic: The main focus is on interpretation, context, and language, what counts as “truth” is based on interpretation, co-construction and reflective participation. Both the researcher and the participant are self-interpreting beings who live in the “real” world and hence both play and important role in the process of arriving at understanding through dialogue and interpretation. Methodology Interpretive and dialogic: The researcher seeks to interpret and understand the lived experience, searches for meaning, analyses, critiques, and negotiates between theory and data, and is guided by hermeneutic phenomenology. Table source: Adopted from Pernecky and Jamal (2010, p.1067) 146 Hermeneutic phenomenology is more complex than descriptive phenomenology, with its temporality and ‘being-in-the-world’ (Sloane and Bowe, 2014). That point, as against in descriptive phenomenology requires to address the time factor and the relations between people and the word. Additionally, hermeneutic phenomenology prefers not to formalise an analytical method so that the context of the phenomenon itself can dictate how the data are analysed (Langdridge 2007). This approach was specifically useful for the stage of analysing data retrieved through a netnographic study. As there was not an existing framework or theory of emotions which would accommodate the not commonly expressed emotional experiences, the researcher had to undertake the analysis of the phenomenon from a holistic and theory-relaxed way. The major proposition of this theory is that people act toward things, including each other, on the basis of meanings; and these meanings are “derived through social interaction with others; and these meanings are managed and transformed through an interpretive process that people use to make sense of and handle the objects that constitute their social worlds” (Blumer, 1969, p.2). Symbolic interactionism perceives that peoples’ experiences consist of contextual structures which are based on their interaction with environmental factors (Heise, 2006). Yoon (2016, p.2) who was using hermeneutic phenomenology to research tourists’ behaviour on Nami Island, Korea argued that the meaning of actions from things, people and objects can be found by inquiring interactions between the subject and the various environments surrounding the subject. Therefore, the meaning of tourist experience can be conceptualized by looking into the interaction between people and various environmental factors they encounter. This kind of phenomenology is summarised well by Szarycz (2009, p.49) who acknowledged that informants (in the case of this research – interviewees) are consulted and trusted while the researcher obtains descriptions of whatever there is in front of a person’s eyes and not of that thing’s existence. He further says that ‘objectivity’, or what anyone else would say about the matter, is irrelevant. And this is fine. There are some situations in which it is useful to know how people interpret what has happened to them, irrespective of other accounts, and irrespective of what more ‘objective’ observers might regard as ‘true’ or ‘accurate’. By the same token, the significance of a particular event – ‘what it means’ to this or that person – may, in some circumstances, be as interesting as any causal explanation, showing why the event has occurred or what its consequences have been. The hermeneutic phenomenological approach is suited to adapt for this research, specifically for the netnographic part of analysis. This attitude assumes that the data would be interpreted by the researcher, therefore as is the nature of interpretation – the meanings would be discovered based in 147 some matter on reflective nature rather than a psychological knowledge. Cresswell (2007) rather supports that view by admitting that the means of describing essence may be best provided by the researcher’s personal reflection. Uriely and Belhassen (2005) used hermeneutic phenomenology to study drug related tourism, they also used ethnographic observation combining this phenomenon and method to stablish best possible qualitative results on the subject of drug tourism experience. More recently hermeneutic phenomenology was applied by Wassler and Kuteynikova (2020) to examine the levels of vulnerability in travel as one of many living experiences of tourists. 7.5. Case study approach Yin (2014, p.16) proposed the following definition of a case study: “A case study is an empirical inquiry that investigates a contemporary phenomenon (the case) in-depth and within its real-world context, especially when the boundaries between phenomenon and context may not be clearly evident. In other words, you would want to do case study research because you want to understand a real world case and assume that such an understanding is likely to involve important contextual conditions pertinent to your case.” Also, Yin (2014, p.26) argues that event of a case studies although could be taken from the past, should not “be extending back to the ‘dead’ past, where no direct observations can be made, and no people are alive to be interviewed”. Creswell (2013, p.97) proposes another definition underlying the detailed and in depth process of data collection; “The case study method “explores a real-life, contemporary bounded system (a case) or multiple bounded systems (cases) over time, through detailed, in depth data collection involving multiple sources of information… and reports a case description and case themes”. The case studies, as Gustafsson (2017, p. 2) arguments, usually have a double function, which is that case studies are studies of its own unit, as well as case studies of a larger group of units. This means that a case study can be either illustrative or confirmable. Yin (2009) further argues that the context of research should dictate whether the approach is a single case study or multiple case studies one. In the instance of the following research using a multiple case study approach with two similar (historically and context wise) locations; former KL Auschwitz Birkenau and former KL Majdanek might 148 also bring additional benefit of comparability; as Baxter and Jack (2008) mentioned, the researcher studying multiple cases might be able to understand and showcase the differences and the similarities between the cases. Additionally, multiple case studies can be used to either predict contrasting results for expected reasons or forecast similar results in the studies (Yin, 2003). Case study is mostly a source of inductive analysis where the object of the study is considered with its unique features and characteristics (Hamel et al, 1993). Miles (1990) adds however, that case study as a research method is quite labour-intensive and very often results in overload of information. This research was based on two location case study and two methods of gathering data hence it is feasible not to escape the issue of surplus of information. Zucker (2016) recaps that case study is a creative alternative to traditional methods of gathering data and accentuates the participant’s perspective as being central to the process. This research, particularly the planned in-depth interviews stage of research is indicating through the script of the interview that the respondents are given a wide spectrum of interacting with the research questions and are invited to discuss, agree, or differ with some grounded theories suggested in the literature review. The example of it is an opening question of an interview: “Do you think that Majdanek / Auschwitz-Birkenau is a dark tourism site?”. In this case the respondent can settle for the taxonomy of dark tourism or disagree, which would then be questioning the current state of academic knowledge regarding concentration camps as dark tourism sites (Beech, 2000; Biran et al, 2011; Isaac and Cakmak, 2014; Lennon and Foley, 1999; Miles, 2002, Stone, 2006; Thurnell-Read, 2009). Thomas (2011) argues that case study approach is particularly beneficial in social science, although de Vaus (2001, p.219) laments that this method is still ignored or confused with other types of social research. A subject of tourists’ experience, including their cognitive and emotional reactions is being part of the thesis’ aim and as research on behaviour could be located withing the realms of social science, therefore, it is augmented that this approach is suitable to obtain the planned findings. Additionally, the author would like to question Yin’s (2009, p.48) suggestion that case study might be selected because it is “representative or typical” and advocate a rather opposite view while this thesis is concerned. The objectives that this thesis is attempting to answer are linked to supply and demand site of dark tourism sites. This is where the nature of variety of dark tourism sites should be reminded, as much as it was already touched in the literature chapter. The Stone’s (2006) Dark Tourism Spectrum would make it difficult to select a representative or typical site as they all are different in many aspects, such as level of authenticity, reason for visiting such as commemoration, respect, historic education, or emotional thrill with more entertainment sites from the Spectrum. There is therefore difficult to mention “typical” dark site. There is also not any easier to point out a “typical” former concentration 149 and extermination camp. What would be the answer to a question; what the most typical concentration camps is? What are the criteria of “representativeness”? Auschwitz-Birkenau is often portraited as a symbol or capital of Holocaust, however using this logic – is a capital representative to the rest of its country? Former KL Auschwitz-Birkenau is not typical as it was the biggest one; no other camp was even trying to approach their genocide techniques. Former KL Majdanek and emotions of the visitors there are not typical either – as there is no obligation to be shown the site by the guide there is a surprise of seeing very well perceived camp and have a freedom to explore in everybody’s own pace. Othe concentration camps such as Treblinka or Sobibor were levelled to the ground which again – is not a typical state of former concentration camp. Therefore, the case study approach focusing on specific cases rather than on a cluster of “dark tourism sites” or “concentration camps” might create a brighter picture of the particular case (Veal, 2017) which may demonstrate deeper quality of what we understand at the moment of experience in dark tourism spectrum. Case studies provide scholars and researchers with deep and hidden meaning of phenomena in studying places or sites (Hollinshead, 2004). In the context, this research introduces vastly under researched theme of supplying Stat Museum at Majdanek as well as cognitive and emotional experiences of visitors of former KL Majdanek. Case study approach is not free from its limitations. Yin (2003) associates case study based method with the qualitative research and therefore is shares possible constraints of such; lack of objectivity, inductive generalisation and smaller sample which might contribute to the less accurate findings. On the other hand, however Bryman (2008, p.53) argues that case study contributes to “intensive examination” of a particular research problem. Patton and Appelbaum (2003, p.66) lament that the case study approach can be lacking rigour of systematic quantitative research also admit that it makes the study more demanding and contemporary as case studies use a plethora of data collection such as interviews, observation, or historical data. This freedom of research techniques however proved to be especially beneficial for this research as the data collection method had to be changed from quantitative questionnaires to in-depth interviews and netnography due to external factor such as Covid-19 pandemic explained in the next paragraph. Although the multiple (dual, in this particular case) case study approach is acknowledged with the constraint of its own nature it brings to the methodology process, it is important to separate and mention advantages and disadvantages related specifically to multiple case study method. Baxter and Jack (2008) mentioned the high costs and longer time frames needed to progress through multiple case study approach. Yin (2003) joins with the arguments that if the researcher wants to study one single thing (a person or a specific group), a single case study is the best suggested choice. Those 150 arguments although acknowledged by the researcher, have been dismissed in order to achieve a multi case study comparison of emotions of visitors represented at two similar yet different sites of former Holocaust; one being generally approved as a epitome of genocide, another; less popular, but with more authentic artefacts and flexibility to allow and offer a more reflective visiting experience. This research also follows Yin (2014) logic of choosing case studies within the living memory and allowing the process of interviewing people visiting or working on the sites. The chosen approach also seeks to use exploratory case study as its aims and predominantly inductive analysis matches the purposes and follows the processes embedded in the literature review (Ogawa and Malen, 1991). 7.6. Research Design 7.6.1. A statement from the author At the time this research proposal for this thesis was constructed, the original plan of conducting primary research submitted and approved by the Ethics Committee was different to the one which was finally executed. In March 2018 Ethics Committee of University of Central Lancashire approved author’s plan of conducting quantitative interviews in a form of a questionnaire. The sample was to be recruited from Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum randomly (nevertheless over 18 years old) visitors prior to their visit (conducted during their stand in line for entry). The questionnaires were to be focusing on emotional pre-visit state. It would be then followed with the willing participants with a questionnaire regarding post-visit emotions. It would have been a single case study quantitative and aiming at longitudinal time frame analysis. Due to Covid-19 the research design had to be however amended. Together with author’s supervisory team it has been decided to redesign the methods of gathering primary data without compromising on objectives of the thesis. The in-depth interviews data collection took place in summer 2022. Although Covid-19 was not impacting an access to the Museums at the level of social distancing, the contact with the public was still quite sensitive matter and face to face conversations were still not advisable. Additionally, on top of concentrating primary research on Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum, it has been agreed to provide research from another location – State Museum at Majdanek. It is assumed that using two locations of Holocaust in situ would bring vast advantages to the final findings; there 151 would be possible to liken a supply aspect of functioning both museums, most importantly though, it would be possible to compare and contrast the emotions and overall tourist experience at both sites. Terminating the primary idea of quantitative research with the visitors was also beneficial in case of Majdanek. As it has been mentioned former KL Majdanek is not a highly popular tourist spot; it accounted for 150 thousand visitors in 2022 (https://www.belzec.eu), many of them arrived as organized groups from local schools. Collecting a vast number of answers would be therefore problematic and would excel the timely and financial potential of the researcher. The final approved research design would therefore include in-depth interviews with a supply representative of both museums and netnographic study of expressed emotions of tourists submitted to the popular tourism forum “TripAdvisor”. 7.6.2. In-depth interviews In depth interviews (or semi structured, as both taxonomy is widely used in the literature of the subject) have been selected as an opening method of gathering primary data for the purpose of this thesis. For the purpose of consistency, a term “in depth interviews” will be utilised through this research. In depth interviews are undeniably a very beneficial way of acquiring qualitative results as its method rests upon a very simple premise: that talking to people is a useful way of answering a question, understanding a problem, or solving it (Picken, 2018). This method of gathering data, indeed, often described as the most popular qualitative method in the social sciences (Denzin and Lincoln, 2003; Phillimore and Goodson, 2004) is proving to be specifically rewarding in tourism, which is, in most cases a social activity. Creswell (2007) perceives in-depth interviews as the primary tool of collecting information for a phenomenological study. In tourism research, the method of interviewing is additionally most useful for gaining an in-depth understanding of a topic where differences in perception, attitude, impacts, behaviours, and practices are anticipated, possible or important (Picken, 2018). The in-depth interviews are one of the most common tools used in qualitative research related to social science, customer behaviour or social phenomena (Roulston et al, 2003). Bryman (2008, p.196) acknowledged that semi-structured interviews allowed to draw more in-depth qualitative data by probing the respondents and also gives the interviewer “the latitude for further questions” which creates opportunities to open or intensify the particular objectives of the research. In depth interviews 152 are also consistent with qualitative path of research and hermeneutic phenomenology where representativeness and generalizability are non-issues (Ramsook, 2008). 7.6.2.1. Sampling procedure for in-depth interviews Choosing a sample for the in-depth research was an individual process for each location using a method of purposeful sampling. The reasons for adopting a purposeful sampling strategy are that, given the aims and objectives of the study, specific kinds of people may hold different and important views about the ideas and issues at question and therefore need to be included in the sample (Mason, 2017). Patton (2002) adds that the purposeful sampling is a popular technique employed to qualitative research with information-rich cases and relatively limited resources. The process involves identifying by the researcher individual or individuals who are knowledgeable in a topic of interest of the research and are able to share the information with the investigator (Cresswell and Plano Clark, 2011). Bernard (2002) also reminds about the importance of readiness to cooperate with the interviewer; for instance, many of the questions are semi-structured and the answers should ideally be informative and articulate and avoid simple yes or no response. Aware that proper sampling would contribute to the quality of data obtained and intensify the spectrum of findings, the researcher considered the chosen respondents based on specific characteristics they presented and possible positive outcome of the interview. The assumption made by the researcher was to approach two members of staff from each site, one holding managerial position, other being tour guide. Although that sampling could be argued as being biased towards other staff members of the museums, it was kept maximising the outcomes of the provided answers. The member of management would ideally follow on the topic of supply strategies of sites such a former concentration camp, while tour guide would give evidence of the vast experience of observing visitors’ emotional reaction to the site. Two representatives of each site were selected based on staff information and their roles descriptions on the museums’ websites. As the sites provided email address all the selected candidates were contacted simultaneously, explained the research aim, and asked for the possibility of an interview. Although aware of the potential criticism of limited sample selected for the in-depth interviews stage, the researcher is somehow comforted by the Creswell claim (1998, p.146) that although the sample might have a limited number, it is at the same time conveniently available for the study. 153 Table 7.4. The sample selected for the in-depth interviews Location Name Position Documenting methods Code State Museum at Majdanek Jolanta Laskowska Director of Education in State Museum at Majdanek Script in Polish, Audio recording in Polish, Transcript of the recording in Polish and English JL Marek Duda Tour guide, specialist in the history of the “Action Reinhard” camps Script in Polish, Audio recording in Polish, Transcript of the recording in Polish and English MD Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum Dr Jacek Lachendro Deputy Director of the Research Centre at Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum Script in Polish, Audio recording in Polish, Transcript of the recording in Polish and English JL Tomasz Michaldo Tour guide centre manager Script in Polish, Audio recording in Polish, Transcript of the recording in Polish and English TM Source: Author’s notes The interviews took place on the 4th of August 2022 (State Museum at Majdanek) and on the 10th of August 2022 (at Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum). The time of each of the interviews was agreed before the visits and all four interviews were taking place in the indoor offices of staff and on a one-to-one basis. Around 7 days ahead of the visit the scripts of the interviews were sent to the respondents. All interviews were voice-recorded with the permission of the interviewees and lasted between 28:51 minutes (MD) and 1:42:58 (JL, Majdanek). All the interviews were conducted in Polish. The reason was twofold; all the interviewees were Polish citizens, as was the researcher, so the natural consequence was communicating in the native language. Additionally, although the knowledge and fluency of English was not questioned, the researcher assumed that responses created in a native tongue of the interviewees might escape the limitations of shortening the answers, as well as using more limited or simpler vocabulary. The emotions from Plutchik’s Wheel of Emotion model (1980) were translated into Polish using Google translate. The recordings were transcribed in original language of conversation – Polish, then further translated into English by the researcher. The researcher felt capable and valid to translate the interviews herself for two reasons; firstly, the knowledge of English allowed the researcher to conduct the translation herself, most importantly though, the “standard” translation; as conducted per professional translator could have missed many important elements and phrases specifically related to the theme of emotions of visitors in former concentration camps. This approach also carries many characteristics of hermeneutic phenomenology, when the researcher is free from a conventional theories and 154 obligations (such as using a service of professional certified translator) and it in their own understanding the researcher is the most reliable person to transfer the analysis. There were two main areas of research findings which were aimed to arrive from the interviews. Firstly, we wanted to find out the level of identification between the site of former extermination camp and the label of dark tourism and how the interpretation of a museum is managed. Secondly, we wanted to find the mostly observed emotions of visitors inside the location of the camp. As the emotions of visitors at concentration camp defined by Oren et al (2022) were applied for the purpose of this research to Plutchik’s Emotions Wheel (1980), a mirroring approach was used during the interviews; the respondents were shown the picture of Wheel of Emotions (translated into Polish) and then asked to point out all the emotions they recognised as demonstrated by visitors of the camps. Although the Wheel of Emotions was portraying 24 basic emotions as per Plutchik’s theory (1980) the respondents did not seem to find it restricting and no other emotion was added by the interviewees. All the in depth interviews scenario and the transcripts of interviews – both in original Polish and translated to English are included in the appendixes. 7.6.3. Netnographic study With the constant increase of technology, the attitudes, feelings, feedback, emotions, and experiences can be shared to some common platforms and reused by further community as a learning point or neutral world of mouth. The beginnings of netnography arrive from ethnography; a study of cultures and date from 1997 when Kozinets approached to studying online communities through ethnographic lens. To put is simply, netnography is less intrusive online version of ethnography. Kozinets (1998, p.1) approaches to define netnography as a written account resulting from fieldwork studying the cultures and communities that emerge from on-line, computer mediated, or Internet-based communications, where both the field work and the textual account are methodologically informed by the traditions and techniques of cultural anthropology. Kozinets (1998) perceives netnography as an interpretive study which is designed to study customer cultures, communities and behaviour using Internet. Kozinets later recognized (2006) a power of netnography as a tool to share knowledge and experience as much as a research ground and clarifies netnography as redefined uses social science methods to present a new approach to conducting ethical and thorough ethnographic research. That material would combine archival and online communications work, participation, and observation, with new forms of digital and network data collection, analysis, and research representation. 155 Tourism industry is a is an environment where recently netnography is popularized as one of successful research methods. Bartel and Tusche (2016) distinguishes netnography as qualitative research as it focus on social context across online communities. The communication there is also subjective which means the same tourism experience could be perceived differently among individual members of the online community. Mkono (2012) noticed that with the increase of numbers of tourists joining online communities, the amount of their online entries reflecting on their tourism experiences is growing. Additionally, the number of sites dedicated to tourism feedback is growing with examples of TripAdvisor or Virtualtourism.com. The findings of Bart et al (2016) suggest that almost quarter of the papers dedicated to netnography focuses on tourism or leisure industry. Mkono (2012, p.554) mentions the advantages of using netnography in tourism such as the fact that data can be generated very swiftly and efficiently by searching for relevant text through search engines such as Google. Netnography also provides researchers with access to groups of people who may otherwise be difficult to reach. With the ease of researching the data comes the scale of it – the single website, forum, feedback site can provide thousands of results at the same time. Additionally, Mkono (2012) assumes that the results of often anonymous entries might be more honest than those collected by the researcher on face-to-face basis. Having mentioned that they are also aware of the limitations connected with netnographic research. Firstly Mkono (2012) argues that the researcher does not have any influence on the direction the entries are taking. Additionally, he advises that the entries should be treated as anonymous in terms of demographics – even if the gender or age is submitted it cannot be verified therefore netnography does not allow for the verified demographic crosstabulation. Furthermore, netnography does not let the non-verbal signals to be detected, hence the same or similar use of wording might mean different range of emotions or experiences. Site owner might also manage the feedback and opinions in a way that the negative ones are removed not giving a full insight for the researcher. Rageh et al, (2013) used TripAdvisor for their netnographic research into emotional connection to Egyptian hotels. Ekanayake and Eranda (2022) successfully used netnographic approach, and TripAdvisor as a platform to analyse tourism emotional experience in nature-based tourism. Regardless of those examples, and despite of recognising positive input of netnography to the science of emotions in tourism (Tavakoli and Mura, 2018; Tavakoli and Wijesinghe, 2019), there is a deficit in primary research obtained at the moment with that method in tourism and sociology field. Although Mkono and Markwell (2014) lamented that netnography is still underused type of practice in tourism, Tavakoli and Wijesinghe (2019) observed an increase in using this tool, however mostly 156 based on Web 1.0 and 2.0, which is understandable as those technologies are delivering the results of various tourism blogs, social media discussions and feedback which is then utilised in netnography. 7.6.3.1. Sampling procedure for netnographic research The researcher used the Web 1.0 and 2.0 (which allocates a popular tourism forum TripAdvisor) based according to the netnographic methods results for the second part of primary research. The site https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk is claiming to log over a billion reviews of locations, sites, hotels and other spots related to the general travel community. The entries of visitors obtained from TripAdvisor have been collected until 30th of October 2023. There is a significant quantitative difference between the quantity of feedback for Majdanek and Auschwitz-Birkenau – in the middle of 2023 site titled “Majdanek State Museum” at TripAdvisor’s site (https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Attraction_Review-g274818-d284159-Reviews-Majdanek_State_Museum-Lublin_Lublin_Province_Eastern_Poland.html) accounted for 746 reviews comparing to 14,596 related to Auschwitz-Birkenau posted on a main site titled “Państwowe Muzeum Auschwitz-Birkenau” – State Museum at Auschwitz-Birkenau (https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Attraction_Review-g274754-d275831-Reviews-or20-Panstwowe_Muzeum_Auschwitz_Birkenau-Oswiecim_Lesser_Poland_Province_Southern_.html). The mention and details about the direct sources from TripAdvisor are especially important while gathering data connected to former KL Auschwitz-Birkenau. While State Museum at Majdanek hosts only one site at TripAdvisor, there are eight differently named sites containing different reviews about visiting site of Auschwitz-Birkenau. Additionally, there are additional reviews of Auschwitz-Birkenau which could be found on sites related to Krakow or so called “Golden Triangle” including three main nearby attractions: Krakow, Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum and Wieliczka Salt Mine. 157 Table 7.5.: The comparison of Auschwitz-Birkenau related sites on TripAdvisor (updated 30th of January 2024) Title of the tour Number of reviews Państwowe Muzeum Auschwitz-Birkenau https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Attraction_Review-g274754-d275831-Reviews-Panstwowe_Muzeum_Auschwitz_Birkenau-Oswiecim_Lesser_Poland_Province_Southern_Polan.html 14,638 Auschwitz Tour – Krakow Trip https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Attraction_Review-g274772-d1798380-Reviews-Auschwitz_Tour_Krakow_Trip-Krakow_Lesser_Poland_Province_Southern_Poland.html 2,661 Krakow Auschwitz Tours https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Attraction_Review-g274772-d2433066-Reviews-Krakow_Auschwitz_Tours-Krakow_Lesser_Poland_Province_Southern_Poland.html 5,353 Auschwitz Tours- Day Tours https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Attraction_Review-g274772-d7032598-Reviews-Auschwitz_Tours_Day_Tours-Krakow_Lesser_Poland_Province_Southern_Poland.html 852 Auschwitz-Krakow Tours https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Attraction_Review-g274772-d2269327-Reviews-Auschwitz_Krakow_Tours-Krakow_Lesser_Poland_Province_Southern_Poland.html 1,569 Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum Guided Tour from Krakow https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/AttractionProductReview-g274772-d12866751-Auschwitz_Birkenau_Memorial_and_Museum_Guided_Tour_from_Krakow-Krakow_Lesser_Polan.html 2,691 Auschwitz and Birkenau Fully Guided Tour from Krakow https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/AttractionProductReview-g274772-d14499770-Auschwitz_and_Birkenau_Fully_Guided_Tour_from_Krakow-Krakow_Lesser_Poland_Province.html 1,660 Auschwitz Tour – Krakow Discovery https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Attraction_Review-g274772-d1913089-Reviews-Auschwitz_Tour_Krakow_Discovery-Krakow_Lesser_Poland_Province_Southern_Poland.html 1,052 Source: Author’s research based on TripAdvisor The researcher has decided to analyse all the reviews for Majdanek (746) which included entries between 2023-2012 and the reviews from State Museum Auschwitz site between 2023-2019 which covered similar number of entries compared to Majdanek. Firstly, the decision was taken to retrieve the reviews only from the main Museum site. That was done in a hope to capture the most populated site and to avoid non-related information such as the quality of a transport, the advice about the hotels, airport and food around Krakow which were present at 158 other sites. As some of the other sites were dedicated to tour-operators rather than Museum as such, there was also non-related amount of data about the process of booking which was beyond the interest of this research. The time frame for Auschwitz-Birkenau was also limited on purpose. Although it is not a quantitative analysis, the author estimated that the assumed timeframe would yield similar number of meaningful reviews – around 150 per site. In terms of meaningful authors means that the main focus would be on recording tourists visiting experience, not the additional factors such as weather, level of tiredness or the quality of a tour guide. The reviews which were not focused on tourism experience were not included in the analysis neither transcript. 7.7. An initial data analysis explanatory section During a period of collecting reviews, it become apparent for the author that due to unlimited range of expressions and terminology included in the reviews it is not possible to apply the analysis based solely on basic emotions and Plutchik’s theory (1980). Although Yan (2015) suggested merging problematic emotions with other categories or simply remove them from the researched set of emotions, this approach is also not without its constraints or some socio-behavioural limitations. Whilst merging new categories into current, well-established sets the is a danger of neglecting new, subtle emotional states or experiences putting them instead in a box of, although well acclaimed, however rather limited for some purposes theories of emotions. Yan (2015, p.317) argued that the current emphasis on the basic emotions poses limitations on the development of automatic emotion detectors that can truly capture the richness of actual human emotional experiences on Twitter. Mohammad and Kiritchenko (2015) found few hundreds of emotional expressions inscribed by the hashtag on internet sites. That indicates that the theories of basic emotions, even summed up together do not represent a full picture of emotional states that people epitomise on internet. With this view, the author decided to build on the Plutchik’s Wheel of Emotions (1980), but also adding the emotions which were commonly expressed in the TripAdvisor for both sites but not included in Plutchik’s Wheel or any basic theories of emotions mentioned in the earlier chapter. This approach is similar to Yan’s hermeneutics approach (2015, p.321) who, similarly dealt with too many emotions arriving from his netnographic study. According to their assumptions “The new emotions categories could be added to the current set of emotion categories, and problematic emotion categories may be merged with other categories or removed from the current set”. “Commonly expressed” is yet another 159 interpretation – there are no exact numbers attached to the “additional” emotions, as the exploration, especially in this stage is purely qualitative and inductive. In many cases one entry can present an emotional baggage of few other entries, so working on numbers is not most valid at this stage of research. The researcher decided to propose additional emotional states resurfacing from netnographic study to showcase richness and intensity of other emotions. It is still resembling the hermeneutic phenomenological approach where the theories are to be extended and the main subject should not be limited to thew commonly known norms or frameworks. The researcher did not neither feel that adjusting additional emotions to the set scale of Plutchik’s would give a proper illustration and justice to variety of emotions described by visitors. Additional emotional experiences which were noticeably spotted while looking at the feedback from both concentration camp’s sites were: Shock. It might be argued that the expressions of shock could have been attached to the primary emotions as a version of negative surprise (Hosany et al, 2015). However, it this case it takes a form of a slightly less intensive cultural shock which is a process of initial adjustment to unfamiliar environment’ culture (Goldstein and Keller, 2015). In case of visiting concentration camps there is hardly a comprehension of “adjustment” to the reality of the extermination camp many million of victims were exposed to. Although often in tourism shock might work as an enhanced emotion of surprise (Williams and Balaz, 2015) the author is insisting on splitting those two terms for the purpose of this research and treating shock as a separate emotional reaction. The feeling of shock is clearly expressed by the visitors who were the part of netnographic research: “Shocking”, “For me Birkenau was more shocking”, “Shocking but unavoidable.”. Sobering. This is a feeling which creates seriousness and thoughtfulness according to Encyclopaedia Britannica (www.britannica.com) and brings temperance, moderation and seriousness according to Webster Dictionary (www.merriam-webster.com). Again, although like pensiveness and sadness mentioned by Plutchik’s, sobering emotions are also separately acknowledged: “A sobering but educational experience”. “It was a sobering experience, but worth making the effort to visit”. “Sobering and insightful”. “Sobering, chilling, thought-provoking”. The expression of sobering feelings in the context of tourism is extremely rarely documented; Sun and Lv (2015) recorded only one mention of sobering feeling while looking at the experiences of tourism visiting Chernobyl Zone, however in order to expand on the taxonomy of emotions in difficult tourism it would be valuable to enlarge the currently used frameworks of primary emotions. To a lesser degree but also mentioned separately are emotions of being solemn, sombre or upset which people were expressing by use of word “harrowing”. According to Oxford Dictionary the 160 meaning of harrowing is about making a person upset due to a shock or being frightened (www.oxfordlearnsdictionaries.com). The examples include a female from USA experiencer of visiting former KL Auschwitz-Birkenau in 2021; “Harrowing but poignant/necessary. Hadn't been to so sad of a site since visiting S21 in Phnom Penh (chronicling the Cambodian genocide), but it was absolutely worth experiencing in person”. or a female from UK visiting former KL Majdanek in 2017: “Harrowing but important. By visiting here, you can get a sense of the terrible events which took place here, and which should never be forgotten”. A vast category of gathered though netnography expressions have been categorised by the researcher simply as “other”, due to variety of expressions but also lack of further elaboration which would allow to match or link it with main emotions. This category indicates the strength of visitors’ emotional experiences, with expressions like “very moving”, “overwhelming”, “humbling”, “…a must for everyone”. Majority of expressions stated in the category “Other” are neutral and without knowing the context or the location of the visit it might be difficult to appraise them from the emotionally valance perspective – for instance we could be positively or negatively overwhelmed; positively or negatively moved. The examples could also extend to a physical manifestations of the impact of visiting a former concentration camp, like in a case of female visiting former KL Auschwitz-Birkenau: “In regards to the whole experience.. seeing a room full of hair, entering the gas chamber or walking down the way where millions were walking their last metres to get killed - made me feel sick and shocked of how people could did that to other people. Definitely a place worth visiting”. Or a complete questioning the images and stories presented as mentioned by the visitor of former KL Majdanek: “You will come face-to-face with a tangible demonstration of the depths of evil that man can sink to. How do you even begin to understand the massive pile of human ash of many tens of thousands of people?”. As demonstrated, the netnographic analyses required a holistic approach from the researcher, with a struggle of adapting existing frameworks of emotions to the group of emotions identified in the analysis. Although the vast plethora of theories of emotions was available, the approach to analysis 161 was inductive and intuitive as a result of existing tool broad enough to categorise the emotional spectrum of concentration camps’ visitors. The phenomenological approach, yet again, was chosen and adapted to fill the gaps in the current knowledge of understanding heritage sites’ emotional behaviour. This co-creation was available to the author as they followed the Langdridge (2007) way of thoughts allowing the researcher to form, shape and effectively; co-construct the knowledge of the researched subject, including a vast element of reflexivity and researcher’s own background-led interpretations. This to say, one might use their background for data gathering and analysis. Finally, there is still a relative deficiency of academic papers documenting previous analysis of emotions using netnographic study, especially emotions in difficult heritage sites. The netnographic research into the emotional experiences of tourism supplies its possible categorisation the phenomenology paradigm which assumes that the reality is a very uncertain environment to be making definite statements about. In other words, phenomena are what the individual experiences (Rose et al, 1995), therefore subjective, free from judgements and, well…. free from any ultimate and definitive answers. 7.8. Summary Overall, the aim of this chapter was to demonstrate the research philosophy undertaken for this thesis. The mostly selected for the purpose of addressing the objectives of the research is the interpretivism philosophy; as a philosophy strongly imbedded in social science; it was considered to be best suited to identify emotions created by the act of visiting a specific tourist site. There is also a justification of two chosen data colleting methods: in-depth interviews and gaining a recent momentum – netnography. 162 8. Findings of the research The following chapter will be presenting the findings attained from the primary research collected by the researcher at two former concentration camp sites in a form of in-depth interviews, as well as from netnographic studies of Majdanek and Auschwitz-Birkenau dedicated TripAdvisor sites. Findings for both former concentration camps will be presented separately, for each site, and there will be a dedicated subchapter for comparison of emotional ranges between two sites. 8.1. State Museum at Majdanek The following chapter will be presenting the results of two in-depth interviews undertaken at the State Museum at Majdanek site and the netnographic analysis of reviews left on TripAdvisor Majdanek website. 8.1.1. Identification of State Museum at Majdanek When asked what Majdanek is, the respondents replied: JL: “Majdanek first and the most is a museum, a place of remembrance”. MD: “I believe it is most of all a former camp; a place of unbelievable suffering as well as a place of commemoration of this suffering, so it is de facto a cemetery, in actual meaning, as there are humans’ remaining here, but also in the metaphorical meaning; it is a commemoration for all those victims who died here and suffered here”. 8.1.2. Interpretation of State Museum at Majdanek as a dark tourism site The respondents at State Museum at Majdanek were asked whether they perceive the former camp a dark tourism destination they were not satisfied with that classification and did not support the idea of former Kl Majdanek to be included in a dark tourism category: 163 JL: As far as I remember and understand available literature, we can make a division between “dark tourism” and “thanatourism”. So, if we follow this train of thoughts that suggests that “dark tourism” is something more entertaining, lighter or such, then definitely no. However, if you would like to use a terminology describing visiting museums located in former concentration and extermination camps, then I believe we should be moving towards calling it “thanatourism”. I mean tourism and the fact I work here for such a long time… it (dark tourism) does not sit well with me. MD: To be honest my understanding of places like that, possibly not totally right one was, that yes, those places (dark tourism ones) are connected with violence, however in more funny way, for instance medieval torture chambers, executioner’s hut (I used to work in a place like that), there are some cries of the tortured one so it is a reminder of something horrible, however supplied in a funny and commercial way. 8.1.3. The way of presenting State Museum at Majdanek to visitors During the interview a question was asked whether the camp is explained by the guides more by numbers and historical figures or by personal stories. MD: “I am trying to do both. …you can’t just visit this place knowing only about the personal experiences, without having any facts with it such as years of activity, historic background, why Germans created this place there and then, how many people went through the camp, their origins, numbers of victims – so the historic background which I find absolutely necessary. I always spend considerable time on exhibitions with historic maps and pictures which help demonstrating this historic knowledge. On the other hand, I believe and practice the other approach; you cannot treat this place with only formal approach, you need to show a personal perspective. I always carry pictures of former inmates, I have their memoirs, I try to read those memories aloud. Also, during (the visit) I supply many other examples of many stories told by many inmates. I try to bring at least one full biography of the perpetrator to demonstrate that perspective as well.” 164 As much as authentic stories from former inmates are extremely precious to demonstrate the narrative of the camp, State Museum at Majdanek has another asset in terms of “personalization” of the camp – adding the visit more individual meaning and focus on certain victims. The item is question is published Diary of Jadwiga Ankiewicz – a teenage prisoner at Majdanek who was writing her diary directly in the bunker – a highly risky activity which required total discretion but also supplies of paper and pens. Director of Education at State Museum at Majdanek likes to bring the diary to showcase the personalized and authentic story of this prisoner and compares it to highly acclaimed Anne Frank’s Diary: JL: I would say it is even better in a way, as it was in the concentration camp, not in the hiding. Jadwiga was not a Jew, Jadwiga was a polish girl, she was caught in a round-up… Jadwiga, here she is 9, she came to Majdanek from Warsaw where she was caught in a round-up when she was 16. At the end (of the book) you would see copy of her diary, her own handwriting from the original book which she had with her here, behind the wires and for the 5 months she was writing about what was happening here. It is a rarity. And now, we have her edited text; we say to the youngsters that the title of their project is a citation from Jadwiga’s: “although part of my heart stayed there, down the hill of Majdanek”. 8.1.4. Engaging emotions in State Museum at Majdanek 8.1.4.1. Engaging emotions in State Museum at Majdanek – the analysis of in-depth interviews Two interviewees approached at Majdanek were asked to identify observed emotions of visitors using (translated to Polish, printed and demonstrated) model of Plutchik’s Wheel of Emotions (1980). MD pointed out the following: MD: “I believe definitely sadness, although I could think about some more emotions here… certainly anger could be there. Maybe even grief, because listening about the suffering, I believe other people can display grief themselves; they became so empathetic to feel that emotion as well… Amazement of the sheer scale of the evil. Also, I think… interest, certainly kind of interest. Interest of how it all worked; that’s all the questions come from, so that would be another emotion I would indicate. Possibly also fear of the circumstances like this one. You mentioned some can feel some kind of serenity, and I would agree, it can happen in case of 165 people who are confronting their fears, their everyday struggles with the level of tragedy that happened here to people.” JL: “I think that… it just come to my mind; when someone comes here, at the beginning it could be interest, they are interested in history of this place and that how it begins. Then it comes: sadness and pensiveness both of them, then it could be loathing, but it is rare; as I said, happens very occasionally, at least how I see it. Occasionally we have fear, about the future, about the mankind, especially after the beginning of war in Ukraine… However, I think the dominant emotion is pensiveness because there is a focus there, careful listening to what is being said; it is visible in the eyes, in the face whenever they are (emotionally) in a given moment. And the sadness that it happened. That a human is able to do things like that.” MD mentioned: “…Interest of how it all worked; that’s all the questions come from, so that would be another emotion I would indicate”. Another emotion demonstrated by the visitors is fear. JL mentioned: “… Occasionally we have fear, about the future, about the mankind, especially after the beginning of war in Ukraine…” Perhaps the most unexpected emotion mentioned in the interview is serenity – a lighter manifestation of joy. As MD mentioned: “… it can happen in case of people who are confronting their fears, their everyday struggles with the level of tragedy that happened here to people.” 166 8.1.4.2. Engaging emotions in State Museum in Majdanek – the netnographic analysis Second part of the research, as mentioned in the methodology chapter was netnographic study of reviews left on TripAdvisor site. The cybercultures are becoming increasingly important to analyse, and targeted netnography has been helpful in retrieving data regarding tourism experience. The table below presents the emotions issued on TripAdvisor website by the tourists after visiting State Museum in Majdanek. The “after” emotional state is crucial for the researcher, as pre-visit observations would relate to expectations and possibly motivation to visit which is not the subject of this research. The table includes all the emotions listed in Plutchik’s Wheel of Emotions (1980). The author also decided to incorporate the Plutchik’s basic emotions which did not have any relevance in the found feedback. The reason was twofold – first it was believed that to established consistency in comparison between sites the whole set of basic emotions should be included. Secondly – the empty categories might bring useful findings towards the scope of emotional experiences at the sites as well as the lack of certain ones. The analysis and categorization of responses is, as described in methodology – inductive. The responders did not see the Wheel of Emotions; hence they were not restrained to select their emotional experiences based only on the emotions from the Wheel. After analysis and categorising the outcomes of TripAdvisor reviews, the “other” set was introduced as some valid emotions could not be found in the chosen framework, however, could be a mixture of many primary and secondary emotions not addressed Plutchik’s collection of emotions, but extremely valid to understand the whole plethora of emotional experience. Leaving them behind as being problematic, according to Yan (2015) suggestions would in author’s understanding lessen the knowledge of additional emotions experienced by visitors of former concentration camps. As State Museum at Majdanek has never to the existing knowledge been observed from the point of its emotional value for the visitors, acknowledging the only theory-suggested basic emotions and limiting the research to analysing them, might be detrimental to new findings and complexity of emotions represented in a difficult heritage place by survivors, their families but also people exposed to the authenticity of the biggest genocide committed in Europe. 167 Table 8.1.: The application of Plutchik’s Wheel of Emotion to retrieved reviews from TripAdvisor, case State Museum at Majdanek Emotion Description Serenity Joy • How aware it made me of all those 'lives unlived' and how grateful for my own. • Impressive visit and feeling grateful to Poland about how they take care of the heritage. Very, very good museum. • I really liked the museum if you can enjoy this sort of experience at all. Ecstasy • This is an excellent and moving experience that everyone visiting Lublin should experience. • Chilling, fascinating, exciting. • Stunning. A must see. Acceptance • The museum is set up extremely well and they handle the horrific subject matter tastefully and comprehensively and I am very glad I went. Trust Admiration • Was very impressed by this place. It is recommendable to prepare yourself by reading the literature about nazi death camps before the visit.it • Stunning experience of horrific past. Must see. Apprehension • It is hard to visit but You should. This is a place with history, very emotional. • I'm very uncomfortable listing this type of place as an 'attraction'. Fear Terror • It is a place of horror death and destruction. Distraction • Unsettling but important to see. • There is a feeling that cannot really be described when you visit and walk around the site - seeing the gas chambers and the cans of Zyklon B. Surprise • Unbelievable and unforgettable. • A chilling but beautiful memorial. • Hard to say a concentration camp is very good!!! but its vast place is impressive and touching. • I found this camp more powerful experientially than Auschwitz. Amazement • Absolutely breath-taking to see the size of it. • What an amazing place. Steeped in history. This is an absolute must if you find yourself in the area. • Unimaginable!! • It's just amazing. The museum has been recently refurbished so it's even more informative and moving now. • it is difficult to believe these things happened just 75 years ago. • impressive, an unique experience. For those who have been to Auschwitz, this is very different. Pensiveness • A very good place to explore and ask yourself many questions. • There is no pleasure to be derived from a visit but it's a perfect place to contemplate and think. • Incredibly sad but reflective place. • A place of reflection as well as tragedy. • It will make one realize how the situation was during the Nazism. 168 • Sad to see, sad to reminisce but a reminder of the history of the world and its errors. • Thought provoking tour around the former camp. Seeing the shoes and the ashes was heart wrenching but a must see. • Thought provoking. I felt really numb after the visit. • Beautifully preserved humbling thought provoking museum. Sadness • One is left feeling utterly bereft and a deep emotional connection to the sight. • An overwhelming feeling of sadness and anger at the perpetrators' perfidy. • The whole experience I have to say was sobering, saddening and mind boggling. • Everything was sad. Everything. • Very emotional, sad part of our history... • Very sad. A must visit when visiting Lublin. • A nice and sad in once feelings, cold feelings. • Very sad but eye opening place • Very sad and eye opening. • There is no point missing out on this unbelievable place-probably one of the saddest on the planet! • It touch your heart. Very sad place as its nazi- camp from II WORLD WAR. • Really sad but worth visiting to see just how badly the prisoners were treated. • Very sad place. The barrack that touched me the most us where they house the shoes of all the prisoners. • An eyeopener to what happened, very sad. • Sad place if you see what people can if they wants to rule others. Grief • Heart breaking experience. • I felt their grief too. • Seeing the cremains was heart- wrenching. • Solemn, heart wrenching, and unforgettable. Boredom Disgust • Sad Cruel place, strong experience. • Appalling and essential. • This place should never have been able to be built. It is a heart wrenching visit and unbelievable that it was built by a civilised society only 65 years ago. • This won't attract the attention or crowds like i.e. Auschwitz does, but it is every bit a smack in the face. People can be animals. • A glimpse at the devil Loathing • it is just a visit to hell and the worst of mankind. Annoyance • Disturbing. • You will come face-to-face with a tangible demonstration of the depths of evil that man can sink to. How do you even begin to understand the massive pile of human ash of many tens of thousands of people? Anger • An overwhelming feeling of sadness and anger at the perpetrators' perfidy. Rage Interest • A moving and enlightening place to visit. • My visit to Majdanek was very interesting. • It’s fascinating and very moving. 169 • The testimonies and exhibition are amazing and really interesting • Interesting and disturbing at the same time. • Interesting and deeply moving. • Much more interesting than Auschwitz. Everyone goes to Auschwitz but if you make some effort you must also do Belzec and Majdanek. Majdanek is still very much lifelike. Anticipation Vigilance Table 8.2.: Additional emotions retrieved reviews from TripAdvisor, case State Museum at Majdanek Emotion Description Other • A nice and sad in once feelings, cold feelings. • Haunting! • Very powerful experience. It's not a light visit, but one that needs to be made. • Very moving and emotional thinking of what those poor people suffered and went through. • A very moving, important place to visit. • The chilling experience begins to get a special feeling that you see the guard towers and barbed wire fences. • A depressing but important experience. • Depressing but a must see. • Very moving and emotional. • Emotional and thought provoking. • Humbling and hard hitting. • A very moving experience. • I personally think that it is much more 'disturbing' than Oswiecim / Auschwitz. • Intense, emotional, and poignant site. • This was hands down one of the most emotional places I have ever been to. • It touched my hearth so much, you can feel the terrifying times when it happened. Overwhelming. Shock • Absolutely horrific and overwhelming place, which definitely should be visited. • Shocking display of the wicked mined of the Nazi regime. • Shocking but unavoidable. • A haunting spectacle packed full of information about some truly harrowing events. • More shocking than Auschwitz. • Exhibition is really shocking. I couldn't fall asleep that night after visiting museum. Sobering • The whole experience I have to say was sobering, saddening and mind boggling. • A sobering but educational experience. • It was a sobering experience, but worth making the effort to visit. • Sobering and insightful. • Sobering, chilling, thought-provoking. 170 • Sobering, haunting, but a necessary and forceful reminder. • Whilst very sobering, our visit to Majdanek was very informative and interesting. • A very sobering place to meditate on the atrocities of war, without masses of tourists. • A Most Sobering and Emotional Walk through Suffering. You walk away shaking your head, with tears in your eyes and brokenness in your soul. • Sobering but not boring. • Sobering thoughts. It is a stark reminder of man inhumanity to man. I will not forget this visit! • A sobering experience but something not to miss. • A sobering and moving place. • The museum/memorial site at Majdanek is a sobering and moving place. • Majdanek is certainly a sobering and historically important experience. Solemn • Solemn education in the past. • Solemn reminder of Nazi atrocities. • It is a solemn, sobering place. Upset • A Harrowing Reminder. • It was a harrowing experience made more emotional by the many coaches of Israelis and European Jews who were visiting at the same time. • Harrowing but important • Harrowing. The gas chamber, crematoria, Pantheon, and execution trenches are especially harrowing and moving. • Harrowing but important to visit. • Harrowing but you have to go. • Harrowing but very worthwhile. Essential. • Harrowing and emotional. It is a highly recommended if emotional place. • Harrowing. Sobering reminder of what hate does to people. • The room of shoes is harrowing, and to see the preserved gas chambers is utterly chilling. Sombre • This was a somber tour but important to keep the history of the holocaust alive. • It is only a very small relief the fact that these days we can see Majdanek, and similar other places scattered around the country, as a museum that in an accurate and somber way reminds us the terrifying things happened there. • A somber remembrance... • This is a somber place. • Somber. 171 8.1.4.3. Tourism experience in State Museum in Majdanek with the use of Aho’s framework Another set of findings coming from ethnographic research is applied to Aho’s (2010) framework to determine the overall tourist experience of visitors of State Museum at Majdanek. The reason of presenting this framework is twofold; firstly, it shows most recent and unprecedented spectrum of experience demonstrated by visitors of State Museum at Majdanek. Secondly, it broadens the scope of tourist experience by adding another dimensions) informative, practice and transformative), which begs to question whether the emotional experience is the main or, the only one experience the future research on visitors of difficult heritage sites should be focusing on. Table 8.3.: The application of Aho’s model to retrieved reviews from TripAdvisor, case State Museum at Majdanek Emotional experience Informative experience Practice experience Transformation experience A very moving experience A sobering but educational experience More shocking than Auschwitz. This gave us the opportunity of exploring the camp on our own, which was definitely depressing I could not sleep after visiting Majdanek. It brought home to me the horrors of what had happened here with mass executions. Emotional and thought provoking Equally as thought-provoking as any of the death camps and a great educational museum/memorial. Go! This concentration camp is intact and you can walk round at your own pace and stop when you need to take stock and read your guide book or just sit and think. This is not a place to enjoy visiting, but it is one that will leave a profound and lasting impression. This is an excellent and moving experience The whole experience was very moving and educational. Some of the things I read, and saw will stay with me for life. The whole experience was very moving and educational. Some of the things I read, and saw will stay with me for life. Fundamental experience. Whilst very sobering, our visit to Majdanek was very informative and interesting Writing this review has left me feeling so emotional thinking why and how these atrocities were carried out. This experience will stay with me for the rest of my life. Very emotional, sad part of our history... A haunting spectacle packed full of information about some truly harrowing events. This was an unforgettable experience that still months after my visit I cant forget. The chilling experience begins to get a special feeling that you see the guard towers and barbed wire fences. My visit to Majdanek was very interesting. How do you even begin to understand the massive pile of human ash of many tens of thousands of people? It was a harrowing experience made more emotional It was a truly educational visit, it makes you think about your differently at list for a few hours. The stories and numbers are dumbfounding and sorrowful, and this museum serves its purpose well - never forget. 172 A very memorable day that will fill you with various emotions A historical and educational must do and must see. you will not leave Majdanek and remain indifferent. Clearly signed what and where everything is highly emotional. It's really tough experience so I do not recommend it for kids however it can bring knowledge and understanding. See the huts and the gas showers, you will never get over this To walk the pathway into the gas chambers was very eerie and very emotional. You can learn about its activities in the second world war. It is exactly as it was and there is a museum where there is lots to read and learn. it is difficult to believe these things happened just 75 years ago. A very moving, emotional experience. It's hard to imagine all the horrific things that happened here. Educationing. (educational) Thought provoking. I felt really numb after the visit. Emotionally challenging. Some find the visit quite disturbing, others as an educational experience There was so much to see here that will stick in my memory for ever. Some of the facilities remained authentic and with the testimonies of the survivors the experience is extremely emotional. The museum has been recently refurbished so it's even more informative and moving now. An life enhancing experience and the staff at the entrance were so helpful and kind. A very emotional visit for our group. Not nearly as crowded as Auschwitz or some of the other similar concentration/death camps so you have the time to absorb the presentations. I couldn't fall asleep that night after visiting museum. Walk round at your pace and feel the emotion in each exhibit. …this is a place you can visit to get a full understanding of the tragic persecution experienced by innocent people I would ever describe Majdanek as an attraction but we should all experience this place and we should never forget... Very moving and emotional. One of the best concentration camps. You'll learn a lot and, in my opinion, with a better perspective of reality than you get in Auschwitz. I will not forget this visit! Emotional and thought provoking. It is important to keep these monuments open for all who wish to visit, learn more about man's inhumanity to man and pay our respects. It touched my hearth so much, you can feel the terrifying times when it happened. This is a place with history, very emotional. A very good place to explore and ask yourself many questions It's a place full of memories and when you have visited it yours mind will be changed for the life. Intense, emotional, and poignant site. Visiting Majdanek in the heat of late July was not easy, emotionally or physically. We felt humbled and horrified, but it will stay with us forever. Harrowing and emotional. I could not sleep after visiting Majdanek. It brought home to me the horrors of what had happened here with mass 173 executions… It made a lasting impression on me. This was hands down one of the most emotional places I have ever been to. The exhibitions were fascinating and thought provoking. My visit there was very emotional, it makes you think about the important things in life. …it was a very personal experience, and it is extremely hard to put into words what it is like. For one, it is totally different than Auschwitz. …very emotional place Emotionally draining Emotional... Leaves you speechless.... The table above presents an application of tourists’ reviews’ entries to Aho’s framework (2001) of tourism experience. Although some of the citations are duplicated, the aim of demonstrating them is different. This table summarises various tourist experiences, while emotional experience being only one of them. It would support Meyer and Schwager (2007) understanding of an experience being a personal and subjective set of feelings which therefore could include emotional states as well as cognitive or transformational. 8.2. Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum The following chapter will be presenting the findings of two in-depth interviews undertaken at the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum site and the netnographic analysis of reviews left on TripAdvisor Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum site. 8.2.1. Identification of Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum The interviewees were asked to supply their own understanding of Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum as a site: JL: “It is most all, perhaps it would sound trivial so many years after the war, but most of all it is a cemetery.” The second interviewee has said: TM: “…Auschwitz means something different to each visitor. So, sure; looking at the pure historic meaning it is a concentration camp, extermination camp of Jews and Roma’s, who we mustn’t forget here. On the other site, from the current point of view for me, as an employee, 174 this is foremost a museum, a place of commemoration, centre of research… However, when we talk about Holocaust we think – Auschwitz.” 8.2.2. Interpretation of Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum as a dark tourism site The respondents were asked about identification of Auschwitz-Birkenau as a (leading) dark tourism site. The answers received were as follow: JL: “I wish it wasn’t, as dark tourism to me is a way of looking for sensation, I don’t know…fascination with death”. TM: “My answer would be no. In my opinion we do not want to overwhelm as so many other places you have been mentioning, right? Some of those places just overwhelm with fear, they full of… they try to play on visitors’ emotions too much”. 8.2.3. The way of interpreting Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum to visitors The respondent who is also a veteran tour guide at Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum was asked about the narration that is suggested and presented to the visitors during the tours. TM: “I believe it is slightly impossible to present the story of Auschwitz based on facts, dates, and number only. Firstly, it is not an approach which would keep the visitors interested. Secondly. The guides… we need to somehow limit the distance of time, dissociated history; it is almost eighty years gone and I think that using appropriate personal stories is a key”. 8.2.4. Engaging emotions at Auschwitz Birkenau State Museum The following findings provide qualitative analysis of emotions and overall experience demonstrated by visitors of Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum. It is a result of in-depth interview and netnographic results. 8.2.4.1. Engaging emotions in Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum – the analysis of in-depth interview Only one conducted in-depth interview has proven to be helpful in estimating observed emotions of visitors in Auschwitz-Birkenau. One of the interviewees is not involved in the process of tour guiding 175 and therefore his answer about the emotions of visitors in Auschwitz-Birkenau was not taken into account. The remining interviewee was asked to identify observed emotions of visitors using (printed and demonstrated) model of Plutchik’s Wheel of Emotions. TM: “…it would be pensiveness, definitely it would be also sadness as an emotion which can be seen. But also, I think the emotions would be amazement, surprise, they are here as well. I would consider here as well the emotion of interest, because it does happen as well… I would then stop on those emotions I have mentioned now.” 8.2.4.2. Engaging emotions in Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum – the netnographic analysis Similarly, to the analysis of reviews after visiting State Museum at Majdanek, the emotions of visitors of former KL Auschwitz-Birkenau were collected with a use of TripAdvisor site and applied to the extended Plutchik’s Wheel of Emotions model (1980). Categorization’s method and interpretation of emotions was analogously to the case of State Museum at Majdanek inductive and explained in the methodology chapter. For the additional emotions, not identified by the Plutchik’s Wheel the direct meaning from Encyclopaedia Britannica and Oxford Dictionary were applied to justify their categorization. 176 Table 8.4.: The application of Plutchik’s Wheel of Emotion to retrieved reviews from TripAdvisor, case Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum Emotion Description Serenity Joy • Definitely glad I went, think it’s a good grounder, a reminder of how lucky we are and how precious life is. Ecstasy • …it was one of the best tours I have done in a long time, so so insightful and I would recommend it to everyone going to Kraków! Acceptance Trust Admiration • Overall i think that the guided tour in English was well done, we learned a lot • Odd to write a positive review about such a place, but this was an unforgettable experience and our tour guide was very helpful and knowledgeable Apprehension Fear Terror • A horrible place that everyone must visit. Visiting this place makes feel you terrified and absolutely devastated. • Very moving. Still getting to grips with the horrors. • Haunting and poignant, but essential. Distraction Surprise • I was expecting to get more upset than I did but actually nothing was unexpectedly horrific in detail although there are many moving and awful facts and things you see. • Heart-breaking words from our tour guide of things I didn’t know or expect to see. • For me surprisingly Auschwitz wasn't as shocking as Birkenau where most of the murders occurred. • EYE OPENING EXPERIENCE. This was a difficult but beautiful experience. Amazement • What an experience! A must when in Krakow. Very interesting and sad place to visit. Upon our return to Krakow hardly anyone spoke • Overall an amazing experience of which I imagine nothing else can come close to in making you feel certain emotions • A unique experience, a very special experience, a lifetime experience. • Amazing but heart-breaking experience. • Once in a lifetime experience. It was impressive and humbling to walk inside these grounds and realise just how much horrible things went down there. • An experience of a life time. Emotionally it was tough of course. • An emotional, once in a lifetime experience that we will never forget. • I visited here with a prove guide, and found it to be an incredibly poignant and moving experience that I will never forget! • The most humbling and emotional experiences of my life!... it was truly a life changing and highly emotionally charged day in my life. • Alicia our host was amazing who made our day run smoothly and gave local nuggets to enhance our knowledge Pensiveness • Emotional and thought provoking. 177 • Sure its quite harrowing, horrible even, but to step in the same place and see with your own eyes and walk the same roads as millions of people who suffered and died here is both moving and thought provoking. Sadness • My wife and myself went and we were very saddened at what we learned. • Today I visited the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration and extermination camp with sadness and mourning. • Both sites were full of historical moments, however very sad and thought provoking. • To be inside, the sadness and horror is palpable. • Sad and haunting but must be seen! • A sad, but necessary visit. • Sad, but a must do. • So much sadness and horror, but also a place to honour those that died there. • There was no dry eyes in our small group. • It's very sad and shocking to me that this really happened years ago. • Very humbling sad and angry at what these poor people went through . • Harrowing but poignant/necessary. Hadn't been to so sad of a site since visiting S21 in Phnom Penh (chronicling the Cambodian genocide), Grief • I found the most heart wrenching, displays of personal belongings and the punishment chambers, even though you could call everything seen is heart wrenching. • Amazing but heart-breaking experience. • Heartbreaking � tour & struggled to get through it if I’m honest �…. • Interesting but heart wrenching • Heart breaking and eye opening. • What a heart wrenching place. • Soul wrenching visit truly depicting the unimaginable horrors of the holocaust. • I spent most of the tour choking back tears in despair at the abhorrent and unfathomable horrors that were perpetrated here. Boredom Disgust • Terrible Place Everyone Should Visit. This place absolutely sucks. On display is the absolute worst that humanity has to offer. • Unspeakable horrors! Sickening to see and realize the horror that humans are capable of inflicting on other humans. • The gas chambers were really terrible. • In regards to the whole experience… - made me feel sick and shocked of how people could did that to other people Loathing Annoyance • The site is chaotic, badly organised and we were rushed through. We got the impression they are trying to pack as many people in as possible to maximise profits. The guides rush you through the site insensitively. You are forced into gigantic compulsory tour groups. • For such an important historical site for the world the experience of the tour left me underwhelmed. It is far too busy to be able to take in the full experience ( ie multiple tour groups at the same time trying to pass each other on narrow staircases, very large group size for the english speaking tour meaning that the commentary was virtually meaningless as all you could hear was interference). 178 Anger • Very humbling sad and angry at what these poor people went through . Rage Interest • Interesting but heart wrenching • Our time at Auschwitz was incredibly interesting and informative. Anticipation Vigilance Table 8.5.: Additional emotions retrieved reviews from TripAdvisor, case Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum Emotion Description Other • A very moving experience even though its my 4th visit here. • It was just as poignant and disturbing as it should be. • An emotional visit but worthwhile. • My words inevitably fail to provide just how moving the experience is, and such important lessons from history must never be forgotten. • The tour was nice and everything, but the place itself is very depressing. • There are no words to describe this experience. • Still worth visiting but I had higher expectations. Or go to a smaller, lesser known camp. • A moving visit. Even though the crimes happened many years ago, the place still conveys the horror very vividly. • Very emotional with feelings and information that will stick with you a long time. • very emotional place… • Emotional but necessary visit. • Powerfully Overwhelming. Shock • Shocking, worth a visit, lesson of life • Shocking!! You have read about these concentration camps, you have watched documentaries and heard about this but nothing from the above prepared me for what I saw and felt there.. • Horribly Powerful. As others have said, there literally are no words to describe the horror of this place. • Again, there is simply no way to comprehend what in God's name you are looking at when you stand in front of a collapsed gas chamber. There are no words in the English language to describe what it is. • Not exactly any part was a "favourite" as all of it was a real shocking experience • Astonishing, moving, sobering. There aren't words in any language to describe the experience of visiting Auschwitz… • For me Birkenau was more shocking. • I feel I cannot comment on our day as it was so emotional but I will never forget today. Just go. I took no photos as it will be forever printed in my brain. Sobering • Very sobering and impactive. • Sobering But Worthwhile Experience. 179 • Sobering experience. This is a tough place to visit but so important to remember the large amount of people who died here. You can feel the darkness of the place at every turn. • A sobering experience. • It was a very sobering and moving experience yet a necessary one. Solemn Upset • We took an English tour of Auschwitz and Birkenau, and the experience from start to finish was harrowing… It’s a real eye opener actually being there and seeing some of the aftermath first hand. Be prepared for some horrifying sights and stories from the guide. • Harrowing. Went to both Auschwitz and the Birkenau camps and it is beyond belief. Sombre • An extremely somber but must see to fully understand the atrocities but also to pay your respects to those lives lost. • It is a sombre, but necessary experience. • Very somber place with lots of sad memories there. • A somber but interesting tour. • …probably couldn’t say it any better it was the most somber experience. • The site was very somber and educational and the tour guide very good. Correspondingly to the case of State Museum in Majdanek, Plutchik’s Emotion Whell was not fully satisfactory to cover all the emotional indicators collected from netnographic research in Auschwitz-Birkenau, hence additional criteria to access the experiences were introduced. 8.2.4.3. Tourism experience in Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum with the use of Aho’s framework The data coming from reviews analysed during ethnographic stage of the research is applied to Aho’s (2010) framework to determine the overall tourist experience of visitors of Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum. Similarly to case of former KL Majdanek the reviews suggest that the experience of visiting Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum goes beyond emotional experience. 180 Table 8.6.: The application of Aho’s model to retrieved reviews from TripAdvisor, case Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum Emotional experience Informative experience Practice experience Transformation experience very moving experience even though its my 4th visit here. This is a place we all know about, have learned in history, read books and seen movies. It’s a dark part in history and to see it with your eyes is different than reading about it or seeing it on a screen Somewhere i’ve always wanted to visit, very emotional and thought-provoking. Overall i think that the guided tour in English was well done, we learned a lot. A unique experience, a very special experience, a lifetime experience. Both sites were full of historical moments, however very sad and thought provoking. An important lesson in history. Overall an amazing experience of which I imagine nothing else can come close to in making you feel certain emotions. An emotional visit but worthwhile. A must-see to educate everybody This visit is something that I will remember for whole my life. A day of reflection and emotion. It's good to know history. The tour was nice and everything, but the place itself is very depressing. What an experience! A must when in Krakow. Very interesting and sad place to visit. Upon our return to Krakow hardly anyone spoke. very emotional and thought-provoking Worth going with a tour guide for the added knowledge. At least once in a lifetime, we all should visit this memorial and museum, preferably with a guide. even though some parts can be especially sad and depressing. Sad and haunting but must be seen! Has to be visited to experience the horror and the scale of this camp!! Profound educational experience and an important journey that encourages reflection on the atrocities of the past. My words inevitably fail to provide just how moving the experience is, and such important lessons from history must never be forgotten. An emotional visit but worthwhile. We learnt a huge amount and I would certainly recommend the visit for people to understand the lessons and paying respect to those who suffered there. A soulful, must see experience. I found the most heart wrenching, displays of personal belongings and the punishment chambers, even though you could call everything seen is heart wrenching. A day of reflection and emotion. We learn about Hitler, the Nazi's and the persecution of the Jews. We are given facts, figures and statistics of how many people were murdered in concentration camps. A unique experience, a very special experience, a lifetime experience. I recommend with great confidence, go and visit this open-air museum, a real life experience! Shocking, worth a visit, lesson of life. That place should have no rating. It’s NOT a tourist attraction. Very eye opening experience and also educational. There are no words to describe this experience. Emotional. A moving visit. Even though the crimes happened many years ago, the place still conveys the horror very vividly. Our time at Auschwitz was incredibly interesting and informative. Horribly Powerful. As others have said, there literally are no words to describe the horror of this place. Very emotional with feelings and information that will stick with you a long time. The site was very somber and educational and the tour guide very good. …there is simply no way to comprehend what in God's name you are looking at when you stand in front of a collapsed 181 gas chamber. There are no words in the English language to describe what it is. Very moving. Still getting to grips with the horrors. Informative and moving. A one-off experience, a terrible place one should not forget Emotional and thought provoking. Great experience. I have never visited anywhere that had and has left me with such a profound affect. For me it was very emotional especially in some buildings. The remains of human hair and the gas chamber created one of the most lasting, poignant memories. A necessary, educational, devastating experience. An experience of a life time. Emotionally it was tough of course. Emotional but necessary visit. Once in a lifetime experience. It was impressive and humbling to walk inside these grounds and realise just how much horrible things went down there. Astonishing, moving, sobering. There aren't words in any language to describe the experience of visiting Auschwitz and Birkenau, you just have to visit. I …found it to be an incredibly poignant and moving experience that I will never forget! EYE OPENING EXPERIENCE. This was a difficult but beautiful experience. The most humbling and emotional experiences of my life!... it was truly a life changing and highly emotionally charged day in my life. The whole things brings about so many thoughts, emotions and feelings that we had not experienced before. Lifetime experience!!! Learning Lifetime experience… High value learning experience, which I will carry on in my life. I feel I cannot comment on our day as it was so emotional but I will never forget today. The memory of Auschwitz will forever be imprinted in our minds as we go back on the memory lane, it will never be forgotten. This visit is something that I will remember for whole my life. 182 8.3. Limitations of the research Despite the contribution to the knowledge of emotional experiences of tourism at genocide sites, this research is not without its limitations. Firstly, personal interviews brought varied depth of discussion – one interviewee from Majdanek location, regardless of additional prompts did not demonstrate the level of experience of the other one. During the interviews at Auschwitz-Birkenau one of the interviewees, being senior manager of the Museum did not have any knowledge about the visitors’ reactions, however his answers greatly contributed to the understanding of the supply site of genocide sites. The netnographic part of research did not come without its own limitations. The gathered results needed extensive use of inductive techniques, which could allow some unnecessary subjectivity. The entries left by visitors on TripAdvisor website did not operate around 24 given emotions; their taxonomy and expressions were limitless; however, the main task of the analysis was also to achieve a relative comparison between in-depth interviews and netnographic studies with the use of the same grounded theory. Additionally, Plutchik’s did not strictly defined the taxonomy of its emotions; apart from the postulates included in previous chapter he focused his theory on main eight emotions and corresponding one of the lesser intensities and one of the bigger intensities, bringing the expanded wheel to 24 different emotions. Some emotions were relatively easy to identify through the netnographic study – visitors were clearly experiencing sadness or interest, which was qualified as the primary emotion of sadness or interest. However, Majority of the entries were leaving a relatively big part for the interpretation, for instance an entry: “An overwhelming feeling of sadness and anger at the perpetrators' perfidy.” Would suggest two main emotions almost competing for supremacy – is it then sadness as mentioned first or anger as often follower of sadness. And what about the emotions of being “disturbed” as a result of visiting site? Would that meaning translate to upset, as being its synonym, or annoyance for being taken away from the realms of normal, safe, and friendly world to the reality when the only certain was death. While looking at the emotions and overall tourism experience reviews posted over several pages there is also a risk that tourists themselves could have read the previous comments before submitting their own; it could create a bias in answering in their own words or a limitation of repetition – for instance, if many people mentioned shock or expression of “haunting” one would also include those statements in the review. Unfortunately looking at the reviews posted on any website there is no possibility to 183 know how independently written they were and whether they actually would have been different without impact of reviews previously posted. Another limitation of this thesis’ primary research might come from the fact that as the research was based on a case study, methodology chapter mentioned Miles’ (1990) argument that such a study is labour intensive and often leads to information overload. With prominently inductive analysis, the data received from two different sources; in depth interviews and netnographic study was information rich but also difficult to categorise. The interpretation of some data, such as additional emotions gathered through netnography was dependent of the researcher and their earlier approach to the literature review, which is however consistent with the general criticism of case study approach (Stake, 1995). Additionally, some lines of investigation such as mutual connection or exclusion of certain emotions while visiting concentration camps must have been deserted and form the suggestion for further research. Regardless of the quantities of the reviews left consequently on TripAdvisor site for Majdanek or Auschwitz-Birkenau, the main challenges were encountered during analysing netnographic results for both sides from qualitative perspective. In other words, the emotions expressed on the review websites were extending the range of any previously mentioned theories of basic emotion. Although inductive analysis, as previously mentioned could be questioned on bases of its subjectivity, it also offers an opportunity to look specifically at other emotions, not recognised in the acclaimed theories but very present at difficult heritage, or in this case – Holocaust sites. 8.4. Summary This chapter was aimed at demonstrating the results of primary research undertaken for this thesis. The findings were presented in separate subchapters for both locations. They included the results of both techniques used: in-depth interviews and netnographic study. The findings were generally aimed to contribute to the analysis and shedding the light on the complex subject of emotions in dark tourism and overall tourism experience in difficult heritage sites. 184 9. Analysis and Discussion 9.1. Introduction The following chapter will be presenting, analysing and discussing the outcomes of primary research collected by the author at two former concentration camp sites as well as results retrieved from netnographic studies for both sites. The analysis will be using Plutchik’s Emotion Wheel (1980) and Aho’s tourism experience (2001) theories. The analysis will be using two approaches to primary research; the results of in-depth interviews conducted at both former KL camps and netnographic study covering tourists’ feedback posted on TripAdvisor forums – separately for each location. The analysis of emotions will take a deductive approach while analysis the results of in-depth interviews and inductive approach while analysing the findings from TripAdvisor. Plutchik’s theory of Wheel of Emotions (1980) will be supported with additional categories created after retrieving author’s netnographic findings as there would be a question whether the expressive rage displayed by Plutchik’s Wheel of Emotions is indeed sufficient to demonstrate the variety of emotions mentioned often (multiple times) by the visitors. Additional analysis related to using Aho’s (2001) framework of Tourism Experience will question the primary focus on emotions while analysing the tourism experience and will offer other avenues of experiencing difficult heritage sites also as a cognitive (informative) and transformative experience. 9.2. State Museum at Majdanek The following chapter will be presenting the analyse and discuss the results of two in-depth interviews undertaken at the State Museum at Majdanek site and the netnographic analysis of reviews left on TripAdvisor Majdanek website. 185 9.2.1. Identification of State Museum at Majdanek While first responder underlined the formal meaning of the site as a museum, the other gave a slightly different interpretation, more imbedded in the reality of the past; focusing of the primary existence and function of the site - a former concentration and extermination camp. Although those two responses are essentially focusing on two different functions, it could be mentioned that the providers of Holocaust sites might perceive the sites through the lenses of their current obligations towards it; as JL is a current Director of Education in State Museum at Majdanek they could have prioritise the function of museum and the education offered there the most. They added (JL): “…it is also a place of education about those times and place reminding that”. Second respondent also mentioned that the site of former KL Majdanek is a cemetery. However, Majdanek is far from other cemeteries which Stone (2006) includes in the seven dark suppliers’ category as Dark Resting Places or Shrines. Cemetries as Dark Resting Places have almost romanticised meaning and offer a sense of serenity and opportunity to commemorate, they are places when deceased rest, but not necessary when they died. Therefore, interpretation of Majdanek as a cemetery is not untrue, the site is a final resting place for thousand, however commemoration of an individual is almost impossible, or at least must be a symbolic one, as there are no individual graves, and only a mass ash collection under the Majdanek’s Dome might represent the tombs and graves that were never meant to be built. 9.2.2. Interpretation of State Museum at Majdanek as a dark tourism site Academic literature often contextualizes concentration camps as examples of dark tourism (Allar 2013; Beech, 2000; Biran et al, 2011; Busby and Devereux, 2015; Kaelber, 2007; Magee and Gilmore, 2015; Thurnell-Read, 2009, Oren et al, 2022). Stone (2006, p.157) clearly identifies concentration camp suppliers as an example of dark tourism, to a degree that those sites create a darkest category of his typology called Dark Camps of Genocide. However, when the respondents at State Museum at Majdanek were asked whether they perceive the former camp a dark tourism destination they were not satisfied with that classification and did not support the idea of former Kl Majdanek to be included in a dark tourism category. 186 The opinions of the representatives of both camps suggest that there is an understanding of dark tourism as a light, possible even entertaining way of visiting dark locations; applying Stone’s categories it would possibly apply to Dark Fun Factories or Dark Exhibitions. Second respondent admitted that the term dark tourism might relate to display of violence however fun site is also added to it making it a “safe fear” space. Also, dark tourism is having a commercial connotation to the respondents – suppliers provide a strong experience for the purpose of making profit, while visiting Museum at Majdanek is free of charge and the time of the visit is not limited. 9.2.3. The way of presenting State Museum at Majdanek to visitors It is worth mentioning that approximately half of visitors coming to Majdanek decides on an individual stroll through the grounds of the camp (rough data based on the interviews). The ways of presenting former Majdanek concentration camp during guided tour could be various, benefiting in the case of Majdanek from almost intact state of the grounds, according to the information from the in-depth interview. There are many possibilities to showcase the extreme authenticity of the location; the visitors can almost walk through a scenario of being admitted to the camp, having a shower, and being directed to the living barracks. The perspective of demonstrating a camp from both personal stories, as from general perspective is appropriate as visitors arriving at Majdanek might have a different level of understanding about the former camp and guided tours in this respect are a form of communication linking guides and visitors with different kind of knowledge. Additionally, according to Lautenbach-von Ostrowski (2022) concentration camps evolve from places of remembrance and honouring the victims to places of historical education and political meaning. Additionally, State Museum at Majdanek still receives visits from former inmates (such as Halina Birenbaum) who adds personal stories to the general narrative of the place, which is confirming Wagenaar and Groeneweg’s (1990) findings in which concentration camp prisoners have a very vivid memories of their time in the camps. It is however worth of noting that joining a guided tour is not the only way the stories and facts at Majdanek could be consumed. The written information, posters, incredibly vast number of expositions, comparing to the site of the former camp is making it possible for the tourists to visit the camp in their own paste and acknowledge the information displayed. 187 Table 9.1. One of the sleeping barracks at Majdanek Source: Author’s own gallery 188 9.2.4. Engaging emotions in State Museum at Majdanek There is not known published research about the scale of emotions at this particular former concentration and extermination camp – KL Majdanek. The location – although could be also categorized as genocide or Holocaust site is different from other, better known extermination camps such as Auschwitz-Birkenau, Dachau or Ravensbrück. It receives much less visitors than the ones mentioned, however, or despite of it the site delivers a true realism of the camp – as mentioned before it was never demolished by the retreating Nazis and the brutality, and cruel conditions of the victims’ existence are fully exposed to the visitors and maintained to present day demonstrating the uppermost possible authenticity of the camp. 9.2.4.1. Engaging emotions in State Museum at Majdanek – the analysis of in-depth interviews The interviews revealed the following range of emotions: interest, sadness, pensiveness, fear, anger, grief, amazement, and certain elements of serenity, as it is presented below: The emotions observed and identified by two respondents have been applied to Plutchik’s Wheel of Emotions in a picture below. As mentioned in the methodology chapter, that was the sole deductive element of generally qualitative and inductive semi-structure interview. However, in this case the respondents have to point out already stated emotions as per the Plutchik’s theory without adding any other emotions which were not mentioned on the Wheel model. There is not a particular order of analysing the emotions, however it is wort stating that two emotions: sadness and interest were mentioned by both interviews relatively early while responding to the question. 189 Table 9.2.: Emotions at Majdanek – results of in-depth interviews A sadness is according to the respondents a leading and ongoing emotion in a sense that is a first one observed while passing the grounds of the camp. Ashworth (2008) defines a whole dark tourism experience as one composed of dark emotions such as pain, death, sorrow, suffering, horror, or sadness. Sadness as an emotion is present at other Holocaust and difficult heritage places; for instance, at the Yad Vashem Holocaust Remembrance site (Krakower, 2002), among young people visiting Auschwitz-Birkenau (Thurnell-Read, 2009), at Neuengamme Concentration Camp Memorial (Nawijn and Fricke, 2015) or at former penitentiary establishment – Norfolk Island (Best, 2007). In case of State Museum in Majdanek sadness as a primary emotion (Plutchik, 1980) is also, according to the interviewees accompanied by the evidence of adjoining emotions; pensiveness (lower intensity than sadness) and grief (higher intensity than sadness). Grief was proposed as an emotion recognized in people with personal connection to Holocaust. Farber et al (2022) offers even stronger expression – “catastrophic grief” as a feeling of an aging Holocaust child survivor, who witnessed families, generations and communities vanishing and therefore now he / she lives with a sense of grief beyond repair. Abraham (2022) already mentioned the element of grief felt by second generation of Holocaust linking it however to empathy to the victims and other Holocaust families. Additionally, after Silove et al (2017) grief could be also linked to anger, especially in case of Holocaust where families were exposed to images of their dear ones being murdered or 190 separated from each other forcefully, then the anger following the grief could be explained, although at the moment the published work linking anger and grief, especially in the context of Holocaust is slightly limited and calls for further investigation. The connection between grief and empathy recognized by Abraham et al (2022) research was also acknowledged by the second respondent in Museum State at Majdanek, MD said about the visitors: “…they became so empathetic to feel that emotion as well…” As grief (negative emotion) possesses a strong emotional ballast and was linked to feeling of empathy (positive outcome) by second respondent at Majdanek, which yet works as a reminder that visiting difficult sites and feeling negative emotions does not lead to negative overall experience, and in some cases can also enrich one’s understanding, hence it could be an indication that the emotions at difficult heritage sites are very complex. Capacity of co-feeling the emotions of victims by the visitors is consistent with Haas’ (2020, p.93) definition of empathy reached while observing young people’s attitude to Holocaust; “…moral empathy is an awareness and level of care for the experience and emotions of people and one’s ability to identify with their situation”. Interest is also a common emotion observed at Majdanek; being less intense adaptation of the primary emotion of anticipation. Interest is understood here as attention given to the history of the place, the reasons for Holocaust and an idea of concentration camp as well as interest in the exhibitions and artefacts gathered by the Museum. Interest at State Museum at Majdanek can stem from a strict educational meaning – as mentioned before former KL Majdanek is very well preserved and due to avoiding being demolished, visitors are exposed with the same artefacts barracks and crematoriums that existed there during the Second World War. Therefore, the visitors have more opportunities to envisage a “real working camp” grounds and ask relevant questions towards actual site or one of many expositions. The information is delivered by the guide or by the extensive written information as well as visual observation. Due to vast amount 191 of field work undertaken by the suppliers of State Museum at Majdanek, the interest, if expressed by the visitors is fulfilled and might also lead to repetitive visits, partaking in organised workshops. Nawijn et al (2008) listed interest as top five emotions concluding their research in Dutch concentration camp. It was a leading emotion for 13.4% visitors in his study group (p.183). Corresponding emotion to interest could be curiosity, and Linage et al (2015) analysing Holocaust memorial sites link curiosity to the expected positive experience from the visit; the curiosity in their research was a response to historical aspects of the concentration camp site, as in some cases, being a part of the family history. However, if we treat curiosity as a pre-visit expectation, it might as well function as a form of motivation to the visit, rather than the effect of the visit. Another emotion pointed out by my respondents at State Museum at Majdanek is a surprise in its stronger version: amazement. Plutchik (1980) did not distinguished in his Wheel of Emotion between negative and positive surprise or subsequently negative or positive amazement, being here consistent with Ortony’s (2022) suggestion that surprise escapes a traditional valence-based method of categorising emotion. In this case amazement encountered in Museum State in Majdanek is strongly negative, as per interview: “…Amazement of the sheer scale of the evil…” As mentioned in the “Emotions” chapter, a surprise, and sub consequent emotion of an amazement is a result of an unexpected event and the natural human reaction to unexpected event will be generally a negative one; naturally people do not like being surprised as from pre-historian times surprise often meant danger or negative consequences (Noordewier and Dijk, 2019). In case of visiting grounds of former KL Majdanek the unexpected converts to shocking – a state of emotion not acknowledged by Plutchik in his theory (1980), but very much present during visiting concentration camps (Kidron, 2013; Nawijn et al, 2018; Oren et al, 2022). Nevertheless, the question arises how unexpected images and site of former concentration camps could be for the visitors. Admittedly, State Museum at Majdanek is less popularised through various social media and feedback; visitors might not be entirely prepared to be exposed to fully preserved site of extermination place. In terms of more promoted by social media and cinematography Auschwitz-Birkenau, the visitors might be previously aware of the certain images (main gate, reminding of gas chambers, some remaining barracks), nevertheless the element of shock at Auschwitz-Birkenau will be analysed in the further part of this chapter. There is therefore an important question towards why and how deeply the emotions of surprise or even shock is being experienced by the visitors who deliberately and voluntary agreed to visit a site connected with mass murder and genocide. 192 The level of surprise for both sites therefore could have been more closely assessed, linked with the previous level of knowledge that visitors possessed about the sites and possibly their emotional preparation prior to the visit or lack of it. Another emotion demonstrated by the visitors is fear. Oren et al (2022, p.163) mention fear while researching emotions connected with former KL Auschwitz-Birkenau, but only as a pre-visit emotional expectation. The fear here would rather translate to fearing of the personal reaction while visiting the site and its artefacts: “It is the most frightening trip I ever made or planned”, “…I am terrified of the things I’ll see there or feel there”. Another found example of fear demonstrated at the difficult heritage site is mentioned in the research by Best (2007) based on emotions while visiting Norfolk Island – a former penitentiary island near Australia. Fear in this case was a result of discomfort and unease after acknowledging chilling condition of imprisonment, however the author of the paper herself was rather surprised that the fear is still present after so much time passed since the convict era was present at Norfolk Island. In case of State Museum at Majdanek the fear felt by the visitors is more of a declaration of the uncertain future; since Second World War, Europe was enjoying the time of peace and relative political calm. Currently the peace was broken by the war in Ukraine – a country located only 70 miles away from Lublin and Majdanek and a recent conflict in Gaza. The fear felt in Majdanek could be interpreted by the possible image of the repetition of cruel genocide - if the war was able to create a mass murder factory like former KL Majdanek, then the question stands what can happen now, when we are facing war in the Ukraine and conflict in Gaza; how far we are from repeating this terrifying part of history. Perhaps the most unexpected emotion mentioned in the interview is serenity – a lighter manifestation of joy. As MD mentioned: “… it can happen in case of people who are confronting their fears, their everyday struggles with the level of tragedy that happened here to people.” Serenity works here as a successful confrontation, perhaps a closure, however, it can also stem from overall feeling of gratitude for the quality and relative safety of life we experience now, comparing to times of Second World War. Happiness (close emotion to Plutchik’s joy) is also registered in Oren et al (2022) research as an emotion revealed at the Holocaust site. 193 9.2.4.2. Engaging emotions in State Museum at Majdanek – the netnographic analysis Second part of the research, as mentioned in the methodology chapter was netnographic study of reviews left on TripAdvisor site. The application of the model of 24 emotions established by Plutchik (1980) allowed the researcher to recognise the variety of emotions demonstrated by visitors of State Museum at Majdanek. Most transcribed emotions are clustered around sadness, pensiveness, and interest; this is consistent with the results from in-depth interviews. There are some limited expressions of joy and ecstasy, however they most likely reflected a state of general satisfaction from being at the site of Majdanek and thankfulness of intense learning process, being exposed to many valuable artefacts and a level of gratitude for the Museum to maintain site and keep its original shape. Surprise and amazement both suggest that visitors did not expect to see what they have acknowledged while visiting the camp. In terms of surprise however it is difficult to categorically assess whether it is more of a positive surprise of being able to see an authentic historic site or negative surprise bordering with a shock of the atrocities the visitors saw. Amazement as a stronger interpretation of surprise is present as well as a result of seeing something unexpected. Amazement and awe, similarly to site of Majdanek are also visible at other heritage sites or commonly known as dark tourism sites such as Pompeii, where the amazement was interpreted as negative experience and in China’s earthquake site in Beichuan where awe was also interpreted as a negative emotion (Zhang, 2021, p.100880). Pensiveness, sadness, and grief interpreted as one emotion with three stages of intensity is vastly expressed in the visitor’s reviews entries after the visit. Often respondents linked the feeling of sadness with additional reflection which creates pensiveness. Stronger levels of sadness – grief is relatively less visible; however, the visitors address it and describe as their “heart-wrenching” experience. Sadness is highly represented in the research on emotions in heritage or dark tourism sites (Austin, 2002, Nawijn and Fricke, 2015, Nawijn et al, 2018, Oren et al, 2022, Zhang, 2021) During the process of analysis applying full spectrum of Plutchik’s Emotions Wheel was not sufficient to present the whole variety of emotions found through the netnographic study of emotions demonstrated in State Museum in Majdanek. Although Plutchik named 24 emotions on his Wheel, the results suggest there are still some limitations with using that particular framework. Categorization method was inductive and explained in the methodology chapter. For the additional emotions, not 194 identified by the Plutchik’s Wheel the direct meaning from Encyclopaedia Britannica and Oxford Dictionary were applied to justify their categorization and to somehow group the variety of reviews. Author adapted additional categories, which were more directly corresponding with the described emotions. One of the strongest emotions not directly mentioned in Plutchik’s model was a shock. Interestingly, shock was not recognized as a primary emotion in main theories of emotions presented in the “Emotions” chapter. Isn’t it therefore a common expression, that people use to describe a great level of possibly negative surprise? Yet, Nawijn et al (2018, p.183) recognised that shock was the strongest emotions for 17% of respondent visiting concentration camp memorial. Zheng et al (2018, p.11) listed shock at the scenes of innocent victims being killed in Second World War as second most prolific emotion observed in the sample of visitors. Additionally, Buda (2015) mentioned shock and fear as potently observed emotional reactions to dark tourism sites. Shock is likewise a possible emotion triggered by a simple representation of death along wonder and excitement but also personal as well as social catharsis (Martini and Buda, 2020). Additionally, the other most stated experiences were also separately identified as shock, sense of being sober by the scene or upset. That can demonstrate that the theory of Plutchik’s Wheel of Emotions (1980) is not a sufficient tool to analyse all the emotional spectrum of tourism experiences while visiting a Holocaust site. As the word “shocking” was stated multiple times by the visitors suggesting an unexpected reaction – although the visit in the concentration camp was planned, the scenes the visitors were exposed to were still too difficult to immediately process or explain. Shock here exists as a strongly negative emotions, which is also accompanied by the physical consequences of visit such as restlessness “…I could not sleep after visiting Majdanek”. Another, separate category of emotions was labelled “upset” and the author believes it warrants a distinction from possibly closest state of sadness. The visitors were mentioning their experiences at visiting Majdanek as “harrowing” which Cambridge Dictionary translates as “extremely upsetting because connected with suffering”. In the case of visiting that particular site the upset is connected with viewing the testimony of evident suffering by the victims of Nazi regime such as mentioned gas chambers or execution trenches. There are also many expressions found on the TripAdvisor website which could not be doubtlessly attributed to any of the named, specific emotions therefore has been categorized by the author as “other”. Occasionally visitors have been describing their experience simply as “emotional”. Other descriptions were calling their encounter as “depressing”, “moving” or “difficult”. Although all those 195 states of emotions are negative, the often-addressed message was that of encouraging people to visit former concentration camp at Majdanek. This collaboration of emotions and recommendations supports Nawijn and Biran (2019) statement that negative emotions in tourism may lead to positive memorable experience, including advocating the site to other tourists as visit worthy. 9.2.4.3. Tourism experience in State Museum at Majdanek with the use of Aho’s framework Additional part of discussion coming from ethnographic research is applied to Aho’s (2010) framework to determine the overall tourist experience of visitors of State Museum at Majdanek. Emotional experiences of visiting State Museum at Majdanek are vast and exceptionally complex, however it is also important to look at other corresponding visitors’ experiences. The transformation experience is very clearly expressed, and, in many cases, sightseers mention physical reactions to Majdanek, long-term effect of the visit and slight internal conflict after seeing the scale of the genocide while not being able to process it. The informative aspect is also crucial for the quality of the general tourism experience; however, it is worth noting that it depends heavily on the way the supplier (in this case State Museum at Majdanek) decided to exhibit the site. Overall, while being at Majdanek visitor can have relatively unlimited time of visit as the sightseers are not restricted to join a tour to visit the site. That offers opportunities to more individual, personalised experience and gathering information in their own pace and possibly more focused on their level of sensitivity – in the individual sightseeing some elements of the camp, such as trenches after bullet killing, gas chambers might be omitted. The practical experience is much less mentioned, understandably so, as the artefacts are protected from touching and reconstructing any kind of concentration camp behaviour would not be seen as appropriate. However, at Dachau concentration camp Museum the participation of visitors is encouraged; the questions are welcomed, and the guides are fostering the act of observing the artefacts of the Museum (Maggie and Gilmore, 2015) which might contribute to a certain degree of practical experience. It is worth noticing that tourists describing their experiences on TripAdvisor forum after visiting State Museum at Majdanek left some direct messages created by their emotional experience but being beyond the realms of emotions. Mostly it is connected to the importance of the site in the current and future memory of genocide, as well as a special appreciation for visiting Museum State at Majdanek. 196 Author theorises here, whether those expressions are some sort of recommendations for others to visit. The transcripts from the forum site often underlined the problem that visitors have with “recommending” a visit to a concentration camp – it is simply not how it is done, almost an oxymoron, a scene so dramatic that you would not like another person to be exposed to. On the other site however, there was not a single written comment about regretting visiting the site, on the contrary many people expressed gratefulness, appreciation and almost pride by visiting the site. As for some people seeing a concentration camp was a “bucket list” point, some others understood being there almost as a thing to do, to show the commemoration to the victims of Holocaust. In this respect visiting sites such as Majdanek or Auschwitz-Birkenau might also bring comparison to pilgrimaging – a process perceived as an early stage of dark tourism (Ashworth, 2004; Tarlow, 2005). Some of the comments below might be the treated as attempts to “recommend” this site and promote it as a valuable lesson and a knowledge which should be carried for the next generations. Let’s not forget that by acknowledging Aho’s (2001) tourism experience framework the emotional journey is one of the few the tourist might experience. Therefore, the recommendation to visit a former concentration camp might be regarded as insensitive from the emotional point of view, but very valuable from educational perspective. Although the TripAdvisor website’s reviews did not always supply the information about the potential relationship between the victims and tourists, neither their origins of the reviewees, by visiting a concentration camp the visitors might receive a stimulation to recovery and empower the “coping” process as it was mentioned at another disaster site by Muskat et al (2014) as “healing around death” (Coats and Ferguson, 2013). “We should never forget. No words can describe the feelings…. and we should never forget...” “Lost, let's not forget. The world should never forget the evils of time, particularly what happened in Poland and indeed elsewhere.” “Everyone should see this to realise what privileged lives we live today.” “You owe it to yourself, to those who perished, and to those yet to be born to go, to see, to experience, to remember, to reflect, to reveal.” 197 9.3. Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum The following chapter will be presenting the results of analysis coming from two in-depth interviews undertaken at the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum site and the netnographic analysis of reviews left on TripAdvisor of Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum site. 9.3.1. Identification of Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum The interviewees were asked to supply their own understanding of Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum as a site. The understanding of the site as a cemetery is consistent with one of the interviewees in former KL Majdanek – a cemetery without the graves, yet a place where the commemoration of named or unnamed victims happens. It is also a very matter-of-fact taxonomy; the site of Auschwitz-Birkenau is indeed a place where around 1,3 million people were murdered and perished due to hunger, dilapidated conditions of living, diseases or suicide. The proposed perception of Auschwitz-Birkenau is twofold: as a place of death, extermination and genocide, but also as a site which recognized the need of formal commemoration of its horrific past early on; a Museum and the research centre. 9.3.2. Interpretation of Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum as a dark tourism site The respondents were asked about identification of Auschwitz-Birkenau as a (leading) dark tourism site. Both respondents, similarly to interviewees from former KL Majdanek somewhat refuse to acknowledge the connection of Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum with the terminology of dark tourism, yet again contradicting the accepted academic perspective of Lennon and Foley (1999); Stone’s view (2006) as well as Miles’ (2002), Biran et al (2011), Kidron (2013); Isaac and Cakmak (2014); Ward and Stessel’s (2012) and Tarlow (2014), Oren et al (2021; 2022). The respondents carry an understanding of dark tourism’s terminology as being more of a hedonic nature that the status of the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum is, or should be perceived. It is a new and fascinating finding, as 198 there is not an academic paper negating or repudiating Auschwitz-Birkenau it’s place on a dark tourism map, on a contrary, notoriously calling this site “a pinnacle of European Dark Tourism” (Tarlow, 2004). 9.3.3. The way of interpreting Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum to visitors One of the guide’s roles is to provide an education about the visited site; it is also affirmed by the amount and quality of educational experience received at both sides of the concentration camp. However, is a tour guide also accountable for providing an emotional experience of the visitors? Aho’s model supports a view that both experiences complement each other and contribute to the better overall tourism experience. By bringing stories, referring to the tales of survivors the guides are both addressing historical facts as well as tackling the emotional requests during the visit (Latenbach-von Ostrowski, 2022). Additionally, as Second World War’s genocide is steadily becoming an event outside of the living memory and becomes what Tunbridge and Ashworth (1996) captures as “dissonant heritage” is it even more vital to “personalize” the site and retrieve single, personal stories among millions who vanished without the name. 9.3.4. Engaging emotions at Auschwitz Birkenau State Museum Although the body of research into a site of Auschwitz-Birkenau is noticeable (Adriaansen, 2020; Benton, 2010; Commane and Potton, 2019; Dalton, 2009; Gorrara, 2018; Griffiths, 2019; Hayes, 2003; Johnston et al, 2016; Kaelber, 2007; Miles, 2022; Oren et al, 2021, 2022; Pettigrew and Karayianni, 2021; Tarlow, 2014; Thurnell-Read, 2009; Ward and Stessel, 2012) the focus on emotional experience of visitors in dark tourism is relatively new (Light, 2017). Former KL Auschwitz-Birkenau, apart from recent Oren et al (2021, 2022) papers, although acknowledged in the literature as a key example of dark tourism has not been thoroughly investigated in terms of the kind of tourist experience it provides. The analysis provides qualitative analysis of emotions and overall experience demonstrated by visitors of Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum. It is a result of in-depth interview and netnographic results. 199 9.3.4.1. Engaging emotions in Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum – the analysis of in-depth interview The interview revealed the following range of emotions demonstrated and observed with visitors of Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum: interest, sadness, pensiveness, amazement, and surprise, as it is presented below: Figure 9.3. Emotions at Auschwitz-Birkenau – results of in-depth interviews The first analysed emotion demonstrated by visitors at Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum is sadness. The presence of this emotion is consistent with other literature findings (Thurnell-Read, 2009, Oren et al 2021, 2022) and with the primary research on site of State Museum at Majdanek. The prime emotion of sadness is also present at Auschwitz-Birkenau in its lighter form – as a pensiveness. This could be a comment that although sadness and pensiveness is present – it’s strongest form – a grief is not. It could be however hypothesized that visitors (especially the ones planning a visit in advance) have heard of Auschwitz-Birkenau. The presence and exhibition of this particular camp in everyday media and literature of the subject is more intense than other former concentration and extermination sites. Visitors then could have had many occasions to see the infamous entry gate, barbed wires, or ABABABABamazementsurprisesadnesspensivenessEmotions visible in Auschwitz-Birkenau200 selection platform, therefore become in a way desensitised to the actual reality experienced during the visit. It could also stem from the possibility that the emotion of grief is proving to be difficult to be verbally or physically presented on site and witnessed by other people; while it is often articulated in the reviews left on TripAdvisor. Nevertheless, there is a need for further research around expression of sadness and intensity of sadness experienced by visitors at Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum. The author also suggests a divided approach research; is the emotion of sadness, and its intensity the same in Auschwitz I – the original living bunkers and work site, or in Birkenau (often called Auschwitz II) – a site created solely for the extermination reasons. The in-depth interview also suggested presence of interest in the site, as well as surprise and amazement. As the interviewee did not mention any particular cases connected with showcasing the emotion it would be suggested to follow the mentioned statements, e.g., although suspected there is no possibility to assume that the emotion of surprise is a negative one. Yet again it is worth recapping that, Plutchik’s Wheel of Emotions, as a theory, recognises interest as an emotion, contradicting other acclaimed theories where surprise is not even identified as such (Ortony and Turner, 1990; Ortony, 2022). The ambivalence of surprise could be further debated and researched; the negativity of surprise at Auschwitz-Birkenau might come from the point of view of shocking existence and mass murder on site, however positive surprise might arrive from the appreciation to the curators of the site for maintaining it and making widely available. 9.3.4.2. Engaging emotions in Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum – the netnographic analysis The analysis and categorization of the responses is, as described in methodology – inductive. The responders did not see the Wheel of Emotions; hence they were not restrained to select their emotional experiences based only on the emotions deriving from the Wheel. Similarly, to the reviews left after visiting former KL Majdanek, the application of Plutchik’s Wheel of Emotions (1980) to Auschwitz-Birkenau site concentrates strongly on emotions such as sadness, annoyance and amazement while also suggesting that emotions such as acceptance, trust, distraction, or boredom are not felt neither expressed by the visitors. Sadness and grief were the two most commonly identified emotions by visitors of Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum on TripAdvisor website. The guests who decided to leave a post-visit feedback were describing their state to being “heart-broken” or “soul wrenching”. The expression of sadness was very often followed by recommendation to visit – “a must see” which also in case of Auschwitz-Birkenau 201 supports Nawijn and Biran (2018) constructive correlation between negative emotions and positive memorable tourist experience. Surprise and amazement are also often mentioned emotion at the site of Auschwitz-Birkenau. Similarly to Majdanek, based on an assumption that the visitors knew where they were and have been deliberate in the act of traveling to Auschwitz-Birkenau former extermination camp; planning and purchasing or booking a ticket, the surprise factor might be slightly unexpected. Additionally, and contrarily to Majdanek; former KL Auschwitz-Birkenau is a world known centre of Holocaust and has been very well represented in media and literature of tourism, yet the surprise and “eye-opening” factor is still confirmed by the visitors. Correspondingly to the case of State Museum in Majdanek, Plutchik’s Emotion Whell was not fully satisfactory to cover all the emotional indicators collected from netnographic research in Auschwitz-Birkenau, hence additional criteria to access the experiences were introduced. Shock was again, very often mentioned emotional reaction to the site. The level of shock could be startling given that, similarly to surprise, the visitors might have had a possibility to watch documentaries or pictures of Auschwitz-Birkenau, therefore be more “prepared” for the unsettling landscape of the camp and the exhibits. Shock in some cases is also suggesting a “lesson” for the world so the genocide and atrocities of the Nazi regime would be never repeated. As mentioned earlier, some visitors in their reviews want to separate their emotional experience between Auschwitz I and Birkenau; a statement “For me Birkenau was more shocking” could be a suggestion to analyse the emotional baggage individually for both sites. The category of “other” is a collection of emotional statements which pose a challenge to be classified under any particular emotion, however a general narrative could suggest that although the visit was being referred to as “moving”, “emotional” there was a strong recommendation to visit Auschwitz-Birkenau. 9.3.4.3. Tourism experience in Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum with the use of Aho’s framework The data coming from reviews analysed during ethnographic stage of the research is applied to Aho’s (2010) framework to determine the overall tourist experience of visitors of Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum. 202 The variety of tourism experiences again supports Meyer and Schwager (2007) understanding of experiences as being subjective and open to self-interpretation therefore it is useful to widen the interpretation of tourism experiences beyond solely emotional lenses. Although emotional experience is clearly visible as important part of Auschwitz-Birkenau experience, the reviews suggest a very strong impact of the visit and the long-term effect the visit have had on them. Especially three reviews (marked in bold) express a life-long effect the visit has had on them which according to Aho’s framework could be translated as a transformational experience. The educational element of Auschwitz-Birkenau is undeniable; visitors join the organised groups and are escorted by tour guides on both sides of the camp. That is showing consistent and well organised approach of a supply side of the location to millions of visitors that the Museum targets every year. However, the question stands, is the approach too organised, tightly structured, and too methodical? The reviews reveal the visitors feel slightly rushed, processed, and left without a possibility of reflection: “Understandably there are a lot of people who want to see the site and that makes it hard to take things in as you are constantly being moved on quickly to keep up with the flow.” “The site is chaotic, badly organised and we were rushed through. We got the impression they are trying to pack as many people in as possible to maximise profits. The guides rush you through the site insensitively. You are forced into gigantic compulsory tour groups.” “It is far too busy to be able to take in the full experience…” 9.4. Comparison of emotional experiences demonstrated by visitors at State Museum at Majdanek and Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum. The following part will underline the differences and similarities in interpreting and understanding former concentration camps Majdanek and Auschwitz-Birkenau by their suppliers as well it aims to compare and contrast various emotions and overall tourism experience demonstrated and described by visitors touring both sites. The comparison will take into account the differences arriving from in depth interviews as well as comparison of netnographic results. 203 9.4.1. Comparison of Identification between State Museum at Majdanek and Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum The way that former KL Majdanek and Auschwitz-Birkenau are identified is varied. They are both perceived through their status of a museum, however both places are holding an actual meaning of a cemetery, be it, quite specific one; a cemetery without graves but also a burial ground and a definite place where death happen. On one hand both sites hold a position of in situ genocide sites, on the other the details of exact numbers of victims and especially their names are perished. The most recent estimates suggest the total of fatalities of Auschwitz-Birkenau as 1,3 million (https://www.history.com), while State Museum at Majdanek estimates the numbers of the KL Majdanek victims as 80 thousand (https://www.majdanek.eu/pl). The question also arises whether calling former KL Majdanek and KL Auschwitz-Birkenau “a Museums” is not being an understatement for the character of the site, the history behind it and overwhelming authenticity of most cruel genocide in a living memory? Foley and McPerson (2000) observed an actual switch in museums from their educational functions to recreational purposes; museums became a leisurely activity with a cognition but without strong transformational aftereffect. According to those scholars, a visit in a museum might be a relaxing time out with a supply of retail and catering outlets. Both researched for this thesis former concentration and extermination camps do not represent a narrative of “fun day out” or light entertainment, and it would be important to read their worth as a museum and as a place of rest of million victims of Nazi regime. It could be also hypothesised whether strong unwillingness of my in-depth interview respondents to connect the sites with the terminology of “dark tourism” is not a result of an attempt to avoid lightening the gravity of the sites and including them in a general entertainment tourism. 9.4.1.1. Comparison of self-identification between State Museum in Majdanek and Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum Philip Stone (2006), Korstanje (2011), Biran et al (2011) did not have any hesitations before mentioning former KL Auschwitz-Birkenau and other concentration camps as a prime example of dark tourism. In fact, Stone, in his Dark Tourism Spectrum describes Auschwitz-Birkenau as one of the Dark Camps of Genocide describing those sites and places which have genocide, atrocity and catastrophe as the main thanatological theme, and thus occupy the darkest edges of the ‘dark tourism spectrum’ (2006, p.157). 204 The pictures of gates to Auschwitz I crowned with an infamous “Arbeit Macht Frei” sign, or the ramp in Birkenau are often used as books’ covers or articles insinuating dark tourism subject. There is a numerous collective narrative of unconscious or automatic associating former concentration and death camps with dark tourism. However, interestingly none of respondents during in depth interviews agreed to categorize State Museum at Majdanek or Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum as dark tourism sites. In both cases of sites, the linking of dark tourism with the former camps was becoming problematic for the respondents; as the actual suppliers of both locations, and there was a clear discomfort resulting from relating concentration and extermination camps to the umbrella of dark tourism. The respondents from both sites argued that declaring Majdanek and Auschwitz-Birkenau as dark tourism locations would rather lessen the importance of the sites or in a way diminish the tragedy which was taken place on those locations. 9.4.2. Comparison of supplying between State Museum at Majdanek and Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum Both suppliers use a mixed method of presenting the terrain of the camps and building a narrative. On one hand they operate the historical figures and facts, however there is also a visible importance put on personalization of victims – telling the story of one person, read a part of a diary or show a particular pair of shoes belonging to a victim. All respondents during the in-depth interview acknowledged that they believed that the understanding of the mass tragedy of millions would in reality be easier to grasp and comprehend while the single cases a presented; a story of someone of a certain age, education and dress sense and family history. Although both suppliers are equally consistent with the style of presenting the sites to the visitors, the reality of presentation and the process of receiving the visitors at both sites is very different due to enormous disproportion in the numbers of those who visit the sites. While Auschwitz-Birkenau received 1,2 million visitors in 2022 (https://www.auschwitz.org), Majdanek experiences around 300 thousand visitors a year (https://www.majdanek.eu). 205 9.4.3. Comparison between engaging emotions at State Museum in Majdanek and Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum The following comparison will consider the results of in-depth interviews applied to Plutchik’s Wheel of Emotions (1980) as well as the results of netnographic research obtained through retrieving the emotion-based feedback from visitors of former KL Majdanek and Auschwitz-Birkenau. The comparison of emotional ranged and tourism experiences between State Museum in Majdanek and Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum has, to our knowledge never been attempted. There are therefore no previously established assumptions towards the results of comparison. Although both places represent difficult heritage location in situ, one of them (Auschwitz-Birkenau) is more popular (based on number of visitors), receives a bigger recognition due to the existing documentaries and is relatively more conveniently located (nearby International Cracow airport). Majdanek on the other hand is less promoted, and, as a result gains lesser awareness of potential visitors. Although the location of Majdanek would require more organized approach and premeditated booking it does offer much more authenticity than bigger Auschwitz-Birkenau. 9.4.3.1. Comparison of emotions demonstrated by visitors at State Museum at Majdanek and Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum – the results of in-depth interviews. The comparison of emotions applied to Plutchik’s Wheel of Emotions model (1980) for both camps is shown below. Also, as it was mentioned in the methodology chapter, the professional character of one of the interviewees at Auschwitz-Birkenau; holding function of Deputy Director of the Museum - restricted him from regular meeting and observation reactions of the visitors, hence the author was forced to apply one in depth response and, in further part of the research, collate and compare it with the results from netnographic study. 206 Table 9.4.: Emotions at Majdanek and Auschwitz-Birkenau – results of in-depth interviews comparison MangerMMMMMMinterestfearamazementgriefsadnesspensivenessEmotions visible in MajdanekserenityABABABABamazementsurprisesadnesspensivenessEmotions visible in Auschwitz-Birkenau207 The comparison of described by the in-depth interviewees emotions which were observed by tour guides within their groups on site present slight differences. Visitors of State Museum at Majdanek were showcasing a broader spectrum of emotions; eight emotions were identified by interviewees, while in Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum only five emotions were clearly pointed out. The emotions which were presents at both locations were: sadness, pensiveness, surprise, and interest. Although sadness has been reported by Oren et al (2022) as a pre-visit emotion, sadness is commonly mentioned negative emotion related to genocide sites. Sadness and less intense pensiveness could be feasibly related to the emotions of nostalgia mentioned by Prayag and Del Chiappa (2023) as a state commonly felt at the heritage sites. Nostalgia is treated as an emotional loss (Smith and Cambell, 2017) therefore in this context as a negative emotion. Unlike Auschwitz-Birkenau, State Museum at Majdanek evoked stronger variation of sadness – grief. More in-depth research would be suggested towards grief is not particularly demonstrated at the larger, seemingly more dramatic genocide location. Surprise is present at both former concentration camps, presumably existing as a negative surprise – a reaction to the place of mass murder and the evidence of imprisonment and torture. Visitors at Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum also demonstrated an emotion of amazement. As at this stage of in-depth research respondents were asked to base their answers on Plutchik’s model, the amazement could be further associated with a shock – a state of disbelieve of events which taken place on the site less than a century ago. Interest is an emotion observed at both sites – it is understandable that the visitors determined enough to book a tour, but tickets and in many cases – arrange an individual transport would demonstrate an interest and engagement in the actual visit. Apart from the “celebrity factor” – seeing for themselves a mythical gate with “Arbeit Macht Frei”; a picture which has been photographed countless times or the entry train railways to Birkenau, it is also a place with numerous facts and information about one of the most prolific times in the modern history – interest is therefore much understandable emotions. It is however worth noticing that in either location the interest has not been transforming into more intense alertness, inquisitive emotion of vigilance. Probably the most worth noticing difference arriving from the primary in-depth research is the element of intensive, although quite opposite towards each other emotions such as anger and serenity observed at State Museum at Majdanek but missing at Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum. Anger is an intense emotion that visitors of concentration camps can feel towards the perpetrators. Damousi (1995) recognized a strong connection between grief and anger. Considering the event of Holocaust – a genocide leading to witnessing family members murdered, constant feeling of oppression, and 208 embedded torture we might assume that the connection between grief and anger is exceptionally explicit. According to Valent (1999) grief felt by the Holocaust victims may directly translate into anger in a second generation of Holocaust. Nevertheless, the emotions of grief and anger are only mentioned during in depth interviews at former KL Majdanek and neither was declared as hugely observed emotion in former KL Auschwitz-Birkenau. 9.4.3.2. Comparison of emotions demonstrated by visitors at State Museum in Majdanek and Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum – the results of netnographic research. The following comparison of tourist experience is believed to be a valid one; the feedback was gathered from the same source of information (TripAdvisor); hence a similar tone and length of opinions were compared. Also, the feedback was collected from the same time frame: 2023 – 2019. As a general and opening comment, it could be mentioned that although State Museum at Majdanek has received less feedback number wise, the feedback was more insightful and more concentrated on emotions and overall experience. Although the number of comments left for Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum was significantly higher, the theme was often unrelated to the type of tourism experience which is a focus of this thesis; the visitors of former KL Auschwitz-Birkenau were often leaving “practical” comments about the method of transport, times of arrival, pre-booking arrangement, weather, or quality of the guides. Those types of comments were not considered while gathering data for the netnographic analysis. Based on netnographic studies tourists were generally showing higher level of joy and satisfaction after visiting site of Majdanek rather than Auschwitz-Birkenau. The visitors collectively felt that the experience was “incredible” and were more impressive with the style of designing the visit, or perhaps not designing it at all – the grounds of Majdanek could be visited independently – without a rigour of a guided tour. There is also a higher level of emotions of acceptance and trust articulated by visitors of Majdanek; “…we should never forget”, almost reaching a level of appreciation “…a haunting reminder to be thankful for the lives we have”. The sightseers also show higher level of believing that the past would never be repeated and although the visit might be felt as sombre, there is almost a suggested obligation to visit Majdanek and not forget about the innocent victims of the Holocaust. According to the netnographic findings for both sites there is a very limited level of terror and no fear perceived by tourists. 209 While analysing an emotion of a surprise and its stronger form; an amazement, feedback for both sites of the research provides some evidence that those emotions could benefit from being divided into positive and negative sensation of the same primary emotion. The emotions of surprise and amazement at State Museum at Majdanek are mostly positive: “A chilling but beautiful memorial”, “Hard to say a concentration camp is very good!!!...”, “It’s just amazing”, “…what an amazing place”, although there are also negative alterations of a surprise at Majdanek: “Unimaginable!!!”, “It’s difficult to believe these things happened just 75 years ago!”. However, the emotions of surprise and amazement are being expressed with more negative stimuli: “Heart-breaking words from out tour-guide.”, “What an experience! A must when in Krakow. Very interesting and sad place to visit. Upon our return to Krakow hardly anyone spoke”. Generally, visit to Majdanek was proven to be more “thought provoking”; there were many reviews to be found relating to the process of reflection at Majdanek: “Incredibly sad but reflective place”, “Beautifully preserved humbling though provoking museum”. This finding could be attributed to the character of the place; grounds of former KL Majdanek are more hushed, less crowded and with no particular time limit to leave, the tourists have an opportunity to spend preferred amount of time at certain spots or exhibitions. The emotion of sadness or even grief is probably one of the most acknowledged at difficult heritage and genocide sites, including one of the most prolific Holocaust sites (Isaac and Cakmac, 2016; Liyanage and Coca-Stefaniak, 2015; Lischer, 2019; Oren et al, 2002). Both researched sites demonstrate evidence of evoking emotions of sadness and grief and there is no specific difference of how those emotions are expressed. Sadness is perhaps easy emotion to interpret at such a site and the entries were directly confirming feeling of “being sad”, “heart-broken” or “wrenching”. The limitations of Plutchik’s Wheel of Emotions Model mentioned while describing emotions at State Museum at Majdanek and Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum also call for an amendment while moving to the comparison of additional criteria. The author proposed a set of emotional benchmarks (shock, sobering, solemn, upset, sombre, and other) representing emotions not used by Plutchik (1980), but essential in understanding and comparing the tourists experience at both concentration camps. The reviews collected from TripAdvisor suggested that visitors at both sites describe the emotion of shock. Although colloquially speaking about shock we might mean a very big level of surprise, it has been decided to separate this category, especially as visitors were very clear in naming this emotion. 210 Occasionally the feeling of shock was accompanied by another important belief. The visitors of Majdanek were mentioning feeling “Shocking but unavoidable”, “shocking display of the wicked mined of the Nazi regime”, “horrific but important”, “Exhibition is really shocking”. Visitors of Auschwitz-Birkenau were declaring shock but also messages of “…worth as visit, lesson of life”, “horribly powerful”, “horrible place than everybody should visit”, “a one-off experience”. One entry stated that “…Birkenau was more shocking” (than Auschwitz I – author’s explanation). The netnographic research strongly suggest adding categories for the emotions of sobering, solemn, upset, and sombre. Although it could be argued that they all stem from the feeling of sadness the difference is explained in the methodology chapter, mostly however, the author wanted to be consistent with the exact expressions repeatedly demonstrated by the concentration camps’ visitors. The emotions of sobering and being upset were demonstrated on a bigger scale after visiting Museum State at Majdanek. Tourists were stating a visit being “sobering but not boring”, “sobering and important”, “sobering and moving”, “sobering and insightful”, while in case of Auschwitz-Birkenau there were just few visitors describing the visit more generally as a “sobering experience”. The feeling of being upset was also more documented at Majdanek where visitors were describing it as a “harrowing experience”, “harrowing but worthwhile, essential”, “harrowing but important” or simply; “harrowing reminder”. 9.4.3.3. Comparison between perception of State Museum at Majdanek and Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum by their visitors Two former concentration camps might evoke similar set of emotional experiences in their visitors. As the emotions are mostly negative it is worth reminding findings by Nawijn (2011) showing that negative emotional response in a tourism context does not automatically imply that the visit itself was meaningless and/or negative, yet; on the contrary, their respondents provided a detailed account of their visit and experienced it as positively surprising and fascinating but saddening and shocking at the same time. As there is some, still limited literature emerging based on visitors’ emotions in Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum, while State Museum at Majdanek has not been yet analysed with this regard. This gap in the literature also means it is not possible to compare overall emotional experience, especially of visitors who experienced visiting two camps. 211 This current netnographic research yielded some information which allowed comparing the experiences not only using inductive methods but also looking at the evidence provided by tourists undergoing visits to both researched former concentration camps: KL Majdanek and KL Auschwitz-Birkenau. It is worth mentioning that the comparison was declared by those visitors who left the feedback on Majdanek’s TripAdvisor website; therefore, suggesting that prior to visiting Majdanek those tourists visited Auschwitz-Birkenau, but not the other way round. It is perhaps worth mentioning that the visitors of State Museum at Majdanek tended to leave more “meaningful” feedback focusing on the feelings, emotions, and overall reactions to former concentration camp’s grounds. Visitors of Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum however overall tend to leave quantified feedback about technical details of the travel to Oswiecim, current weather in South of Poland and its’ requirements or just including feedback of former KL Auschwitz-Birkenau under general umbrella of visiting Cracow. There were few main differences mentioned repeatedly which could be categorized as quality of visit, opportunity to self-reflect and the feeling of authenticity of the site. Overall, the visitors encountering both concentration camp sites were more pleased or impressed after visiting Majdanek, although the knowledge about former KL Majdanek is still limited, as one of the guests mentioned: “I had heard of Auschwitz, Belsen and Treblinka but not Majdanek”. One of the main points of comparison was the state of crowdedness; ironically the low level of awareness about Majdanek favours the quality of the visit: “Not nearly as crowded as Auschwitz or some of the other similar concentration/death camps so you have the time to absorb the presentations.”, “Unlike Auschwitz, which is replete with tourists, this site bears an eerie heaviness and an agonizing atmosphere representative of the horrors and atrocities committed in that camp.”, “I recently visited Auschwitz and came away disappointed. It felt like I had been on a production line and hadn't done it the way I wanted to. This wasn't an issue at Majdanek, where I could wander at my own pace, free to read all the fascinating information. I spent two and a half hours there.”, “The memory of Majdanek stays with me more than Auschwitz-Birkenau. Possibly that's because there were so few people in the snow of early April 2013 and it became more of a much more personal experience.” 212 Although smaller and accounted for much lower number of fatalities, Majdanek seems to be more powerful in terms of emotional or transformational experience than Auschwitz-Birkenau: “More shocking than Auschwitz. This gave us the opportunity of exploring the camp on our own, which was definitely depressing.” “In some ways its more horrifying than Auschwitz. It was not destroyed by the Nazi's so its more complete.” “I found this camp more powerful experientially than Auschwitz.” “This is an excellent place to reflect on the terrible events of the Holocaust without the crowds often encountered at the memorial at Auschwitz/Birkenau.” The educational qualities offered at State Museum in Majdanek are also manifested and appreciated by the visitors while comparing it to Auschwitz-Birkenau: “You'll learn a lot and, in my opinion, with a better perspective of reality than you get in Auschwitz.” “Much more interesting than Auschwitz. Everyone goes to Auschwitz but if you make some effort, you must also do Belzec and Majdanek. Majdanek is still very much lifelike.” “Auschwitz-Birkenau is undoubtedly a very important site that serves as a reminder of the pure evilness of humanity. Majdanek literally shows you that. you get to see the actual gassing rooms and crematorium.” In terms of active learning experience as well as long term lasting emotions, there issue of authenticity was occasionally risen by the visitors. It needs clarifying that both Museums are set on exact sites of formal concentration camps, both are representing genocide in situ, however there is a difference in relation to state of concentration camps left after their respective liberations. Former KL in Majdanek experienced much less demolition from retreating Nazi forces therefore it can offer much more authentic buildings and artefacts in comparison to Auschwitz-Birkenau which was almost totally demolished. The historical advantage of Majdanek stands from no other reason than time and circumstances of the already ceasing War; Majdanek being closer to the Easter boarder was freed much quicker and more sudden than KL Auschwitz-Birkenau. This could be now considered as a “positive” in terms of effect and encouraging post visit observation by the tourists, although also a “disturbing” and “mind-blowing” one: 213 “Unlike Auschwitz, Majdanek is almost complete in the way it was back then…” “For one, it is totally different than Auschwitz. Less touristy, and very much "intact".” “A much smaller/ better preserved trip than to auschwitz. would recommend to anyone, as much as you can recommend a place of such true horror and brutality.” “I visited Auschwitz/Birkenau, Belzec and Majdanek during my visit to Poland; all the sites were moving and emotionally draining, but I think Majdanek had the most effect on me, no doubt because many of the buildings and sites are original to the camp.” “Possibly even more mind-blowing than Auschwitz/ Birkenau simply because it is virtually untouched since the Red Army pulled out.” 10. Conclusions 10.1. Introduction to the chapter The purpose of these thesis was to identify and analyse visitor emotions within dark tourism experiences, especially at two chosen locations: State Museum at Majdanek and Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum. The thesis was built around four objectives, introduced previously: Objective 1: To critically analyse the range of emotions in visitors’ experiences at Holocaust sites. Objective 2: To compare the emotional experiences of visitors at different Holocaust sites. Objective 3: To compare supply and demand side perspectives of emotional responses at Holocaust sites. Objective 4: To consider the role of emotions in the wider dark tourism experience to further our understanding of the emotional experiences at the dark sites. In order to answer those objectives a thorough literature review process has been undertaken showcasing UpToDate achievements in the literature of dark tourism, Holocaust history and emotions. The literature review systematically unravels certain categories of questions: 214 • What – explaining dark tourism phenomena; • Where and When – positioning the thesis in terms of time and location of cases – the history of Holocaust and the consequences of The Final Solution; • How – analysing how the visitors feel in terms of emotional experience while visiting dark tourism sites. 10.2. Summary of the objectives with main findings This subchapter will present the list of objectives stated in this thesis and summary of corresponding findings. Table 10.1. Objectives and findings from literature review and primary research Objective 1. To critically analyze the range of emotions in visitors’ experiences at Holocaust sites. a) Secondary research demonstrated the existence of both positive (hope), neutral (surprise) and negative (sadness, horror, grief) emotions at the Holocaust site. b) Primary research also demonstrated the existence of both positive (amazement), neutral (surprise) and negative (sadness, pensiveness, fear, anger, grief) emotions at the Holocaust site. c) The netnography studies demonstrated a high willingness to recommend both Holocaust sites to friends. Objective 2: To compare the emotional experiences of visitors at different Holocaust sites. a) Based on netnographic studies tourists visiting former KL at Majdanek were generally showing higher level of joy and satisfaction than tourists visiting Auschwitz-Birkenau. b) Less popular State Museum at Majdanek appeared to be more powerful to the visitors who have been at both concentration camps, in terms of emotional or transformational experience than Auschwitz-Birkenau. Objective 3: To compare supply and demand side perspectives of emotional responses at Holocaust sites. a) The in-depth interviews indicated that management and tour-guides from both sites decline using terminology “dark tourism” at both former extermination camps. b) The stories of the camps are provided with a respect for both historical facts and figures but also for individual cases, which are not “dramatized” nor having a hint of sensation; it is a contrast with mainstream Hollywood style and Netflix 215 productions when the stories of Holocaust are unnecessary romanticized or trivialized. Objective 4: To consider the role of emotions in the wider dark tourism experience to further our understanding of the emotional experiences at the dark sites. a) This research tried to demonstrate, that overall tourism experience could be successfully created by emotions as much as other elements; such as learning experience and transformational experience often leading to long-term mental involvement and eagerness to recommend 10.3. A critical analysis of the range of emotions in visitors’ experiences at Holocaust sites. This subchapter will aim at answering Objective 1: To critically analyse the range of emotions in visitors’ experiences at Holocaust sites. Investigation of visitors' experiences, especially at the “darker” sites has been eclectic in its approach, focus and context, however there is a general consensus among the academics suggesting that the emotions and experiences of dak location visitors are complex and multilayered and that the experience of visiting such a location might have a profound and meaningful effect on the visitor. The thesis’ secondary and primary research were aimed to identify the emotions demonstrated by the visitors at Holocaust sites. The continually occurring issue in the literature was that emotions are of a complex and highly individual nature, and of many levels off intensity. It would support the earlier argument of Hosany and Gilbert (2010) who noticed that the emotional scales and theories are proving difficult to adapt to tourism as they do not consider the individual characteristics of tourists and destinations. In an attempt to partially address this argument, two Holocaust sites: former KL Majdanek and Auschwitz-Birkenau were chosen as a location for the primary stage of the research. Establishing the emotional scope at former extermination camps as location provided however a challenge; those sites are strictly related and intertwined by the literature with dark tourism, hence do not conform to the traditional range of emotions at any other (hedonic) tourism destinations. Emotions in traditional tourism are considered to be mostly of a hedonic nature, as Hosany and Gilbert (2010), mentioned three main emotional dimensions experienced by visitors to holiday destinations: joy, love, and positive surprise. However, visiting difficult heritage sites, locations with a history of committed crimes, mass murder might not mirror the stereotypic set of emotions, additionally, the 216 intensity of emotions might be different if there is a personal link to the site and the visitor would perceive the site as own personal heritage (Biran et al, 2011). The emotion could be then intensified to the level when it becomes a different emotion altogether. At the same time this research wanted to capture the overall nature of tourism experience at the concentration camps to understand whether it is right to link those location solely with negative emotions and experience or is there also a positive outcome of visiting those Holocaust sites. To summarise, the literature review identified the following emotions presented by visitors at dark locations: sadness, horror and grief (Austin, 2002; Baldwin & Sharpley, 2009; Brown, 2016; Chronis, 2012; Dalton, 2014; Isaac & Çakmak, 2016; Kidron, 2013; Mowatt & Chancellor, 2011; Sharpley, 2012; Stone, 2012; Zhang et al., 2016). Weaver et al (2018) contributed with addressing emotions such as hatred, anger (also in Mowat and Chancellor, 2011), depression, shock, contemplation and pity. Furthermore, some sites can generate disgust and repulsion (Podoshen, et al., 2015); fear (Buda, 2015a, 2015b; Buda et al., 2014; Zheng et al., 2017); and, in some cases, disappointment (Podoshen, 2013). Recent research focusing precisely on Holocaust tourism and Auschwitz-Birkenau as a location mention emotion of concern, anger, terror, stress, shame, disdain and guilt (Oren et al, 2021; 2022) Studies of dark tourism have provided however some indicators that visitors may experience negative as well as positive feelings (Nawijn et al., 2016, Oren et al, 2021), some sites can stimulate (national) pride (Cheal & Griffin, 2013, Oren et al 2021; 2022) or even a sense of hope (Koleth, 2014; Pezzullo, 2009; Sharpley, 2012). What could be visible is that visiting a dark site is a profoundly emotional experience; is usually characterised by a simultaneous experience of a range of emotions (Nawijn et al., 2015); and that many visitors have a deep emotional engagement with the places they encounter (Sharpley, 2012). Especially research of Oren et al (2021; 2022) contributed to unravelling positive site of visiting sites such as Auschwitz-Birkenau for the tourists, who acknowledged feeling positive emotions such as pride, positive interest, excitement and empowerment. Since the focus on experience rather than emotions has been proposed in order to better understand dark tourism phenomena, the coexisting terminology of tourism overall experience has been gaining a momentum. Aho’s model (2001) of tourism experience assumes that emotions are one of the four types of experiences and adds learning, practical and transformational experience; this framework allowed to make a distinction between emotions and a tourism experience as they were existing somehow interchangeably in the literature. Light (2017) underlines the importance of cognitive experience, which refers to the process of learning and brings a better understanding of the site and the events that took place there. Visits to dark or difficult heritage places were providing the opportunities for connection, understanding and meaning making (Light, 2017). In some cases, visiting 217 dark places can be transformative and even life-changing for visitors (Buntman, 2008). Holocaust sites, unsurprisingly, feature prominently and include indications of intense and cathartic emotional reaction from Holocaust survivors during in situ site visits in Europe, frequently triggered by catalytic moments such as seeing a museum photo displaying members of the survivor’s family (Kidron 2013). The primary research undertaken gathered a considerable understanding of emotional range displayed by the visitors at two representative Holocaust sites: former extermination camp at Majdanek and at Auschwitz-Birkenau. Based on Plutchik Wheel of Emotions theory (1980) the following emotions were identified through the in-depth interviews: interest, sadness, pensiveness, fear, anger, grief, amazement, surprise and certain level of serenity. Although, and perhaps predictably the majority of pointed emotions are negative, it may be an important factor to assist one differentiate him/herself from others, creating one's sense of uniqueness and meaning (Poria & Ashworth, 2009). The netnographic analysis of this thesis questioned the sufficiency of many acknowledged theories of emotions which is in line with Hosany and Gilbert (2010) argument about lack of sufficient theories to handle a complex and multidimensional studies of emotions in dark tourism settings. Although many reviews oscillate around emotions of sadness and pensiveness, there are number of additional emotions widely recognized by the visitors of both sites. The emotions are grief, disgust, but also interest and amazement. In additional expression of emotive state visitors of both extermination sites were clearly stating a high level of emotional engagement, which is also in line with Oren et al (2021) conclusions after the research at State Museum at Auschwitz-Birkenau. What is however standing beyond any emotional framework is the willingness to recommend the sites to other people. Although labelled by the visitors as “sobering”, “shocking”, “chilling” or “haunting” they were also calling it “a must have”, “unavoidable”, or simply “necessary”. Potentially this arrives from the ideas behind researched site – TripAdvisor, where fellow tourists often “advice” or discourage others towards certain locations. Due to scarce use of netnography in dark tourism research the willingness to recommend “dark place” and the mechanisms behind were not yet thoroughly explained. The findings that indicate that both positive and negative emotions are experienced simultaneously during the visit are consistent with Oren et al (2001, 2022), however on a final note it needs to be acknowledged consistently to Hosany et al (2020) that, there is no universal scale for measuring tourists’ emotions at heritage or difficult sites. This part of the thesis was aimed at enabling a better understanding of tourists’ emotions and answer objective 1 of the thesis: 218 Objective 1: To critically analyse the range of emotions in visitors’ experiences at Holocaust sites. 10.4. A comparison of the emotional experiences at different Holocaust sites. The following subchapter will be aiming at addressing Objective 2: To compare the emotional experiences of visitors at different Holocaust sites. This thesis aimed at comparing and contrasting the emotions and overall tourism experience at two in situ location of Holocaust. This aspect also demonstrates potential gap in the literature of the subject, as there is not a sufficient knowledge and research undertaken about former extermination camps in Poland, apart from Auschwitz-Birkenau. The following findings contribute therefore to better understanding of emotions and experiences of lesser-known camp and give a constructive input into managing sites of difficult heritage. Most acknowledged studies on concentration camps focuses on one location only, possibly limiting their informativeness and missing an opportunity to a wider understanding of reception of various Holocaust sites. As a result of the in-depth interviews, it has been found out that the visitors of State Museum at Majdanek were showcasing a broader spectrum of emotions The emotions which were presents at both locations were: sadness, pensiveness, surprise, and interest, however visitors at Majdanek were also feeling grief, while visitors at Auschwitz-Birkenau were demonstrating emotion of amazement. 219 Figure 10.2. Comparison of emotions at Majdanek and Auschwitz-Birkenau based on Plutchik’s Wheel of Emotions 220 Based on netnographic studies tourists visiting former KL at Majdanek were generally showing higher level of joy and satisfaction than tourists visiting Auschwitz-Birkenau. The examples of entries are: “I really liked the museum if you can enjoy this sort of experience at all.” “This is an excellent and moving experience that everyone visiting Lublin should experience.” “Impressive visit and feeling grateful to Poland about how they take care of the heritage. Very, very good museum.” There was also a higher level of acceptance and trust communicated by visitors of Majdanek, such as: “The museum is set up extremely well and they handle the horrific subject matter tastefully and comprehensively and I am very glad I went.” They also were leaving more “meaningful” or qualitative in terms of emotional experience feedback, while visitors of Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum aimed at focusing on functional aspects of the visit such as transport, early bookings or weather requirements. Although smaller and less popular State Museum at Majdanek appeared to be more powerful to the visitors who have been at both concentration camps, in terms of emotional or transformational experience than Auschwitz-Birkenau. There is a potential suggestion that as a result of its popularity Auschwitz-Birkenau might be perceived as too “commercialized” to allow deeper emotional connection in comparison with Majdanek. “Much more interesting than Auschwitz. Everyone goes to Auschwitz but if you make some effort you must also do Belzec and Majdanek. Majdanek is still very much lifelike.” 221 “Unlike Auschwitz, which is replete with tourists, this site (Majdanek) bears an eerie heaviness and an agonizing atmosphere representative of the horrors and atrocities committed in that camp.” Although there is a need for more comparative research between different extermination camps, this part of the thesis is designed at shedding a light at the differences between emotional engagement of visitors at two different Holocaust sites located in Poland and aims to answer the following objective: Objective 2: To compare the emotional experiences of visitors at different Holocaust sites. 10.5. Demand and supply perspective at Holocaust sites This paragraph aims at answering Objective 3: To compare supply and demand side perspectives of emotional responses at Holocaust sites. Although the literature of the subject strongly locates former death camps as an example of dark, or according to Stone’s spectrum (2006) – the darkest form of dark tourism there is, there is a different perspective of this classification arriving from the supply site. In-depth interviews, rather surprisingly, revealed that the management of chosen location neither tour operators working with visitors do not want to perceive Majdanek or Auschwitz-Birkenau as dark tourism sites. The connotation with dark tourism is in their collective opinion somehow undermining the true existence of the Museums – a place of remembrance, commemoration and a cemetery – be it without graves. There is however a mutual understanding between the demand and supply perspective about one of the most vital roles of the former extermination camps, their educational role. As learning about the history of Holocaust is one of the most crucial aspects of managing the difficult heritage places (Austin, 2002, Biran et al., 2011; Thurnell-Read, 2009), so is the approach to providing the knowledge and interpretation of the genocide site in certain strategic way. Light (2007) mentioned about the strong debate about the interpretation of heritage sites focused on different audience. 222 At this moment both sites – State Museum at Majdanek and Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum offer various ways of visiting former camps, although there is no option for an individual non-guided tour at Auschwitz-Birkenau. Both sites, apart from traditional tours are offering in-depth visits, longer in time and often connected with a workshop. The respondents also admitted that they are using a mixed narration during the tours; singled out stories as well as data information. They believe that the mixed approach is able to grasp the attention better – it is not all about numbers but about single stories, which represents the fate of the victims of Holocaust: “I am trying to do both. …you can’t just visit this place knowing only about the personal experiences, without having any facts with it such as years of activity, historic background, why Germans created this place there and then, how many people went through the camp, their origins, numbers of victims – so the historic background which I find absolutely necessary.” Based on Aho’s model (2001), there is evidence of strong transformational experience the visitors mentioned after touring the sites of chosen concentration camps. Difficult heritage sites’ managers have therefore the opportunity to consider visitors interactions and experiences so that they can plan a more interactive and socially symbolic space. It is however advised with a balance in mind; as Majdanek and Auschwitz-Birkenau are former extermination camps grounds, a final resting place for millions of people, the interpretation should have also ethical consideration in place; the stories, although emotionally heavy, should not be “romanticised” for the purpose of the visitors. Conscious of their role in creating, often long-lasting tourism experience neither of the Museums offer any merchandise apart from books related to the Holocaust or actual site. The “trophies” from Auschwitz-Birkenau or Majdanek are being considered by the interviewees as untactful and condescending the main role of the Museums which is education about the Holocaust. The above concludes the analysis about the role of supply in creating emotional experiences for the demand site of heritage sites and is aimed to answer the third objective of the thesis: Objective 3: To compare supply and demand side perspectives of emotional responses at Holocaust sites. 223 Any further research could therefore be helpful to identify whether the interpretation of Holocaust sites should be unified or rather there should be a different level of interpretation for multiple audiences, as suggested by Ashworth and Hartmann (2005); different for the victims, perpetrators and witnesses of genocide. 10.6. Emotions versus wider tourism experience This subchapter aims at answering Objective 4: To consider the role of emotions in the wider dark tourism experience to further our understanding of the emotional experiences at the dark sites. Although the subject of emotions at dark tourism locations, including Holocaust tourism sites recently gained a momentum, it is still treated somehow separately from other factors contributing to the overall tourism experience. This thesis tried to demonstrate that although there is a substantial body of evidence connecting emotions and tourism experiences (Hosany, 2012, Hosany and Gilbert, 2010, Houge Mackenzie and Kerry, 2013, Kim, 2012, Morgan et al., 2010, Li and Cai, 2012, Nawijn et al., 2013), there is also a set of additional factors funding the tourism experience. Using Aho’s model (2001) demonstrates interconnection between emotional, informative, practical and transformation experience suggesting a gap in the literature of emotions in tourism and initiates need for further research in this area. It could be argued that especially in cases of heritage or genocide tourism, such as Holocaust tourism; the educational aspect and transformational aspect of visits is responsible for carrying the memories of the victims, including the unhuman ordeal they have been exposed to. Although the emotions are exceptionally focal element in tourism experience and Aho (2001) understands them as a core element of tourism experiences there is evidence supporting the importance of educational and transformational experiences while visiting former concentration camps: “It was a truly educational visit, it makes you think about your differently at list for a few hours.” “Whilst very sobering, our visit to Majdanek was very informative and interesting” 224 “We learnt a huge amount and I would certainly recommend the visit for people to understand the lessons and paying respect to those who suffered there”. “Writing this review has left me feeling so emotional thinking why and how these atrocities were carried out. This experience will stay with me for the rest of my life.” “How do you even begin to understand the massive pile of human ash of many tens of thousands of people?” “A life enhancing experience and the staff at the entrance were so helpful and kind.” “Overall an amazing experience of which I imagine nothing else can come close to in making you feel certain emotions.” Other experiences felt during visiting dark tourism sites and mentioned in the literature would include seeking to “connect” with the place (Thurnell-Read, 2009), having an opportunity for healing or catharsis (Kidron, 2013), however the current literature regarding tourism in dark locations experiences, above emotional experience is still sporadic. This research tried to demonstrate, that overall tourism experience could be successfully created by emotions as much as other elements; by applying Aho’s model (2001) to the results of netnographic results it could be argued, that transformative and learning experience are playing a vital part in shaping the overall tourism experience, although following Bell et all (2009) though, there is a suggestion that a connections with visitors, and the potential for meaning making, is maximized when informal learning settings promote a range of emotional responses, such as surprise and awe. By researching into overall tourism experience and expanding beyond emotions as an only experience felt by visitors of difficult heritage sites, the fourth objective was aimed to be addressed: 225 Objective 4: To consider the role of emotions in the wider dark tourism experience to further our understanding of the emotional experiences at the dark sites. 10.7. Recommendation for further research and managerial implications of the study It would be consistent with the literature of the subject and with the primarily findings to assume that emotions and overall experiences of visitors, particularly in the concept of darker tourism sites are complex, multidimensional element, nevertheless crucial to understand both for visitors and the suppliers. Although recently, the research progressed into looking at experiences of visitors, rather than just their motivation to visit, the plethora of emotions, both negative and positive is still the subject of too few research. One of the aspects which await fuller investigation is social context of visiting Holocaust site and the way that the presence of “others” might be impacting the overall experience. It is still unclear whether individual visit as against touring with the group might change a perception and emotional state at the site of Holocaust. Although there is a body of research based on reaction of Jewish visitors to sites of or connected with Holocaust (Cohen, 2011; Thurnell-Read, 2009), the question how the presence of Jewish visitors could impact the non-Jewish tourists’ experience at Holocaust site still stays relatively open to discussion. Auschwitz-Birkenau and Majdanek is classified as a “must visit” heritage tourist attraction especially for those who regard the site as part of their own heritage. Future research should include those, who do not regard the site as part of their own heritage, in terms of their emotions and experiences. Although the segmentation of national heritage is not a new subject to dark tourism, there is a missing link with exploration of transformational and educational experience between the groups with and without Holocaust as a family heritage. Additionally, long-term impact of the visit at Holocaust site is currently poorly demonstrated. As this thesis suggest a strong transformational experience taking place while visiting former concentration camps, the question stays; how far the impact is reaching timewise and what the additional benefits of such a visit are, e.g. inclination for a deeper education in the subject of concentration camps, willingness to recommend the site of Holocaust to other etc. 226 Until now, the range of emotions of visitors of concentration camps were looked at and analysed. The further phase contributing to the understanding of complex matter of perceiving genocide sites would be to focus on people who deliberately avoid visiting a site of a former concentration camp. Cracow is a highly popular tourism destination, which offers guided tours to local attraction such as Wieliczka Salt Mine, and also; Auschwitz-Birkenau. It would be highly fascinating to find out why certain visitors do not choose to visit Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum and whether it might be connected with their expectations of Auschwitz-Birkenau being “too much” for them in an emotional sense. This research aimed to demonstrate that the participants expect to have a strong memorable emotional experience. In terms of site management, this means that the curators and the tour guides should aim to evoke various emotions rather than focusing only on enriching the visitors’ knowledge. The findings illustrate that the visitors also experience pleasant and positive emotions. As such, those responsible for the visit experience should plan the visit in such a way that positive feeling such as pride (of visiting the site, of being related to Holocaust survivors), or serenity (I have seen the worse testimony of genocide, nothing like that should not happen again, so I am at peace) will be evoked. 10.8. Contribution to the knowledge This thesis was aimed to identify and analyse visitor emotions within dark tourism experiences, especially at two chosen locations: State Museum at Majdanek and Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum and within this subject it made a contribution to knowledge in several ways. Although the body of research into emotions at former concentration camps was attempted recently after decades of neglecting emotion in favour of motivation, the literature of emotional phases felt by visitors of concentration camps is still scarce. Firstly, this thesis demonstrated a multilayered concept of emotions exhibited at two chosen location: former KL Majdanek and Auschwitz-Birkenau. The emotions were also attempted to be fitted to the theoretical idea of Plutchik’s Wheel of Emotion (1980), and as a result it has been suggested that the currently known emotional scales and theories are proving difficult to adapt to dark tourism as they do not consider the individual characteristics of tourists and dark tourism destinations. The exploration of emotions displayed at concentration camps was also undertaken using two separate tools of research; in-depth interviews, which displayed commonly observed emotions as they were 227 recalled by tour guides and netnographic research, which resulted in emotions expressed by visitors themselves. Secondly, this thesis is undertaking simultaneous research into emotions for two former concentration camps and then delivers the results of differences and similarities between them from experiential point of view. This contributes to understanding of how different sites of the same Holocaust-based origin can evoke slightly different emotional responses and how managing those sites might influence different tourism overall experiences. Thirdly, this thesis has dedicated much attention to linking emotions and overall tourism experience at the concentration camps’ grounds, using Aho’s model (2001). This approach resulted in a suggestion that emotions should be understood in a wider concept of tourism experience and more focus should be spared to analysing educational and transformational effects of visiting chosen dark tourism locations. Finally, the findings of this thesis also indicate that both positive and negative emotions are experienced simultaneously during the visit. In addition, both types of emotions were found to have a positive association with the quality of the experience. Overall, the thesis confirmed that emotions classified as negative can have long term benefits and develop overall positive experience from visiting a dark tourism site. 228 10.9. Summary This thesis was aimed at identification and analysing visitor emotions within dark tourism experiences with the focus on two Holocaust locations. Starting with the terminologies and understanding of dark tourism the scene of the research was introduced being former concentration camps Majdanek and Auschwitz-Birkenau. Then a thorough analysis of emotions theories was undertaken. The theme of emotions was then shortened to the emotions visible in tourism, and finally narrowly focused on emotions evoked by dark tourism sites, including Holocaust sites. The secondary and primary research were also addressing the overall tourism experience calling for a wider understanding cognitive and transformational reactions in touring dark sites. 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Jolanta Laskowska: Dziękuję. To też nowe doświadczenie. (0:25) AS: Pani Jolanto, Majdanek to przede wszystkim…. JL: Majdanek to przede wszystkim Muzeum, miejsce pamięci. Miejsce pamięci upamiętniające ofiary Drugiej Wojny Światowej nazistowskich Niemiec ale także miejsce edukacji o tych czasach i miejsce upamiętnienia. (0:48) AS: W ogólnym i historycznym rozumieniu Majdanek to właśnie były nazistowski obóz koncentracyjny. Miejsce związane ze śmiercią, z cierpieniem. Czy w Pani rozumieniu Majdanek może być przykładem lokalizacji określanej mianem „dark tourism”? JL: Jeśli dobrze kojarzę i dobrze pamiętam dostępną literaturę to rozgranicza się na „dark tourism” i thanaturystyke, więc jeśli pójdziemy za wyjaśnieniem tych dwóch terminów, że „dark tourism” jest raczej w kontekście rozrywkowym, lżejszym, tego typu, to na pewno nie. Natomiast jeśli ktoś zechciałby używać terminologii do odwiedzania, zwiedzania muzeów na terenach byłych obozów koncentracyjnych czy zagłady to myślę że raczej byśmy się kierowali w kierunku terminologii thanaturystyka. Znaczy turystyka i to miejsce być może dlatego że pracuję tu kilkanaście lat i trochę mi to nie pasuje, aczkolwiek doskonale zdajemy sobie sprawę, że nasi goście to są turyści, którzy przyjeżdżają do regionu, na Lubelszczyznę, którzy przyjeżdżają do Lublina aby zwiedzać, a więc jest to 294 turysta. To mówimy o tej grupie zwiedzającej. Ja zajmuję się edukacją i mam do czynienia z grupami które są tutaj w konkretnym celu edukacyjnym. AS: Rozumiem. Głównie są to osoby, które przyjechały tutaj w celu odwiedzenia miejsca pamięci… JL: Tak AS… bo w przypadku Auschwitz na przykład są to ludzie którzy spędzają dwa wspaniałe, fantastyczne, wesołe dni w Krakowie, potem jadą do Wieliczki, często tego samego dnia po południu trafia się w rozkładzie wycieczki Auschwitz. Jest to jakby dodatek do ogólnej atrakcji Krakowa. Majdanek jest troszeczkę inny w tym kontekście; tutaj trzeba przyjechać w konkretnym celu, z konkretna mobilizacją do odwiedzenia tego muzeum. JL: Majdanek jest, my żartujemy czasem, że zewsząd jest tu daleko. Bo jesteśmy oddaleni od atrakcji typu Warszawa, o Trójmieście nie wspomnę, o Krakowie, o Poznaniu, o górach czy o morzu. Ale myślę, że gdybyśmy dysponowali badaniami, bo to są dwie różne rzeczy dlatego ja mówię o turystach którzy są tutaj indywidualnie, są całymi rodzinami czasami, bo przyjechali właśnie albo do rodziny właśnie albo na wypoczynek na przykład na Pojezierze Łęczyńsko-Włodawskie i te nasze jeziora tutaj w okolicach Włodawy i sprawdzili jakie miejsca są polecane aby je zobaczyć i podejmują decyzję nie zawsze do końca patrząc jakie to jest muzeum; mówię tutaj w kontekście zabierania małych dzieci; takie dzieci zadają milion pytań na minutę i mają kolejne muzeum, które „dobrze jest” przy okazji będąc w tym regionie po prostu zobaczyć, tak tez się zdarza. AS: Albo brzydko mówiąc „zaliczyć”? JL: „Zaliczyć”. Dokładnie tak, bo to tez wynika z informacji, mogę trochę o tym powiedzieć, dlatego że każdy z nas tutaj, pracujący w Biurze raz bądź dwa razy w roku; w zależności od natężenia, potrzeby, znajomości języka obcego odbywa taki dyżur informacyjny w Centrum Obsługi Zwiedzających, tam gdzie nasz gość powinien był udać się do tego pierwszego miejsca. Stąd wiemy kto, być może nawet z jaką motywacją się tu pojawia. I to na pewno będzie jedna grupa; taka właśnie która jest na 295 wypoczynku i bądź zalicza, odhacza, to się różnie określa tak, potocznie, dlaczego kolejne muzeum też warto. Ci, którzy są faktycznie zainteresowani historią, cześć naszych gości, ale myślę że to się tyczy wszystkich tego rodzaju miejsc, nie zdaja sobie sprawy jeśli chodzi o ilość ofiar, dokładniej o procentowy udział więźniów; skąd ci ludzie pochodzili i często słychać takie komentarze; ja zawsze muszę wtrącić trzy grosze, że dziecko, które ma 7, 8, 9, 10, 12 lat jest za małe, za młode ze względu właśnie na emocje, nie ze względu na wiedzę, która być może przeczyta kilka książek, bo dzieciaki są ciekawe historii też, tego, co było, ale emocje to jest kompletnie inna sfera, inny poziom i czasami jest zrozumienie mojego pytania, czasami nie, co mnie trochę śmieszy, bo jestem nauczycielem ponad trzydzieści lat i jak mi ktoś powie że dziesięciolatek przeczytał wszystko i jest przygotowany, to co można powiedzieć.. Nie możemy zabronić wejść z dziećmi rodzicom przecież, są opiekunami, ale na przykład zdarzają się bardzo świadomi goście, którzy pytają , w których miejscach uważam ja, że należałoby odwrócić uwagę dziecka, to mi mocno imponuje, że ktoś o to zapyta. Ale w dalszym ciągu jest to turysta, który tu przyjechał. Drugi (rodzaj) to jest turysta który zwiedza miejsca związane z historią i chce pokazać dziecku historię swojego kraju. Nie ma w tym nic złego, jednakowoż ludzie ci są zdziwieni jeśli chodzi o na przykład ofiary, i to nie do końca wygląda tak, jak myśleli, ale nie rezygnują, jest to na naszej ziemi, sprawa tez dotyczyła mnóstwa polskich osób uwięzionych na Majdanku. (8.10) AS: Polacy są jednak mniejszością ofiar… JL: Zastanawiałabym się czy użyć słowa „rozczarowany”, czy może „zdziwiony”, tym, że o tym nie wiedział bardziej. Bo jednak rozczarowanie ma taką konotacje negatywną trochę. Ja mam takie odczucia, ale są to moje odczucia, i one mogą być kompletnie inne, mogę je inaczej czytać po prostu. Są też goście nasi, którzy zajmują się tematyką i wykorzystując czas, który mają wolny, to nie zawsze muszą być wakacje i sezon strykte urlopowy, ale może to być kompletnie inny czas w ciągu roku, kiedy mogą zobaczyć miejsca z bliska, których jeszcze nie widzieli, o których czytali, bo zajmują się tematyką. Zazwyczaj są wtedy bardzo zainteresowani uzyskaniem informacji wszelkich, zazwyczaj też nabywają publikacje poświęcone temu miejscu, nie tylko same relacje które są bardzo cenne ale mówię o opracowaniach naukowych, gdyż zajmują się tematem. Tacy także są. I jest też taka grupa o której w sumie wiem najwięcej, czyli grupa osób, zarówno młodzieży jak i dorosłych, którzy odpowiadają na naszą ofertę edukacyjną, warsztatową, jakkolwiek nazwiemy te aktywności. I wtedy byłoby idealnie poprzez kontakt z nauczycielem, opiekunem takiej grupy, bo nie oni są inicjatorami wyjścia, nie tylko nauczyciel; żeby wiedzieli gdzie idą, po co, jak należy się zachować. Byłoby idealnie plus, gdyby 296 nauczyciel miał czas, wiedzę, możliwości i zdawał sobie sprawę z tego, ze to przygotowanie do wizyty , żeby; to czego my tu nie mamy czasu na to, żeby pomóc młodzieży umiejscowić funkcjonowanie obozu na Majdanku w historii drugiej wojny, bo oni (młodzi) mają coraz mniejsza wiedzę na temat ogółu i nagle trafiają tutaj i jest rok 1941 i jest dużo znaków zapytania, zadają mnóstwo pytań. My oczywiście odpowiadamy, ja zawsze mówię, że odpowiem na wszystkie pytania w miarę swojej wiedzy i umiejętności, natomiast pobyt takiej grupy młodzieżowej tu, u nas to i tak jest długi czas, bo my wszystkie pobyty mamy aktywne, więc jest część warsztatowa; aktywna, partycypacyjna, kiedy młody człowiek musi coś zrobić. (11:25) AS: A na przykład? JL: Wybiorę moje „dziecko” czyli „Dziennik” Jadwigi Ankiewicz. Jadwiga (tutaj JL pokazuje okładkę wspominanej książki), tu ma 9 lat, ona trafiła na Majdanek z Warszawy, z łapanki jak miała lat 16. Na końcu (książki) Pani zobaczy transkrypcję z jej dziennika, jej charakter pisma, w oryginalnym zeszycie, który miała ze sobą i tutaj, za drutami przez 5 miesięcy pisała to, czego była świadkiem. To jest ewenement. (12:06) Czyli jest to „nasz” odpowiednik Dziennika Anny Frank? JL: Powiedziałabym, że nawet lepiej w tych kategoriach, ponieważ był to obóz koncentracyjny, a nie mieszkanie ukryte. Jadwiga nie była Żydówką, Jadwiga była polską dziewczyną nieżydowską, była złapana w łapance, więc była taka zasada, że ci, którzy zostali schwytani poprzez łapankę, jeśli przeżyli czas uwiezienia byli zwalniani, nie tylko tutaj, także w Auschwitz i innych obozach koncentracyjnych, bo łapano tych więźniów, żeby wykorzystać ich siłę do pracy. Kiedy nie byli potrzebni, ewentualnie kiedy byli już, przepraszam „zużyci”, zniszczeni, słabi , wtedy ich zwalniano, jeśli przeżyli ten czas i łapano kolejnych. Zasób był nieograniczony. (13:04) AS: O ile przeżyli, bo przecież warunki życia były okropne… 297 JS: Dokładnie. Jadwiga przeżyła, wróciła do Warszawy, wyniosła ten swój zeszyt do polskiego, taki w linie, w dwie linie. Ona już wcześniej działała w Szarych Szeregach, zresztą to wpływ ojca, on Legionista, obrona Warszawy w 1920 roku, ranny, odznaczony, potem mobilizacja, schwytany we wrześniu 1939, do obozu, ucieka z robót, ale do czego zmierzam; że Jadwiga była podobna, bardzo podobna do ojca jeśli chodzi o charakter. Wraca; to jest 17 maj 1943, kiedy jest zwolniona z obozu od stycznia (1943), zabiera ten zeszyt ze sobą, wraca do Warszawy, znowu działa w AK (Armia Krajowa) i w niewyjaśnionych okolicznościach , bo kiedy ja znalazłam rodzinę, to niestety już świadków tego wydarzenia nie było; 30 stycznia 1944 zostaje zastrzelona na jednej z warszawskich ulic. Ma niespełna 17 lat, bo ona się urodziła 11 września i w domu zostaje ten jej zeszyt. Ona tylko jeden wpis wykonała w domu z 17 maja (1943) wtedy kiedy wracała z obozu i potem już nic nie pisała. Nie przeżyła wojny i teraz jest taki tekst, proszę posłuchać; mamy tekst, w formie edytowanej, w formie książkowej; mamy tekst z dziennika Jadwigi. Mówimy młodym ludziom; tytuł projektu jest cytat z Jadwigi: „Przecież część serca została się tam, w dole na Majdanku”. Majdanek jest tak usytuowany, Pani zobaczy, jak będzie Pani na terenie, że ta kopuła, to Muzeum jest trochę wyżej niż pozostały teren. Jak tam się jest to widać cały (teren obozu). Stąd (wejście do Muzeum) nie widać, ale z góry widać, a ona była na górze, na piątym polu, tam gdzie kobiety. Więc opowiadamy młodzieży, ale niezbyt długo, kim była Jadwiga, pokazujemy zdjęcia, jakieś notatki; to jest ostatnie jej zdjęcie, sprzed obozu (JS pokazuje zdjęcie). (15:17) AS: 1942… JL: Tak. Nie wiedzieliśmy o tym zdjęciu, ja rodzinę znalazłam przez facebooka. W 2020 roku wydaliśmy książkę , bo to co mieliśmy wcześniej było niepoprawne, po prostu nikt z Muzeum w latach dziewięćdziesiątych nie nawiązał kontaktu z rodziną. (15:42) AS: Czy ta książka jest do kupienia w Muzeum? JL: Niestety polska wersja wyszła, ale jest angielska i niemiecka. (15:49) AS: Niemieckiej nie kupie, ale angielska na pewno. 298 JL: Jest na pewno, dostaliśmy dotacje i książka została przetłumaczona na angielki i niemiecki, a polska wersja wydana w 2020 w tysiącu egzemplarzy się sprzedała. (16:08) AS: Jest to niesamowite, dlatego, że jest to angielska wersja, ale pamiętnik został zachowany w wersji oryginalnej (jako dodatek). JL: To jest po to żeby pokazać literki, jakie to jest ładne, jakie to jest porządne, tam nie ma pośpiechu; jak to świadczy dużo o charakterze tej dziewczyny. (Wracając do projektu dla grupy) tekst jest skopiowany w ilości egzemplarzy odpowiadającej ilości uczestników, klasy licealne liczą zazwyczaj 30 – 34 osoby, powiedzmy że jest około 30 osób. Dzielimy tą klasę na 6 grup roboczych , każda grupa dostaje jeden temat, który w oparciu o czytanie „Dziennika” muszą wynotować, muszą zebrać informacje na dany temat; na przykład: praca w obozie, zagłada Żydów, nadzorczynie, esesmani , sposoby radzenia sobie z sytuacja w obozie, z tą przygnębiająca rzeczywistością, warunki bytowe, te wszystkie takie typu rzeczy. Ja zawsze proszę, żeby zapomnieli o tym, co oglądali w telewizji, w kinie i o innych książkach które czytali, tylko żeby się skupili na „Dzienniku”, co Jadwiga im opowiada o tym miejscu. Pracują do 50 minut, bo robią przy okazji notatki. Dzielę pracę tak jak praca grupowana nad projektem i potem mamy elementy „peer-guardingu”, bo ja, czy moje współpracowniczki, same kobiety jesteśmy takimi bardziej asystentami młodych ludzi, niż... my nie wykładamy z katedry. Zresztą ja tak pracowałam w szkole, uważam że młodzi ludzie zasługują na to, aby dać im szansę pokazania swoich umiejętności. A mają je. Przeróżne. Wiec jeżeli oni mają jakieś pytania to my służymy wiedzą , bądź próbą nakierowania na odpowiedź, co jest jeszcze lepsze, potem jest przerwa i wychodzimy w teren. I w terenie w miejscach wyznaczonych przez pracownika pedagogicznego; którąś z nas bo my się zajmujemy edukacją tylko; Dział Edukacji; prosimy przedstawiciela tej grupy żeby zreferował pozostałym co Jadwiga mówi na ten właśnie temat. Pozostali uczniowie mogą zadawać pytania temu prelegentowi i wtedy jeżeli my uznamy że należy coś dodać, to dodajemy, jeśli nie, to nie. To trwa, przejście przez teren trawa minimum 2,5 godziny plus to czytanie, o którym Pani powiedziałam. Przerwa musi być, żeby coś zjedli, młody człowiek jest głodny na okrągło, zresztą, kiedy pracują ja im mówię, że kiedy pracują mogą sobie jeść, pić, rozmawiać, to jest ich czas. I to jest przykład takich zajęć. Więc jeśli przychodzi uczeń, klasa, która nie ma bladego pojęcia skąd się nagle wziął 1941 rok, to ile zdań my jesteśmy w stanie; informacyjnych dodać do tych 4 godzin, kiedy oni tutaj są. A wiemy jak działa koncentracja u młodych ludzi, nawet jak maja najszczersze chęci. Są też zmęczeni; będzie Pani na terenie i zobaczy że większość czasu jesteśmy na dworze, bez względu na pogodę, bo przyjeżdżają w różnych porach roku, bo jeśli jest słonce to jest gorąc, jeśli jest zimno to jest zimno. Tutaj wieje 299 zawsze. I cały czas jest się na nogach, na stojąco, więc to też wymaga wysiłku fizycznego, który trzeba włożyć w ten pobyt tutaj, ale po moich doświadczeniach edukacyjnej pracy tutaj (Muzeum Majdanek), oczywiście zawsze znajdzie się ktoś komu jest żle, bo jest mu zimno, bo jest mu „cośtam”, ale ogólnie to dzieciaki lubią takie rzeczy, bo lubią zrobić coś samemu. (20:41) AS: Zapewne jest to tez identyfikacja z rówieśnicą… JL: Tak, dodatkowo, dokładnie tak. O takich grupach mogę się wypowiadać szerzej, także o dorosłych, którzy się tu znajdują w odpowiedzi na projekty, które prowadzimy. Współpracujemy ze służbą więzienną; nazywa się to Inspektorat Służby Więziennej, i to obejmuje całe województwo lubelskie, jeszcze Radom i okolice, tam gdzie inspektoraty działają i pracujemy zarówno z kadrą dowódczą, jak i z osadzonymi. Z kadrą dowódczą prowadzę warsztaty w zakresie psychologii sprawców, co uwielbiam, bo to jest bardzo złożony problem. A dlaczego kadra dowódcza? Ano dlatego, że jak się Pani domyśla, oni też mają władzę i chodzi o te mechanizmy, które, oczywiście nie ma porównania między policjantem z roku 2021 – 2022, chociaż jednostki są różne, a czasem wojny, okupacją i esesmanami. Ale są motywy, które rządzą ludzkim postępowaniem i one są niezmienne, niestety. Pracujemy na podstawie literatury oczywiście i wtedy, ich motywacja też jest inna. Oni są tutaj na takim szkoleniu, ale też biorą aktywny udział, bo ja im daję materiał do tego, żeby się z nim zapoznali, a potem dyskutujemy ze sobą, znaczy bardziej wolę jak oni dyskutują między sobą, ja ich tylko naprowadzam; na podstawie trzech, czterech sprawców. (22:42) AS: Czy jest to ciężkie pytać osoby, które są nadzorcami więzienia, czy identyfikują się z osobami typu Karl Otto Koch, Max Koegel czy Hermann Florstedt? (komendanci byłego obozu KL Lublin – Majdanek) JL: Nie pytam, tak te osoby to byli komendanci, natomiast sprawcy których my analizujemy , ich biografie, to nie są komendanci, dlaczego nie; komendanci nie mieli w zasadzie bezpośredniego kontaktu z więźniami. Bezpośredni kontakt z więźniami miał ten esesman, który był tutaj, nie w swojej willi z żoną, tylko był tutaj na terenie obozu. My analizujemy… (23:25) AS: Kapo? 300 JL: To jeszcze inna kategoria, to byli więźniowie funkcyjni wyznaczeni przez Niemców, to coś innego, nie możemy zrównać więźniów funkcyjnych z esesmanami, nawet, jeżeli robili złe rzeczy, dlatego, że oni byli więźniami i ich motywacja do robienia tego, co robili wynikała, ale ja nie usprawiedliwiam, ja tylko mówię… (23:45) AS: Z chęci przeżycia? JL: Dokładnie tak. Być może, że liczyli, że pokażą że są przydatni, to uda im się przeżyć. Oczywiście to tak się nie kończyło, ale chodziło o przeżycie, o przetrwanie. Oni byli wyznaczeni do tej funkcji. Oczywiście mogli odmówić, ale jak się Pani domyśla to wiązałoby się ze skróceniem tego efektu oczekiwania na śmierć. Natomiast esesmani, nadzorczynie także wykonywali także rozkazy, ale nie wszystko musieli robić, co robili. Majdanek… tu był ogromny prymitywizm jeżeli chodzi o dobranie załogi, bo, na przykład analizujemy biografię Herminy Braunsteiner, ona funkcjonuje też w literaturze jako Ryan Braunsteiner, bo po wojnie wyszła za mąż za Amerykanina. Ona chciała być pielęgniarka jako dziewczyna. To była młoda dziewczyna jak tu trafiła. Fakt, że rodzina wymagała od niej, żeby porzuciła marzenia o nauce bo nie było pieniędzy, a musiała szukać zarobku, żeby pomóc matce utrzymać tez rodzinę, bo ojciec zmarł, a w fabryce zarabiała jakieś 16 – 18 marek, gdzie musiała oddać za przejazdy, oddać matce na utrzymanie, więc zostawały jej jakieś szczątki, natomiast kiedy dowiedziała się o szkoleniu na nadzorczynię w Ravensbruck, przeszła to szkolenie, okazało się że ona za pracę w obozie dostaje 60 marek; nie kosztuje jej utrzymanie, nie kosztuje jej wyżywienie, nie kosztuje jej nic, dostaje ubranie, ma czysty zarobek. I ona chciała być pielęgniarką a stała się jedna z najokrutniejszych nadzorczyń na Majdanku. I to analizujemy. Od urodzenia, od wychowania w domu, od tych różnych prób próbujemy znaleźć odpowiedzi na podstawie socjologicznych opracowań psychologów, co mogło ją kierować. (26:05) AS: To coś większego niż przeżycie. Bo tu nie chodzi już tylko o przeżycie…? JL: Tak, tak, dokładnie. Jej życie nie było zagrożone. Ona po prostu chciała lepszego życia, lepszego standardu życia. Ona była ambitna, bo tak wynika z materiałów i ambitnie realizowała swój cel. Ona nie musiała łapać dziecka za nogę czy rękę i wrzucać na przyczepę traktora; wiedziała, że to dziecko 301 jest wiezione do komory gazowej. Ona miała 21 lat. Robiła to, chciała się przypodobać też przełożonym; ambicja, tak? To jest złożone, bo to nie chodzi o to, o czym teraz rozmawiamy, ale sytuacja, jakieś ryzy być może w charakterze, poczucie władzy nad ludzkim życiem, które jest, przynajmniej jak się czyta o tym nie da się porównać z niczym innym, jeśli masz władzę nad ludzkim życiem. I… nie ma kary. (27:10) AS: Nigdy nie została osądzona? JL: Została, została, jeśli Pani jest zainteresowana jej postacią, na naszej stronie internetowej w zakładce „Edukacja” w materiałach edukacyjnych są materiały po angielsku i po polsku. Kiedy byliśmy zamknięci (w czasie epidemii Covid) staraliśmy się dostarczyć nauczycielom jakiś materiał żeby mogli skorzystać. O niej też są prace pani Kozlow, to jest po niemiecku o załodze kobiecej na Majdanku; to było około 30 kobiet, ale jeśli chodzi o takie sprawy związane z psychologią sprawców świetne prace Raula Hilberga o zagładzie Żydów tez Christopher Browning „Ordinary Men”. On tutaj analizuje policjantów, oni byli członkami „Einsatzgruppen”, na pewno Pani słyszała co oni robili, ile osób wymordowali w krótkim czasie i Browning posiłkując się opracowaniami, to jest praca naukowa, tam jest aparat też, można doczytać sobie też, poszerzyć literaturę, analizuje ich motywy postępowania z kolei. Bo jak tylko się skończyła wojna było tłumaczenie, że oni musieli wykonywać te rozkazy, gdyż znaleźliby się na miejscu ofiar. To nie była prawda, bo byli tacy, którzy odmówili, bo nie mogli sobie z tym poradzić. Oni (członkowie Einsatzgruppen) wpadali do wsi i strzelali; to się wydarzyło na Majdanku, strzelali do kobiet, do starców, do kobiet ciężarnych, do dzieci, a to byli ludzie zwyczajni; policjanci w rezerwie którzy mieli też rodziny. Jeśli będzie Pani zainteresowana i będzie jeszcze chwila czasu ja mam refleksje tychże policjantów, tudzież oficerów więziennictwa po ich zajęciach i po pobycie. (29:49) AS: Bardzo byłabym tym zainteresowana… Refleksje na temat? JL: Na temat warsztatów i pobytu tutaj (w Muzeum Majdanek). Ja nie przygotowuję karty ankietowej, bo mnie nie interesuje (odpowiedź) bardzo, średnio, 5 procent…, tylko ja proszę żeby napisali mi to słowami. I jest takie wartościowe spotkanie, tutaj mnie pochwalili ze umiem z mundurami pracować. Jest taka jedna (refleksja): dzięki warsztatom i pobytowi tutaj, analizie materiałów można dostrzec 302 różnicę pomiędzy okrucieństwem a bestialstwem, albo zastanowić się nad własnym postępowaniem. Bardzo ciekawe warsztaty, emocjonalne spojrzenie na coś niby o czym wszyscy wiemy, a jednak nowe wrażenia, szczególnie w obliczu tego, co teraz się dzieje za naszą wschodnią granicą. (31:22) AS: Czy jest to czasem taki kubeł zimnej wody? JL: Tak, niektórzy piszą „dziękuje, nie zdawałem sobie sprawy”. Większość są to mężczyźni, ale nie tylko. Są też takie (wyznania) że „znalazłem w sobie coś, co muszę zmienić” albo „niebezpiecznie było przyjrzeć się z bliska cechom, które są w każdym z nas”, więc myślę że, nie tylko dlatego, że jeden z drugim uczestników powie, że pani ma ogromną wiedzę i potrafi pracować ze służbami mundurowymi, co mnie oczywiście bardzo cieszy, ale najbardziej wartościowa jest ta warstwa emocji, że oni dostrzegają, bo to są warsztaty historyczne, ale także próbują oni, bez nakierowania przeze mnie odszukać w rzeczywistym świecie teraz, tym współczesnym mowę nienawiści, aktów nienawiści człowieka do człowieka, aktów zbrojnych, tych które się dzieją (wojna na Ukrainie), że nie ma na co dzień czasu żeby się zastanawiać nad tym, co nami powoduje tak naprawdę. Po prostu; kończy się doba, zaczyna się druga, mamy jakieś zadania do wykonania. (32:57) AS: Zachowanie ludzkie nie zmienia się aż tak bardzo przez 70 lat? JL: Dokładnie tak, motywy są dokładnie takie same, dlatego ja na przykład wiem, jakie oni mają oczekiwania i wiem z jakimi emocjami oni tutaj przychodzą i z jakimi wychodzą. Jeśli chodzi o grupy młodych ludzi, chociaż zdarzyło mi się też że się popłakały osoby dorosłe. Tutaj ma Pani takie pytanie, chyba pytanie czwarte „Czy decyduje się Pani przedstawić fakty dotyczące śmierci i cierpienia lub bardziej emocjonalne historie i tak dalej… (33:39) AS: tak… JL: Ja bym podzieliła na dwie części odpowiedź na to pytanie. Po pierwsze; zawsze opowiadamy historie poprzez historię danego człowieka, bo jeśli chcemy, żeby człowiek się zastanowił i miał 303 jakiekolwiek refleksje to musi dostrzec innego człowieka a nie liczby i nie fakty. Nawet, w baraku gdzie są same buty, a ich jest -dziesiąt tysięcy ja proszę, obojętnie czy pracuję z dorosłymi czy z młodzieżą, to mówię przed barakiem, nie mówię tego w środku, proszę żeby przeczytali wiersz „Pantofelek” Tadeusz Czajki, bardzo prosty, inna rzecz, że nauczyciele odkrywają, że dzieciaki potrafią świetnie czytać poezję, wprowadzam (do baraku) proszę żeby się trochę pogapili, nie mówili nic tylko wybrali jeden but i żeby się zastanowili do kogo należał, jak ta osoba była ubrana, gdzie mogła iść, jak mogła wyglądać, a wcześniej jeszcze pytam, czy buty coś o nas mówią, ale to też na zewnątrz, nie w tamtej przestrzeni, którą traktuję trochę jak sacrum, żeby mogli mieć tam przestrzeń na refleksję, na te swoje emocje, mówię im zawsze że jak jesteście gotowi możecie wyjść i ja czekam na nich na zewnątrz. Nie pytam jak było, nie pytam co sobie wyobrażali, to zostawiam im tą przestrzeń. Ale ja nie chcę tym działaniem wzbudzić w nich dodatkowych emocji, tylko chcę, dzisiaj świat jest szybki, wszystko dzieje się potwornie prędko i czas na refleksję mamy bardzo ograniczony, jeżeli w ogóle. I ja tylko chcę, bez mojego moralizowania, bo to zawsze jest źle przyjmowane; skutek jest żaden, żeby oni sami sobie wyobrazili. Jeżeli ktoś nie chce wejść, bądź zaraz wychodzi ja nie zwracam mu uwagi na ten temat, po prostu jego czas był taki i też nigdy nie pytam co sobie wyobrażał. Próbuję spowodować, żeby oni przez chwilę się zatrzymali i pomyśleli o tym, gdzie są; w jakim miejscu i o czym ja im w ogóle opowiadam. Natomiast jak mówię, te fakty to nie bardzo wszystko zmienią, to znaczy na pewno z punktu widzenia historyka na pewno istotna jest wiedza ile było ofiar, skąd ile przeżyło, ile w ogóle osób tutaj trafiło, to na pewno tak, ale ci, którzy zwiedzają to miejsce jednorazowo na pewno nie zapamiętają tego aż tak bardzo. (36:44) AS: Jest to dla mnie bardzo ważne pytanie, dlatego, że my generalnie wiemy o faktach, tak samo o innych obozach zagłady; są znane liczby, są znane narodowości, są znane wyniki Procesów Norymberskich, natomiast ja też osobiście po wielu latach badania faktów zatrzymałam się na wierszu pani Achmann, w którym matka prowadzi córkę do krematorium ale opowiada jej że tam będzie się bawiła z innymi dziećmi i właśnie wyobrażenie sobie takich sytuacji jest dla mnie bardzo dużym dodatkiem emocjonalnym do, tak jak sama Pani powiedziała; do edukacji. Bo to jest edukacja, bo to jest Muzeum pamięci, natomiast właśnie ten wkład emocjonalny jest ważny… JL: Dokładnie tak. Ja absolutnie nie neguję faktów, byłoby to trochę niezrozumiałe, gdybym ja pracując tutaj w ogóle nie przedstawiała faktów grupie, ale nie mam złudzeń i doskonale zdaję sobie sprawę, że mogą zapamiętać, tak mi się wydaje z obserwacji ilość ofiar żydowskich w stosunku do nieżydowskich, albo liczbę ofiar polskich-nieżydowskich do polskich-żydowskich, aczkolwiek tego 304 rozgraniczenia akurat nie mamy bo nie ma takich danych, ale na przykład na Majdanku wśród tych 80 tysięcy, 10 tysięcy to byli Polacy, nie Żydzi. Te około 63 tysiące, jak kolega wyliczył ostatnio to byli Żydzi, zarówno polscy jak i z Europy całej i zostaje nam ile? (39:00) AS: 7 tysięcy? JL: I to są przedstawiciele innych krajów europejskich, nie będący Żydami. 39:19: AS: Nie ma rozróżnienia na takie grupy jak homoseksualiści czy badacze biblijni (Jehowy) bo oni przecież były osobami „non-grata” przez nazistów? JL: Ja pani pokaże ten wiersz o którym mówiłam…. („Pantofelek” Tadeusza Czajki): Znalazłem pantofelek taki malutki – ot, tutaj na drodze z łaźni. Jak szłaś, dziecinko, dalej? Kamieni tyle… taki ostry żwir… Przecież nie wiedziałaś dokąd… Buciczek prawie nowy… Na pewno na wyjazd mamusia… O, jaka czerwona plama Buciczku maleńki, co ja z tobą zrobię? Komu zgubę odniosę? Kogo zapytam? 305 Słuchajcie kobiety! Czyje to dziecko? (40:11) AS: Jest to bardzo emocjonalne. Ja przeczytałam wiele semi-dokumentalnych książek takich jak „Tatuażysta z Auschwitz”, czy historia nauczycielki z getta łódzkiego, Są to opowieści o kimś, to się kiedyś wydarzyło, natomiast nie jest to osoba z krwi i kości nazwana z imienia i nazwiska, natomiast jeśli na przykład znajduję historię osoby, która jest znana z imienia i nazwiska i która stwierdziła że z chęci przetrwania zdecydowała się pracować w oświęcimskim „puffie” to jest to niesamowity dokument ale także emocjonalne uderzenie… JL: Tak. U nas też są często pytania o „puff” czyli o dom publiczny. Generalnie mamy bardzo mało informacji na ten temat, ale co chcę powiedzieć, dziewczyny polskie które trafiały tutaj w charakterze pokojówek czyli takich których zadaniem było utrzymywanie w czystości kwater esesmańskich, to były wybierane dziewczyny specjalnie, które dobrze wyglądały, one miały te białe fartuszki, też nie spały z innymi więźniarkami w tej części więźniarskiej, w tych barakach, w tych wszach, oczywiście wzbudzały tym nienawiść, że miały te białe fartuszki, ale tylko jedna z nich, bo koleżanka robiła research do ostatniej książki o więźniach, tylko jedna kobieta przed śmiercią jakby przyznała publicznie, że ona też była wykorzystywana (seksualnie), że dzięki temu mogła dostać jeść czy więcej tego chleba. My jako my, nie wiem czy to „my” jako Polacy, ale ludzie współcześnie żyjący mają taką manię „Ja to bym zrobił to” albo „Ja to bym tego nigdy nie zrobił”. A ja zawsze mówię, że to świetnie, że Pan, Pani ma takie wyobrażenie, każdy lubi sobie dobrze sobie wyobrażać, ale nie mamy pojęcia, co byśmy zrobili by przeżyć, albo co byśmy w stanie zrobić, żeby przeżyli nasi najbliżsi. Nie mamy pojęcia… Albo na przykład uratować grupę i zdecydować się na przykład tak, jak robiły to kobiety ukrywające się w lasach czy po upadku powstania w getcie warszawskim, żeby udusić dziecko, żeby nie płakało, żeby nie wydało 30 – 40 ludzi. My nie mamy pojęcia i, obyśmy nigdy nie mieli, natomiast dzisiaj ja to często słyszę „A dlaczego oni się nie buntowali?”. I po prostu czasami ręce opadają, bo… to jest tez trochę w dobrej wierze, ale tez taka wyższość dzisiaj , bo powiedzmy ktoś tutaj przychodzi o godzinie 14, wiec zapewne wciągnął już dwa posiłki, a może jeszcze jakąś przegryzkę, wypił kawę, być może bardzo dobrej jakości, ma super odzież, ja nie naśmiewam się z tego ale ten człowiek, który mówi, że on „to by w ogóle…” nie ma w ogóle pojęcia o czym on mówi. (44:02) AS: Czy jest to stwierdzenie głównie o grupach polskich? 306 JL: Nie, jest to jednostkowe stwierdzenie, to są jednostkowe przypadki. Goście z zagranicy, znaczy zagranica jest o tyle tu istotna w kontekście okupacji, że ktoś, kto przyjeżdża do takiego Muzeum i chce na przykład zwiedzić to miejsce, on nie musi wiedzieć jak wyglądała okupacja w Europie środkowo-wschodniej, jak wyglądała w Polsce. On nie musi tego wiedzieć. Tak samo, jak wielu z nas ma pojęcia, jak wyglądała okupacja w innych krajach, no ktoś, kto się interesuje to będzie wiedział, bo czyta. I na przykład pytanie: „No jak to, przecież miasto Lublin było tuż (obozu Majdanek), to dlaczego ci ludzie nie pomogli tym tutaj, uwięzionym?”. Ja mówię; no pomagali, szmuglowali chleb, leki, grypsy; tak jak mogli to pomagali. Ja wtedy musiałabym wytłumaczyć jak wyglądała tu wtedy okupacja. (45:28) AS: Bo za pomoc groziła kara śmierci… JL: Albo rozbrajające pytanie; student, to jest chłopak 24 lata z Francji, żebym ja mu wyjaśniła jak taki esesman mógł strzelać do kobiet w ciąży? Ja mówię; to mnie proszę nie pytać, proszę przejrzeć literaturę, bo wojna dla tego, który strzelał nie zaczęła się 1 września 1939 roku, tylko po przegranej pierwszej wojnie światowej. Trzeba poczytać, ja mówię, my nie mamy przestrzeni ani czasu żebym ja Panu wyjaśniła jak wychowuje się społeczeństwo do tego, żeby robili to, czego władza od nich oczekuje; jak działa propaganda. (46:17) AS: To jest moje odwieczne pytanie dotyczące kryminalistów; „Are they born or made”. I jeżeli te dwa czynniki nałożyć na siebie, czyli jeżeli ktoś już ma tendencję, osobowość kryminalisty i dodatkowo jeszcze ta propaganda go w tym utwierdza, to w tym momencie nie ma już chyba żadnych zahamowań… JL: Nie, bo jeśli jest przekonanie wtłaczane w głowy, że powiedzmy Żyd to nie jest człowiek, to nie jest nawet zwierzę, to jest być może rzecz, że nie czuje, nie myśli, że to nie jest człowiek i po jednorazowym bądź kilkurazowym takim wysłuchaniu być może coś by zaświtało, jeśli byłyby przesłanki w psychice tego człowieka, ale jeśli, tak jak pani mówi; okoliczności były „sprzyjające” wewnątrz i na zewnątrz to nie jest człowiek. 307 (47:33) AS: Wielu nazistów nie wytrzymywało także tego ciśnienia… JL: Tak, tak dlatego, że, znaczy mnie też razi, mimo, że nie jestem historykiem, ale razi mnie takie równanie, że to tylko Niemcy. Chciałoby się powiedzieć „Nie, proszę Pana”. Nawet na naszej stronie jest taki komentarz, że to tylko Niemcy. Nie naziści niemieccy, tylko Niemcy. I to jest brak wiedzy. Bo nie wszyscy Niemcy byli nazistami i nie wszyscy naziści to byli Niemcy. Naziści byli w Stanach Zjednoczonych; wszyscy znamy markę Ford, a Henry Ford był oddany duszą i ciałem Hitlerowi i on go wspierał finansowo, nie wiem ile osób o tym w ogóle wie. (48:50) AS: Uważam, że jeżeli mówimy o czasach bez Internetu to była to najlepsza propaganda na świecie. JL: Oczywiście, on (Hitler) był wielkim mówcą. Dlaczego on wyłaził i gadał najpierw w piwiarni, gdzie na początku wszyscy się z niego śmiali.. (49:04) AS: Ale miał Goebbelsa… JL: To był jedyny wykształcony człowiek w otoczeniu Hitlera, on miał tytuł doktora filozofii. (49:33) AS: Majdanek powstał na mocy rozkazu Himmlera. To był człowiek „znikąd” który był oczarowany Hitlerem… JL: Tak Psycholodzy go opisują jako zakompleksionego człowieka, który znalazł przestrzeń, gdzie te kompleksy mógł zasłonić i dlatego robił to, co robił. Dlatego był taki, jaki był. (50:03) AS: Pani Jolanto, do jakiego stopnia zwiedzający są w stanie zmodyfikować trasę zwiedzania? Czy są jakieś szczególne miejsca, gdzie wie Pani, że będą chcieli się zatrzymać, dopytać, czy są jakieś miejsca, które wywołują specjalne poruszenie w grupach? 308 JL: Dwa rodzaje… Tu te rozgraniczenie; turyści indywidualni, którzy sobie sami chodzą, więc my nie wiemy. Turyści, którzy przyjeżdżają tutaj, zbierają się w grupę i idzie z nimi przewodnik; to są tak zwane „toury” i (trzeci rodzaj) to te grupy edukacyjne. Tu będą różne odpowiedzi (w zależności od tych grup). Przewodnik, który idzie z grupą, on decyduje co, w której kolejności i jak pokazuje grupie po to, aby opowiedzieć historię tego miejsca i ludzi, którzy tutaj w czasie drugiej wojny zostali wbrew własnej woli przytaszczeni, przywleczeni, ale i tych także, bo opowiadamy także o sprawcach, bo przecież bez nich tego miejsca by nie było. I to w zasadzie przewodnik powinien decydować. Jeśli jest grupa, o której my wiemy; dostajemy informacje, że na przykład to są wykładowcy, że się specjalizują w tematyce powiedzmy, wtedy w miejscach które, bo teren jest otwarty cały; my nie mamy miejsc „dla” i „nie dla” wtedy ustalamy, bo oni mogą spędzić więcej czasu, niż te przysłowiowe dwie godziny, są też niektórzy ekstremalni, którzy chcą godzinę i wszystko; to się nie da. I wtedy my jesteśmy jako przewodnicy otwarci na drążące pytania, na dociekliwe, na szczegółowe i podajemy więcej informacji niż przeciętnemu zwiedzającemu, z powodu percepcji, z powodu zainteresowania i też tego zafokusowania się na danym temacie. W przypadku miejsc, które mogą wywierać większe wrażenie emocjonalne na pewno będą to komory gazowe i ich wnętrze bo one są oryginalne. (52:45) AS: Nie zostały zburzone? JL: Nie, Niemcy nie zniszczyli Majdanka. Oni się spieszyli mocno, nie sadzili, że Sowieci będą się od strony Chełma tak szybko przemieszczać, więc oni wyszli stąd 22 (lipca 1944), a 23 lipca (1944) już tu byli Rosjanie. (53:00) AS: Ale zostało wyzwolonych tylko tysiąc osób, to jest niewiele… JL: Tak. Niemcy likwidowali obóz od marca 1944 roku, dlatego tak mało jest dokumentacji strykte niemieckiej, która dużo rzeczy wcześniej by nam powiedziała, ale oni to wszystko wywieźli, a to, co zostało, to zabrali Sowieci i my tego nigdy w życiu nie dostaniemy, ani nawet wglądu do tego. (Wracając do tematu) to jest wnętrze komory gazowej. Ja też zostawiam tam przestrzeń, żeby te emocje mogły… żeby człowiek, który tam stoi mógł sam te swoje emocje kontrolować. Ja nie dodaję rzeczy, które wzbudzają, lub mogą wzbudzać dodatkowo poruszenie. Uważam, że sam ten widok 309 wystarczy. Inne miejsce, bywa, że jest to plac selekcyjny; to jest kawałek trawy, w tym momencie on nie jest odgrodzony parkanem, tak jak to było w czasie wojny, ale kiedy mówimy, że był ogrodzony parkanem, kiedy Niemcy nazwali go „Rossengarten”; piękna nazwa - Ogród Różany; ani ogród, ani róża. I że ci ludzie siedzieli czasem po kila godzin, kilkanaście, kilkadziesiąt bez wody, bez jedzenia, w upale, bądź w mrozie zanim podjęto decyzje kto z nich będzie żył, a kto nie. Tam wpychali tylko Żydów. Selekcja odbywała się u wszystkich więźniów, ale to miejsce było zarezerwowane dla Żydów. Jeżeli ktoś jest wrażliwy i zobaczy kawałek ładnej traw, bo dzisiaj jest trawa, wtedy tej trawy nie było, o czym ja tez zawsze mówię, to może być dojmujące. Barak z butami, o których pani mówiłam; to robi wrażenie właściwie na wszystkich, bez względu na wiek, na pozycję, na wiedzę, nawet na emocjonalność. Jak opowiadam, nie każdej grupie, o tym, co się tutaj w terminologii obozu nazywało „basen”. To nie był basen, jak pani będzie na trzecim polu więźniarskim tak wystaje takie żelastwo z ziemi, takie nieduże obramowanie, być może ma metr z groszami głębokości, nieduży obwód. To było wypełnione wodą i oczywiście zamiast, bo więźniowie nie mieli kontaktu z wodą, nie mogli się napić, nie mogli się umyć, tylko wtedy, jak ich pędzono do łaźni to ten kontakt kilkusekundowy z woda to był jedyny. A picie to tylko to co dostawali rano, jakieś obrzydliwe, w południe i wieczorem. No chyba że był śnieg albo deszcz. I ten basenik, o którym ja mówię; była nadzieja, że może niespostrzeżenie, może Niemcy nie będą na to zwracali uwagi, może będzie wolno im się napić. A to było kolejne narzędzie tortury; zanurzanie więźnia do połowy tułowia, nogą przytrzymywanie, podtapianie, on łapie powietrze, i potem jeszcze raz, jeszcze raz aż się utopi całkiem. Opowiadam to tym oficerom, czasami młodzi ludzie mnie pytają, to ja im mówię co to jest, ale nie ma tego w standardzie, że to dla wszystkich. Jest bezwzględnie dojmujące wnętrze krematorium, bo o ile, Niemcy wycofując się podpalili ciała te przeznaczone do spalenia i spaliły się wszystkie elementy drewniane czyli ściany i dach, to cała konstrukcja wewnątrz; jak pani wejdzie to pani zobaczy; ta cementowo – betonowa plus piece; pięć stanowisk – to wszystko jest oryginalne. Więc to jest, to musi być dojmujące. I też trzeba wyważać, ja zazwyczaj wolę powiedzieć przed albo po, żeby dać przestrzeń, żeby nie przytłoczyć, żeby te emocje które mają w sobie, oni mogli nad nimi panować wtedy. Żeby nie dodawać im jeszcze dodatkowo, ale też trochę z szacunku do miejsca. Dojmujący jest widok rowów po „Erntefest”, bo jeszcze są widoczne, kiedy się opowiada jak to się wydarzyło i na końcu, pod kopułą ogromna ilość ziemi wymieszanej z prochami, i to jest widoczne, to widać. Kiedy się mówi skąd, bo to nowe krematorium było bardzo często nieczynne, nie działało, było tak bardzo nowoczesne, że bez przerwy coś się tam psuło i ciała były w dużej mierze palone na zewnątrz, w dołach. Wkładano takie podwozia, albo szyny, żeby taki ruszt stworzyć i ciała palono. Żadne ciało na Majdanku nie zostało w postaci ciała zakopane w ziemi. Nawet jeśli było pierwotnie w dole, to potem było wydobyte i spalone. 310 (58:26) AS: Czyli po „Dożynkach” (Erntefest) były też spalone ciała? JL: Tak. Ponad trzy miesiące zajęło palenie tych ciał. Dlatego takie miejsca też są. Ale jest też miejsce, to jest w jednym z baraków w tej części gospodarczej, gdzie jest ekspozycja „Shrine”. To jest ekspozycja artystyczna, ona ma podtytuł „Pamięci Bezimiennej Ofiary” i tam jest symbolika. Tam jest półmrok, słychać modlitwy w wielu językach, zazwyczaj „Ojcze Nasz” w różnych językach i ta muzyka między modlitwami jest bardzo mroczna, ale taka stonowana, tam jest jeden dźwięk w zasadzie, który trwa. I jest symbolika drutu kolczastego i światła, bądź braku światła. Są takie kule zrobione z drutu, zawieszone, gdzie są żarówki, one się świecą, to się kończy po pewnym momencie i są inne kule, bez światła, które leżą na ziemi. Młodzież zwykle lubi to obejrzeć, mają czas też żeby się zastanowić i jak wychodzimy to pytam, jak wam się wydaje; co to znaczy? Przeważnie trafiają; no bo światło to życie, bez światła nie ma życia. (59:54) AS: Albo nadzieja albo brak nadziei…? Często nadzieja utrzymywała ludzi w obozach przez wiele lat… JL: Dokładnie tak. Jak napisała Halina Birenbaum „Nadzieja Umiera Ostatnia”. (1:00:12) AS: Pani Jolanta, bardzo proszę nie traktować tego jako jakakolwiek krytykę, ale analizuję forum turystyczne TripAdvisor i dane z przed trzech – czterech dni mówią, że jest teraz tylko 731 opinii o Majdanku na TripAdvisor, może teraz będzie o kilka więcej, natomiast Auschwitz ma prawie 15,000 (opinii). Skąd, uważa Pani taka różnica, czy jest to, niestety, owo straszne porównanie w liczbie ofiar, która trafia bardziej do ludzi; 1,1 miliona versus 80 tysięcy…? JL: Myślę, że nie. Muzeum Auschwitz Birkenau jest symbolem międzynarodowym, nie regionalnym, ale międzynarodowym. Jeśli nawet, zakładam, ktoś, w jakimś zakątku świata nie potrafiłby podać zbyt wielu faktów, informacji, czegokolwiek na temat Auschwitz, to zakładam że na pewno słyszał ta nazwę. To jest raz. I jest to symbol międzynarodowy. Dwa; o czym mówiłyśmy wcześniej; Muzeum Auschwitz Birkenau jest tuż obok Krakowa. Lublin jest piękny, natomiast nie jesteśmy Krakowem. Mnóstwo turystów zagranicznych wybierze Kraków, bo o Krakowie słyszało, natomiast Lublin, to musi mu ktoś 311 polecić, ewentualnie jest tak zdeterminowany, żeby odkryć coś nowego, że poszpera w Internecie, aż na Lublin trafi. Tu trzeba przyjechać specjalnie. (1:03:14) AS: Pani Jolanto, co Pani uważa o oczekiwaniach względem Majdanka? Ludzie przyjeżdżają do Majdanka żeby sobie przypomnieć, żeby zapomnieć, żeby oddać hołd, żeby.. jest też przypadek „Schadenfreude”? JL: Wszystkie po trosze elementy, które pani wymieniła po trosze na pewno tu się znajdą. My pytamy jakie są oczekiwania naszych gości, kiedy na przykład robimy szkolenia dla nauczycieli. Pytam też policjantów, pytam oficerów więziennictwa. Pytamy też młodych ludzi, tych zorganizowanych; ja mówię tutaj o stronie edukacyjnej. Ich oczekiwania to; nie wymieniam w kolejności pojawienia się; dowiedzenia się czegoś o tym miejscu, dowiedzenia się czegoś historycznego o tym miejscu, kolega był, koleżanka była, więc ja też jak będę to potem pogadamy, co myślimy o tym miejscu, czyli takie poznawcze. Często się zdarzało, ale nie mogę powiedzieć że przewaga; „należy, „trzeba”, „musimy znać historię Drugiej wojny Światowej, żeby się nie powtórzyło” – to mówię sprzed wybuchu wojny na Ukrainie. To jest imperatyw nakazowy. Są różne słowa, które są używane, ale to jest ten nakaz „musze się dowiedzieć”, „muszę się dowiedzieć bo należy pamiętać”, „nie możemy zapomnieć”. Pamiętać i nie zapomnieć są często w parach używane określenia. „Moja babcia, dziadek, pradziadek, mama opowiadała, prababcia była w tym miejscu, albo prawdopodobnie byli tutaj w czasie wojny” (1:06:04) AS: Czyli osobiste… JL: Osobiste doświadczenia. Tak, dokładnie. Mam mało, właściwie prawie zerowa jest moja informacja, którą bym otrzymywała od więźniów Żydowskich, byłych, rodzin w sensie, źle to powiedziałam; od potomków więźniów, dlatego, że nie ma z nimi kontaktu. (1:06:29) AS: A zdarzają się jeszcze weterani Majdanka? JL: Nasz ukochany Pan Zdzisław Badio, który był encyklopedią i chodzącym sercem zmarł w tamtym roku (03.08.2021). Pan Badio miał 96 lat. Trafił na Majdanek jak miał lat 17, w 42 roku, w okresie 312 największego głodu, szalejącego tyfusu i śmiertelności. Złapany w łapance na wsi pod Krasnymstawem. Spędził tutaj ponad pół roku. Cudem przeżył, bo on został uderzony kolbą w głowę, pokazywał nam ślad. Hmmm… Przeżył. I jako ten z łapanki – zwolnili go do domu. Jak on opowiadał, ze po tym pół roku w pociągu sąsiadkę spotkał w pociągu, naprzeciwko niej siedział i on się na nią patrzył, tak chciał zagadać, przywitał się, ona go nie poznała kim on jest, mimo że mieszkali obok siebie. I to był człowiek, dlaczego o nim mówię, człowiek, który był więźniem jako starszy nastolatek, ponad pół roku; on pamięta. Druga rzecz, która mnie fascynowała, bo moja babcia, mimo mojego wieku zmarła w tamtym roku (2021); miała 97 lat.. (1:08:00) AS: Moja babcia też zmarła w zeszłym roku…. JL: …i mnie na przykład, w kontekście mówię mojej babci, bo każdy jest inny, każdy jest jakiś, nie wiem jaką będę babcia później, jeżeli dożyję; pan Badio był ciepłym człowiekiem, bez żółci, bez krzyża na plecach, otwarty, jak rozmawiał z dzieciakami, bo nigdy nie odmawiał, opowiadał historię, to oni mieli wrażenie, że rozmawiają z rówieśnikiem. Nie moralizował, czasami się nawet trochę wstydził, że oni go uważają za kogoś typu bohater, a przecież mówił „Ja tylko przeżyłem, ja nie byłem bohaterem”. On używał słów o pojednaniu, o człowieczeństwie, o tym, że nie każdy jest taki sam. To, jest to, co ja słyszałam teraz, bo miałam dyżur w weekend; byli panowie na motorach, dojrzali mężczyźni i jeden z nich wybitnie, znaczy on to werbalizował, mówił o tym, że on do tej pory Niemców nienawidzi, bo oni są dzisiaj tak samo odpowiedzialni, więc ja nie mogłam tak tego zostawić, ale których z jego kolegów mówi „ale co ty mówisz, przecież to w ogóle inni ludzie są”. „Ale to Niemiec!”. I ja zaczęłam z nim rozmawiać, tez nie moralizować, i mówię, że przecież tamtych ludzi już nie ma, ci ludzie są inni, nowi. Mówię „Wie Pan, że wśród nazistów kierujący obozami byli też na przykład Austriacy, byli Słowacy. Oni należeli też do partii”. W Holandii w czasie Drugiej Wojny Światowej , w Belgii była Partia Nazistowska, co której można było się zapisać. Rząd Francji w Vichy współpracował z Niemcami i mówię; i co? Oczywiście nikt nie zdejmuje odpowiedzialności z tamtych Niemiec, które wywołały wojnę i ten kataklizm, ale dzisiaj mamy 2022 rok… (1:10:19) AS: Daje przykład wymiany z Niemiec, gdzie wykładowca była bardzo wręcz zawstydzona, że Uniwersytet w Berlinie znajduje się w budynku używanym przez nazistów w czasie wojny. 313 JL: Jeszcze taka dygresja bardzo zbliżona, w tamtym roku, to był chyba styczeń (2021), bo przygotowywałyśmy uroczystości rocznicowe, które myśmy budowały, żeby to wyglądało godnie, ja i moje dziewczyny i my zawsze mamy woluntariuszy , większość takich muzeów ma woluntariuszy, Auschwitz ma mnóstwo, poza tym na terenie Niemiec mają woluntariuszy, u nas co roku, chyba od trzydziestu lat są woluntariusze z organizacji tych takich wolentariackich z Niemiec i z Austrii, w tym roku mamy Valentina z Austrii i Joannę z Niemiec; Joanna ma polskie korzenie w ogóle – z Krakowa jest jej babcia, no ale rodzice już z Niemiec, ona też się tam urodziła, ale też mówi trochę po polsku. No i do czego zmierzam; były to uroczystości, nasza prasa lokalna, pewnie się nudzili, no ale przyjechali zrobić jakby reportaż, foto relację też, że składamy kwiaty… No i się dowiedział reporter radiowy, który ze mną rozmawiał o tym właśnie dniu, bo to był 27 stycznia Międzynarodowy Dzień Pamięci Ofiar Holocaustu, że wolontariusze.. Bo jakoś tak powiedziałam, że wolontariusze. (Reporter zapytał) „O, to są wolontariusze, mogę z nimi porozmawiać?”. Ja mówię, chyba że posługuje się pan językiem niemieckim bądź angielskim, Valentin zna jeszcze francuski i hiszpański… „A ta Joanna to takie polskie (imię) (pyta reporter). Ja mówię – troszeczkę po polsku. „O to ja ją zapytam, takie proste pytanie tylko” (mówi reporter). Mnie coś tknęło i poszłam za nim, no my też musimy dbać o te nasze dzieciaki, bo one tu cały rok są, przyjeżdżają mają 18 lat, także to jest młode stworzenie. Nie wiem, o co było pierwsze pytanie, ale drugie pytanie to było: „No pani jest Niemką, czy pani się czuje odpowiedzialna za to, że pani przodkowie tutaj wtedy…” Jak go złapałam za ten mikrofon, bo to był taki jakby dyktafon tylko z włosami, bo to było na zewnątrz i ja mówię „Przepraszam, ale co Pan robi? To dziecko ma 18 lat, jest tu przez cały rok i pracuje razem z nami, jak Pan ją może o to pytać? Jaka odpowiedzialność 18-letniej dziewczyny? Gdzie jest Pana profesjonalizm? Jest Pan tu pierwszy raz u nas?. Ja się na mnie spojrzał, ale ja myślałam, że mu po prostu krzywdę zrobię, byłabym w stanie chyba powiedzieć mu jeszcze coś mniej dyplomatycznego, gdyby zechciał ze mną dyskutować. Byłam wkurzona, byłam po prostu wkurzona. Brak profesjonalizmu. Przepraszam… (1:15:36) AS: To jest absolutnie bardzo przydatne. Wróćmy do emocji. Knudsen (2011) powiedział „To, co turysta otrzymuje z procesu zwiedzania to są głównie emocje i uczucia. Uczucia, odczucia… Jak bardzo jest ono aktualne dla Majdanka, to stwierdzenie? JL: Zastanowiłabym się nad takim radykalnym, że otrzymują głównie uczucia i emocje, na pewno otrzymują także uczucia i emocje. Bo jeśli byśmy to, teraz może zbyt technicznie lub matematycznie przeanalizowały, oczekiwania i potem wróciły do tego stwierdzenia, to mogłybyśmy użyć tego spójnika „także”, moim zdaniem. Bo tak, jak opowiadałam pani, chęć upamiętnienia, chęć odkrycia historii, 314 chęć dowiedzenia się „bo musze wiedzieć, bo muszę znać historię”, czyli to taka edukacja, upamiętnienie. Przecież zakładam, że żaden ze zwiedzających, przekraczając bramę naszego Muzeum nie wie, jak zareaguje w tym czy w tamtym miejscu, gdyż tu nie był i nie widział. Inaczej, jak ogląda to sam, inaczej jak jeszcze usłyszy historię spersonalizowaną, staram się też pokazywać fotografie, bo to ma sens, bo my opowiadamy o tych ludziach, a nie na zasadzie „było jednorazowo 25 tysięcy ludzi” bo co komuś powie 25 tysięcy? Ale jak pokażemy że była Halina Grynsztajn (znana też jako Halina Birenbaum), która miała 13 lat , która przeżyła, ja jestem fanką pani Haliny, znaczy jesteśmy na „ty”, więc Halinki. Jak mogłam ją ściskać to była najszczęśliwsza na świecie, która jest tak aktywna na Facebooku; rocznik 25. Napisała mnóstwo wierszy, mnóstwo książek, jest niemożliwa, jeśli chodzi o to…, starał się użyć jakiegoś dobrego określenia… (1:18:17) AS: Ile czasu tu spędziła (na Majdanku)? JL: Ona tu spędziła od upadku powstania w getcie warszawskim, to było po czerwcu już 1943, i potem, po około miesiącu została wysłana do Auschwitz. Straciła tu matkę, bo w czasie selekcji, ona miała 13 lat, była trochę rozkapryszona, było jej gorąco, mama miała w koszyczku olej rzepakowy, wieźli ich tu ponad dwie doby z Warszawy i marudziła. Mama starała się jej wyjaśnić; mama miała 42 lata wtedy, że… „o zobacz, tam są…” bo widać było pasiaki, że ludzie pracują, więc na pewno się umyją, bo tu łaźnia, tak? Czekają przed łaźnią, to na tym placu selekcyjnym o którym pani mówiłam i było na lewo i na prawo… Ona jako dziecko 13-letnie też przeżyła cudem, bo do 14, 15 lat Niemcy – do gazu. Wyglądała pewnie w miarę jeszcze przyzwoicie, no bo najmłodsza w rodzinie, każdy ostatni kęs pewnie podtykał, no bo dziecko, tak? Matka jako 42-latka została uznana za starą i skierowana do gazu, ją z bratową do łaźni, ona w łaźni zaczęła się rozglądać za mamą, jak woda poleciała, że miałaś rację; mamy nie ma. I ona jak opowiada, jest taka relacja na wideo, stoi przy ścianie łaźni, że ona jak jest na Majdanku to zawsze tej matki szuka. To jest bardzo wzruszające… (1:20:04) AS: Pani Halina przeżyła… JL: Majdanek (1:20:09) AS: I Oświęcim. 315 JL: Bo gdyby jej nie wysłali wtedy, pod koniec lata (1943) do Auschwitz, to zginęłaby 3 listopada 1943 roku w „Dożynkach”. Przeżyła Majdanek, Auschwitz, Ravensbruck, Neustadt-Glewe. W 1947 roku wyjechała do Izraela, straciła, ona myślała, że straciła wszystkich, a jednak Marek; jej starszy brat, najstarszy brat przeżył. Halina mieszka w Izraelu od 1947 roku. Bardzo wcześnie wyszła za mąż, bardzo wcześnie urodziła synów, ona dużo o tym pisze też, w książce „To nie deszcz, to ludzie”, mam tą książkę z dedykacją tutaj. I a propos tych oczekiwań, tak, i tych emocji czy to jest tylko… zgubiłam się, proszę o powtórzenie… ((1:21:49) AS: Jest to jedna z tez (wracając do wypowiedzi Knudsena), my tą tezę możemy podważyć, że nie są to emocje, jest to głównie edukacja, albo to jest głównie samozadowolenie… JL: Ja bym dała inny spójnik po prostu, że: także. Żeby to zostawić to ja bym dała także, bo tu jest mix różnych czynników; jest edukacja, jest chęć upamiętnienia i ona też jest, bo jeśli ktoś stoi przy Mauzoleum, kilka minut, to to też jest upamiętnienie. Bo on może sobie pójść, ale jeśli stoi; a nie robi tak każdy, ale jeśli stoi, jeżeli jeszcze przyniesie na przykład jakiegoś kwiata, i go położy, czy lampkę, czy po prostu stoi, tak. To jest też widoczne, było widoczne, przez Covid się wszystko posypało, ale myślę, że to wejdzie z powrotem; dużo grup przyjeżdżało też, bardzo dużo grup niemieckich, młodzieży na pobyty studyjne, kilkudniowe. Przygotowani, wiedzieli po co są, gdzie są, jakie mają zadanie, zazwyczaj musieli coś przygotować i potem w szkole to prezentowali, ale na przykład zawsze ostatni dzień ich pobytu; kilka godzin, nie 5 minut, nie 15, nie godzinę; kilka godzin mieli na to, żeby pójść, rozproszyć się na cały teren Muzeum i jeśli chcieli, to kupowali kwiaty, pojedyncze, w miejscu, gdzie chcieli się zatrzymać dłużej. I czasami potem znajdowały się pojedyncze kwiatuszki przewleczone przez druty, albo położone gdzieś przy baraku; po prostu to też jest forma zarówno edukacji, emocji, jak i upamiętnienia. Więc ja bym nie skupiała się na jednym aspekcie. (1:23:40) AS: Jedno z najważniejszych pytań; Pani ma wielkie doświadczenie w obserwowaniu ludzi indywidualnych, grup, czy mogłaby Pani opisać emocje, z którymi borykają się ci ludzie; werbalne i niewerbalne. Tutaj przygotowałam większy obraz „Koła Emocji’ Plutchika i jest to koło emocji, które może czasami nawet wydać się szokujące (w tym miejscu), dlatego, że są tutaj emocje wszelkie; pozytywne, negatywne, neutralne. Czy może Pani je wskazać? 316 JL: Ja myślę, że… teraz mi to przyszło do głowy; gdyby od momentu przyjścia tutaj kogoś może być ciekawość, bo jest zaciekawiony historią tego miejsca i od tego jakby zaczyna. Bywa: raczej smutek i zaduma, jako równorzędne, być może zdarza się, ale to będą jednostokowe bardzo przypadki: tak jak mówiłam o tym mężczyźnie, z weekendu który nienawidzi Niemców, czyli ta nienawiść, ale to jest bardzo, bardzo szczątkowa emocja, przynajmniej tak jak ja się spotykam. Czasami bywa strach; co będzie ze światem, co będzie z ludźmi, zwłaszcza po wybuchu wojny w Ukrainie, w nawiązaniu do tego, co się stało. Hmmm… i w zasadzie jeśli mówimy o zwiedzających i tym miejscu to byłoby tyle. Bo są też emocje kierowane do nas, ale to jakby nie o to chodzi w tym momencie. I byłoby tyle, bo patrzyłam na to koło wcześniej, ja osobiście… no być może roztargnienie, ale to zależy jak zdefiniujemy roztargnienie… (1:26:34) AS: Jest to mniejsza (słabsza) forma zdziwienia. JL: Tak. Zdziwienie, zastanawiam się nad słowem, ale ok; chodzi o to, że „nie zdawałem sobie sprawy”. Ale w zasadzie to byłyby takie. Zaduma, smutek, bo ta ciekawość, czyli ta pierwsza emocja i wraz z narastaniem może właśnie to „nie zdawałem sobie sprawy”, ale myślę, że dominującą jest zaduma, bo jest takie skupienie, zasłuchanie w to, co się mówi, ale też, bo to widać po oczach, po twarzy; kto gdzie jest w danym momencie. I ten smutek, że to się wydarzyło. Że człowiek jest zdolny do takich rzeczy. Ja bym zaznaczyła tyle. (1:27:45) AS: Bardzo dziękuję. Już prawie przy końcu (naszej rozmowy); w takich miejscach zawsze kontrowersyjne jest, bo są to miejsca związane ze zbrodnią, okrucieństwem, natomiast jest sklepik, kawiarnia, czy to tutaj funkcjonuje? JL: Nie, u nas nie ma. (1:28:12) AS: Ale można kupić książki (uśmiech) 317 JL: Można kupić książki, są dwa automaty, no bo teren jest rozległy; dzisiaj jest na przykład bardzo ciepło, żeby nie powiedzieć gorąco, i tak jak pani powiedziałam człowiek wychodząc na teren cały czas spędza na otwartym powietrzu, więc w dzisiejszej temperaturze, na słońcu zachęcamy, jeśli ktoś nie ma, żeby nabył wodę. Jest automat z wodą, z kawą i herbatą; przeważnie decydują się na kawę w kubeczkach albo herbatę ci, którzy przyjechali i jest na przykład zimno albo nie zdążyli się napić, nie wychodzą z kubkiem na zewnątrz, tylko siedzą w Centrum Obsługi Zwiedzających aż wypiją, lub po zwiedzaniu przychodzą skorzystać z łazienki, odpocząć troszkę i wtedy kupują. W zależności od pory roku bo tutaj mówię; teren jest rozległy. Są też, bo kawa i herbata to są te gorące napoje, to jest jeden automat, drugi automat gdzie jest woda gazowana i niegazowana i są takie batony, nieduże, ja zawsze też mówię dzieciakom, że na terenie (byłego obozu) nie jemy, tak jak nie jesz na cmentarzu, chyba, że ktoś jest chory; jeśli ktoś ma problem z cukrem no to musi coś mieć i właśnie są takie batoniki, już nie pamiętam jak się nazywają; Lion, tego typu; małe. Ale ostatnio nie widziałam, żeby ktoś kupował ale jest możliwość. Na przykład jak dzieciaki przychodzą na kilka godzin na warsztaty i na zwiedzanie, no bo to zawsze jest element, i na przykład mają pieniążki, ale nie wzięli sobie żadnej kanapki żeby zjeść w tej części właśnie zanim wyjdzie się na zewnątrz, a jeszcze paluszki chyba jakieś widziałam. To są te dwa automaty, to jest tyle. (1:30:21) AS: Jak Pani, jako osoba która pracuje tu już wiele lat, i to się rozwinęło dosyć ostatnio, reaguje na tą komercjalizację z użyciem „selfie”, gdzie, zrobić zdjęcie dokumentalne to jest jedna sprawa, natomiast te słynne uśmiechnięte selfie na tle „Arbeit Macht Frei”; czy to jest częste tutaj, jak się na to reaguje, czy są interwencje w tym kierunku…? JL: Powiem pani dwa przykłady. Hmmm dwa przykłady. Jedno to, tylko żebym nie została źle zrozumiana, ja nie jestem nastawiona negatywnie na grupy z Izraela, żeby to nie zabrzmiało, absolutnie nie. Ale to było bardzo często przez mnie obserwowane, jak jest Centrum Obsługi Zwiedzających po prawej stronie , parking i ta droga. Jak się już minie Centrum Obsługi Zwiedzających to tam jest taki parking dla pracowników i tam są takie kamienie, one są dosyć duże; ja byłam w Centrum, ściana oszklona; widać. Przysięgam, to była prawie norma; dziewczyny zazwyczaj, też chłopaki, ale dziewczyny na tych kamieniach tam pozy różne, właśnie to selfie, w kierunku – na teren byłego obozu. No nie będę się wydzierać przez okno, oni mają też opiekunów swoich, bo oni nie pracują z nami. To nie wygląda dobrze, to świadczy o kompletnym braku przygotowania do takiej wizyty tego młodego człowieka. Może młody człowiek jest młody i ma prawo robić jakieś, nawet czasem głupie rzeczy; to jest wiek, każdy wiek ma swoje prawa, tak. Ale to jest to, co pani 318 powiedziałam wcześniej, że opiekun, nauczyciel, jakikolwiek jest tej osoby status; on mówi gdzie jedziemy, co to za miejsce, jak się w tym miejscu zachować. To jest jedna rzecz. Żeby nie było tak słodko; grupy edukacyjne. Kończymy zawsze przy Mauzoleum. Tak nam się zamyka; tam są prochy, tam jest koniec człowieka, tak, tego któremu się nie udało przetrwać. Część nauczycieli chce zrobić zdjęcie, więc prosi; tam jest pomnik „Los Nasz Dla Was Przestrogą”. To są wyrazy z poematu Franciszka Fenikowskiego, są dwa podawane tytuły; jeden jest „Żałoba”, drugi jest „Rekwiem”, ale to jest „Żałoba” – ja dotarłam do źródła i tam, no to jest poemat, więc tam co jakiś czas pojawia się taki jakby refren i tylko część się zmieściło (na Mauzoleum): „Los Nasz Dla Was Przestrogą”… „Ma Być Nie Legendą, Jeśli Ludzie Zamilkną Głazy Wołać Będą”. To jest ten refren, tu się zmieściło tylko „Los Nasz Dla Was Przestrogą” i są te schodki. Ustawcie się na tych schodkach, ja wam zrobię zdjęcie. Czasami młodzi ludzie reagują, że nie chcą, ze to nie wypada, że tam przecież są prochy. Ja też tak mówię, ale nie mogę zabronić nauczycielowi, żeby sobie zrobił zdjęcie, to chodzi o dokumentacje, mi tłumaczy, i w zasadzie nie ma w tym nic złego bo nie każę im mówić „cheers” albo takich innych, ale czasem burzą się dzieciaki, że nie chcą, że to nie pasuje, że to nie wypada. Kiedy udzielam informacji i opowiadam, gdzie mogą pójść, co mogą zobaczyć, że widzę, że jest aparat, albo mówię sama, że można robić zdjęcia, tylko proszę na wystawie bez flesza i jeśli to jest młody człowiek, to mówię, że nie wrzucamy na social media. Jak ktoś jest zaczepny, to kłamię i mówię, że mamy sposoby, żeby wyszukiwać takie zdjęcia i wtedy litera prawa się włącza. Po prostu zmyślam, ale jeżeli to ochroni przed jakimś głupim, kolejnym wybrykiem to może niech tak będzie. Ale generalnie proszę, i to jest jakby zrozumiałe. Ja z grupami edukacyjnymi z tym nie mam problemu, w ogóle. Nie ma takiej potrzeby. Czasami robią zdjęcia, takie bym powiedziała bardziej… nawet nie dokumentalne, ale bardziej artystyczne. Na przykład jest takie jedno zdjęcie, ono jest już w naszych zasobach, zrobione przez uczniów, tylko nie pamiętam czy przez dziewczynę czy chłopaka; jest jeszcze barak łaźni przed remontem, więc jest stare okno, stara futryna i od środka jest motyl. I on uchwycił ten dzieciak, jak ten motyl ma rozpostarte skrzydła za szybą. To jest przepiękne zdjęcie. Albo na przykład zdjęcie kwiatka z jakimiś czerwonymi płatkami przy drutach. To są takie bardziej upamiętniające, też skłaniające do refleksji. (1:26:06) AS: To znaczy, ja nie chce tutaj komentować robienia zdjęć, bo pewno sama parę zrobię… JL: Nie, nie, nie, ja rozumiem o co pani chodzi. (1:36:20) AS: My potrzebujemy też dokumentów fizycznych… 319 JL: Oczywiście, my dokumentujemy wizyty naszych gości tutaj. (1:36:34) AS: Mnie właśnie chodziło o robienie tych (typowych) selfie… JL: Zdarza się, ale częściej robią to zagraniczne dzieciaki. Ale mamy takiego mężczyznę, naszego kolegę, który robi zdjęcia. Oprócz tego, że sam ma wiedzę na ten temat, , pokażę pani zdjęcie, które zrobił w trakcie projektu kiedy byli tu nauczyciele z 20 krajów europejskich, i ja miałam dyżur, i moja współpracownica prowadziła prezentacje i oprowadzała ich. Chcę pani pokazać zdjęcie, które jest i piękne i daje dużo do myślenia, można o tym dyskutować i można nawet edukacyjnie o tym… o to jest to. – Zdjęcie przedstawia nauczyciela pochodzenia Żydowskiego pochylonego nad piecem krematoryjnym, w głębokiej zadumie, w szybach, które odgradzają wejście do pieców odbija się też jego zgarbiona, zadumana sylwetka. (1:38:34) AS: Emocje są wypisane na Jego twarzy; jest to jakaś wielka zaduma i smutek… JL: Więc zdjęcia, oprócz tych nieszczęsnych selfie, zdjęcia mogą służyć i służą nam jako materiał edukacyjny. (1:38:49) AS: I o to pytałam, dlatego że te selfie, ta komercjalizacja określa już się mianem „kitschification”, gdzie są roześmiane selfie, ale to nie tylko dotyczy obozów koncentracyjnych; w Nowym Yorku na miejscu Twin Towers mają problem z tą kitschification; kubek z I Love NY a z drugiej strony kubka gruzy, więc mi chodzi właśnie tutaj o dokumentowanie tego za pomocą infantylnych czynów, a nie po prostu dokumentów, których zawsze potrzebujemy. JL: Nie powiem, że się nie zdarzają, na pewno nie zdarzają się w tych grupach edukacyjnych, tych takich, nie zdarzyły mi się przez 15 lat, być może ktoś miał jakiś zamysł, ale być może że ja powiedziałam, że możecie oczywiście robić zdjęcia, ale zwróćcie uwagę, gdzie jesteście i co to zdjęcie ma potem mówić i żeby nie umieszczać w mediach społecznościowych. Nie spotkałam się ze 320 śmiechem, czy z ironią w oczach, że ja sobie coś tutaj wymyślam, że przecież to jest standard. Nie powiem, że to się nie zdarza, bo na pewno się zdarza, bo nie jesteśmy samotną wyspą, gdzie akurat wszyscy się zachowują rewelacyjnie. Zdarzyło się to bardzo wiele lat temu, jak ja zaczęłam pracować (w Muzeum Majdanek), w każdym bądź razie robiliśmy tu wewnątrz śledztwo w Muzeum; jak, kto, kiedy i gdzie. Mianowicie w krematorium jest, zanim zrobiliśmy taką szklaną kurtynę, że nie można wejść do pomieszczenia, gdzie jest prezentowany stary piec z tak zwanego „Starego Krematorium”; było otwarte, można było wejść. W tych drzwiczkach (do krematorium) siedzi dziewczynka w takiej pozie (frywolnej, rozbawionej) i jest to na Naszej Klasie: „Pozdrowienia z Lublina z wakacji”, cos takiego. Myśmy to zobaczyli to po prostu szczęki nam poopadały, i potem się okazało, po tym śledztwie naszym wewnętrznym, że dziecko miało 9 lat, przyjechało z Warmińsko-Mazurskiego tutaj do cioci, do wujka; do Lublina i te zdjęcia zrobiło wujostwo tej dziewczynce. Powiedzieli jej; dorośli ludzie; że na pamiątkę… Także mówię tutaj o takich różnych sytuacjach i to, o czym Pani mówi o Auschwitz i bramie „Arbeit Macht Frei” zdarza się, zdarza się na tle pomnika… Nie jesteśmy w stanie wszystkiego kontrolować, bo w każdym miejscu musiałby ktoś być. To chyba jest w Prawie, że jeśli zdjęcie, bądź treści są niewłaściwie, nazwijmy to, to można zgłosić do administratora o usuniecie takiego czegoś. Nie mamy tego aż tak nagminnie, ale też nie mamy tylu turystów, co nasi koledzy z Auschwitz, wiec jakby skala porównawcza tez jest inna, bo wszystko będzie proporcjonalne do liczby gości, tak. Na pewno się zdarza, bo ludzie po prostu tacy są też. Tacy są, tak. (1:42:58): Pani Jolanto, bardzo, bardzo dziękuję za tą rozmowę, dlatego, że wniosło to bardzo dużo materiału badawczego dla mnie i dużo zadumy. JL: Bardzo dziękuję. 321 Appendix 2 In-depth interview with Jolanta Laskowska – State Museum at Majdanek, 4th of August 2022 – translated version. (0:5) Agnes Salajczyk: First, I would like to thank you for giving me the possibility to meet and talk to you. Jolanta Laskowska: Thank you, that is a new experience for me too. (0:25) AS: Jolanto, Majdanek means for you mostly… JL: Majdanek first and the most is a museum, a place of remembrance. Place of remembrance of victims of Second World War and Nazi Germany, but also a place of education about those times and place reminding that. (0:48) AS: Overall and historically speaking Majdanek is a former Nazi concentration camp. A place connected with death and suffering. Would you say that Majdanek could be an example of location connected with dark tourism? JL: As far as I remember and understand available literature, we can make a division between “dark tourism” and “thanatourism”. So, if we follow this train of thoughts that suggests that “dark tourism” is something more entertaining, lighter or such, then definitely no. However, if you would like to use 322 a terminology describing visiting museums located in former concentration and extermination camps, then I believe we should be moving towards calling it “thanatourism”. I mean tourism and the fact I work here for such a long time… it (dark tourism) does not sit well with me. However, we do realise, that our visitors are tourists, who come to this region; Lubelszczyzna, who come to visit Lublin, so it is a tourist. By tourist I mean the classic visiting groups, I deal with education, so I have connection with groups who came here with educational purpose in mind. (2:21) AS: I understand those are people who came to visit Majdanek as a place of remembrance? JL: Yes. (2:26) AS: … because in a case of Auschwitz for example, the visitors are often people who spend few fun, fantastic, happy days in Cracow, then they might go to Wieliczka (Salt Mine) and often by the end of the same they come to Auschwitz. It is an addition to the general attractiveness of Cracow area. Majdanek is slightly different in this sense, you need to come here with a purpose and motivation to visit the Muzeum? JL: Majdanek is, we joke about it sometimes; in the middle of nowhere. We are afar from the attractions such as Warsaw, Tricity at the coast without even mentioning Cracow, Poznan, seaside, or mountains. If we have enough research available… Those are two different things; I am talking about individual tourists, on family trips, who came to visit their relatives or relax at Leczyn – Wlodawa Lake District and our lakes around Wlodawa and they also checked whatever is worth visiting around here. They make a decision (to visit Majdanek) without necessarily thinking about what kind of museum it is, I am thinking here about bringing here small children who ask a million questions a minute, but 323 they have another museum (visited), which is “good to see” while you are in this region. It happens as well. AS: Or just tick from the list? JL: Tick, yes exactly that. I can say about that, based on our data, as everyone of us working in the office once or twice a year, depending on the traffic, need or knowledge of a foreign language; has a information shift in Centre for Visitors, when our guests are going first. That is how we know who comes here and what motivates them. Definitely one of the groups could be describes as above; they come to the area and try to tick the boxes for the next available place. Those of our guests, who are really interested in history, however we can probably say the same about other places like that, they don’t know the data about the number of victims, percentage of prisoners’ origin, where those people came from. And I often hear comments which I often contradict, that a child who is seven, eight, nine, ten or twelve is too young for this kind of emotional exposure. It is not about the knowledge, because children could have read some books, they are interested in history, but emotions is a completely different side to it. It is another level. Sometimes there is an understanding of that, sometimes not. It is simply funny for me, a teacher with thirty years of experience to hear that this teenager read everything there was to read about this subject and is prepared for everything. What can we say about it? We cannot stop parents coming in with children, they are their careers after all, however we have very sensitive guests, who ask me what places should not be exposed to the child. It is impressing if that happens. However, it is still a tourist who came here (by chance). Second (type of our guests) is a tourist who came here to visit a historic place and show it to his or her children. There is nothing wrong about it, however, they are still astonished by the number of victims and the facts that Majdanek looks different to what they have expected. But they stay. It is our land and considers many Poles who were imprisoned in Majdanek. 324 (8:10) AS: Poles constitute however the minority of the victims… JL: I wonder whether “disappointed” would be a better word than “astonished” about the lack of their knowledge. However, disappointment has slightly negative meaning. This is my observation, it could be completely opposite to the truth, however this is my observation. We also have guests, who are dealing with this subject and whenever they are free, it does not have to be an exact holiday time, it could be any time of the year, they come here to see the places they were reading before, as they are deal with this subject. Usually, they are very interested in gathering any data and information about this place, usually they also acquire come publications, memoirs but not only, also research-based publication, as they deal with this subject particularly; that is another group. And there is also a group, I know the most about that one, may include adults and young people, who is a recipient of our educational offer; workshop, however we can call those activities. In this case it would be ideal, through the contact with the teacher, if they know where they are going, why and how to behave here. It would be even more ideal, if the teacher had more time, knowledge, and possibilities to make the youngsters understand, what we do not have to do here, to locate Majdanek in history of The Second World War. The youngsters have less general knowledge and suddenly they come here, and we have 1941 and there is lots of question marks, lots of questions. We do answer them as long as our knowledge and possibilities allow us to, however it is quite a long time for youngster to be here anyway; they have to participate and take part in workshops. (11:25) AS: For example? 325 JL: I would pick my “baby”; a Diary of Jadwiga Ankiewicz. Jadwiga (JL is showing the cover of the book), here she is 9, she came to Majdanek from Warsaw where she was caught in a round-up when she was 16. At the end (of the book) you would see copy of her diary, her own handwriting from the original book which she had with her here, behind the wires and for the 5 months she was writing about what was happening here. It is a rarity. (12:06) AS: Is it our response to Ann Fank’s Diary? JL: I would say it is even better in a way, as it was in the concentration camp, not in the hiding. Jadwiga was not a Jew, Jadwiga was a polish girl, she was caught in a round-up. It was a rule that those caught in a round-up were being let free after the prison time, not only here, also in Auschwitz and other camps as the prisoners were brought from roundups purely for work purposes. When they were not needed anymore, tired or “used”, weak and tired they were set free if they managed to survive and the next ones were caught. The resources were unlimited. (13:04) AS: If they survive as the living conditions were atrocious… JL: Exactly. Jadwiga survived, came back to Warsaw with her notebook, double-lined notebook. She was previously active in Grey Regiments (Szare Szeregi), it was her father’s influence, he was fighting in Legions defending Warsaw in 1920, he was wounded, awarded, then second war mobilization, he got caught in September 1939, camp, escape from forced labour, however what I really wanted to say is that Jadwiga was very much like her father. She comes back, it is 17th of May 1943 when she is freed from the camp (Majdanek) where she was since January (1943). She takes the notebook with her, comes back to Warsaw, is active in Home Army (Armia Krajowa) and then, in unknown circumstances; 326 I have found her relatives but there were no witnesses of that; she is being shot on one of Warsaw streets on the 30th of January 1944. She was not even 17, as she was born on the 11th of September, but her notebook stays at home. She made only one entry (in Warsaw) on the 17th of May (1943) when she comes back from the camp and since she hasn’t written a thing. She did not survive the War. And now, we have her edited text; we say to the youngsters that the title of their project is a citation from Jadwiga’s: “although part of my heart stayed there, down the hill of Majdanek”. Majdanek is situated in a way that, you will see later; the Dome, the mausoleum is slightly higher than the rest of the camp. If you there, you see it all. We can’t see the whole camp from here (Museum’s entrance), but you could see it from upper camp, and she was on the upper camp – pitch number 5, the women’s pitch. So, we say to the youngsters, not for too long though, who Jadwiga was, we show her pictures, notes, last picture from before the camp. (15:17) AS: It was in 1942… JL: Yes. We didn’t know about this last picture. I have contacted her relatives through Facebook. In 2020 we published her notebook, simply because since then we did not have relevant data, no one contacted her family… (15:42) AS: Can I buy this “Diary” in Museum’s bookstore? JL: Unfortunately, polish edition is gone, but we have it in English and German. (15:39) AS: I will not buy a German version but English – definitely. 327 JL: You will find it there, we have received some grants and managed to translate it into English and German, and Polish edition was sold out; all one thousand copies. (16:08) AS: It is incredible, because I have now in my hands an English version, but her original Polish handwriting was kept as well (as an appendix) … JL: It was done to show handwriting, how neat it was, there was no rush to write which says a lot about the personality of that girl. (Coming back to our group projects) we prepare enough copies of the “Diary” text for everyone to have one; it is usually around 30 young people. We divide them into six work groups, each group receives a subject to analyse based on the “Diary”, for instance: The Final Solution of Jews, Capos, SS men, ways to survive in the camp, the living conditions and so fort and so forth. I always ask them to forget about what they have read, watched, seen so far and focus only on what Jadwiga wants to tell them in her “Diary”. They work for fifty minutes while making notes. They work in groups and then we have some elements of “peer-guarding”, as we; myself and my colleagues; we are here more to assist them then to lecture them. Also, I believe that young people deserve a chance to show what they can achieve working on their own. And they have talents. Many. So if they have a question, then we answer or try to shape their work into an answer, then we make a break and then we go outside into the camp. Inside the camp, in the specific places pointed by us, the colleagues from Education Department, we ask for a volunteer from each group to tell us what they found out from reading Jadwiga’s “Diary”. The rest of the group can ask him / her a question. If we believe something needs to be added, then we add it. If not – we stay silent. Visiting the camp takes about two and a half hours plus reading time. There has to be a break to eat something, young people tend to be always hungry, also when they work in groups they can eat, drink, talk, it is their time. So, this is 328 an example of how our workshops work. If we have a student, or a whole class with no idea how come we had 1941 then how much information we are really able to add to this four hours while they are here… Plus we know how the concentration works in their age, even with the best wishes. They are also become tired, you would go outside soon, you would see most of the time we are outdoors, regardless the weather, as the groups come all year long; if it sunny it is hot, if it is winter, it is cold. And it is always windy here. All the time walking, standing, which needs of the physical input as well. There is always someone with a problem with something, as long as my experience goes, however most of the times kids like workshops like that. (20:41) AS: It is also their intake on their peer… JL: Yes, exactly that. I can speak more about groups like that, also about adult groups who we are addressing with our offer. We organise workshops for prison service staff, it covers our whole area, Lublin, Radom and their vicinities, wherever prisons work we work with staff and the inmates as well. I run workshops with the detention centres’ senior officers; we talk about the psychology of the perpetrators, which I adore, as it is such a complex situation. Why senior officers? As you might guess they also have power, and we look at the mechanism of how it works. Of course, there is no comparison between detention centre’s officers in 2021 – 2022 and war times, Nazis, and SS men, however there are exceptions… There are motives which can dictate human’s behaviour and they do not unfortunately change. We work with literature and research so their motivation is therefore different. They are here for the training purposes, but they need to be active as well, we give them stuff to read and then we have a discussion. I prefer the talk and us being guides mostly. We analyse the behaviour of three, four perpetrators. 329 (22:42) AS: Isn’t it difficult to ask a person; a detention centre officer whether they identify themselves with people like Karl Otto Koch, Max Koegel or Hermann Florstedt? (former commanders of KL Majdanek). JL: I do not ask that. Yes, they were the commanders, however the perpetrators we analyse were not the commanders. Why not? The commanders did not have much in common really with the prisoners in the camp. Direct contact was between the prisoners and the SS men living here, on the camp side, not away in the villa with his wife and family. (23:25) AS: Like capo? JL: That is also different, capos were functional inmates selected by Germans, we cannot level up the functional inmates with SS men, even if they were doing bad stuff. They were just inmates and their motivation to do what they were doing was… I am not excusing them; I am just stating it. (23:45) AS: Their motivation was created by the will to survive? JL: Exactly that. They might have been hoping that if they have proven themselves being useful, it would have guaranteed them a survival. Of course, the end was different to what they have expected, but there still was about the will to survive. They were selected to do that. Naturally, they could have refused, however as you might know, it would only shorten the time they have had left. However, SS men, the guards were also following the orders, but they did not have to do as much as they did. Majdanek… the crew was very primitive. For instance, lets analyse the biography of Hermina 330 Braunsteiner, present in the literature also as Hermina Ryan Braunsteiner as she married an American after the war. She wanted to be a nurse when she was young. She was still young when she came here. True, her family wanted her to drop the dreams about studying as there were not much money. She had to contribute to help her mother to keep a family after her father died. She earned around 16 – 18 German marks in the factory, which she also had to spend on commute, food and provide for the family so she was left with pennies to spare. When she learned about recruitment to Ravensbruck, she applied, went through the training and she landed with earning 60 German marks; no upkeep bills, no food bills, no clothes costs, free cash. She wanted to be a nurse and became one of the worst, most cruel guards in KL Majdanek. So, we analyse that. From her birth, upbringing, with the help of sociological paper we try to find out what motivated her. (26:05) AS: It was something more than just survival, it wasn’t just about survival for her…? JL: That’s exactly right. Her life was not endangered. She just wanted a better life, better standard of life. She was ambitious and was ambitiously executing her own goal. She did not have to however grab a baby and throw it on the tractor’s top, she knew the baby was going to gas chamber anyway. She was 21. She wanted to please her line managers; ambition, isn’t it? It’s complicated, it’s about the situation, plus maybe some personal characteristics; the sense of power over human’s life, which is, as you read about it – incomparable to any other power. And… there is no punishment. (27:10) AS: Wasn’t she ever charged? JL: She was, she was. If you are interested in her profile, there are some materials about her in Polish and English on our website in “Education” tab. When we were closed (during Covid time) we were still 331 trying to provide some materials for teachers so they could use it then. Ms Kozlow’s papers are also talking about her, it’s about female guards in KL Majdanek; around 30 women. If we talk about the psychology of the perpetrators we also have the work of Raul Hilberg connected with the extermination of Jews, or “Ordinary Men” by Christopher Browning. The later one analyses the work of police officers, members of so called “Einsatzgruppen”, I am sure you have heard what they were doing, how many people they have murdered in a very short time. Browning using some documents and papers analyses their motives. As soon as the war was over there was a general excuse that they had to follow the orders, otherwise they would be killed as well. That’s not entirely true; there were cases of people (Germans) who refused following the orders. They (members of Einsatzgruppen) were dropping into a village and started shooting, that’s exactly what happened in village of Majdanek; they were shooting elderly, women, children, pregnant females. But they were “regular people” – standby policemen who had their own families. If you’d like I will send you some reflective thinking of the detention centres’ officers after they were here. (29:49) AS: I would love that. Reflective thinking about…? JL: About workshops and visiting here (Museum Majdanek). I do not have questionnaires for them, I am not interested in answer as: very much, slightly, five percent of…, I just ask them to describe it in words. It is very valued; also, they prized me for my skills to work with uniforms. There is one (reflection): due to the workshops and staying here, while analysing documents we can see the difference between meanness, cruelty and bestiality or think about their own behaviour. They are very interested workshops, emotional look into something we kind of all know about, but still new experience, especially in the light of what is happening now beyond our Eastern border. 332 (31:22) AS: Is it sometimes like pouring cold water? JL: Yes. Some of them write back “thank you, I did not realise”. Most of them are men, but not all of them. There are confessions like “I found something inside me I need to change” or “it was dangerous to look at the characteristics we all share”. Some of the participants may say that I have great knowledge and can work with the uniforms, which is very nice of course, but the most important is the level of emotions. That they try, not guided by me, localise in today’s world the words of hate, acts of hate human to human, armed actions, which are now happening. They notice we do not have time everyday to think about what makes us do things. Simply; one day is over, another will begin, we have a job to do. (32:57) AS: Human behaviour does not really change that much over the last 70 years? JL: Yes, exactly that. Motives are exactly the same, hence I know what they expect from our workshops here, I know what emotions they have when they come and what emotions they have when they leave. I remember groups of youngsters, however I also had adult groups when someone broke down into tears. Here, you have a question, question four if I remember well; “Are you more behind exposing facts and figures connected with death and suffering or emotional stories…” (33:39) AS: Yes… JL: I would divide the answer to that question into two. Firstly, we always tell the history through the lenses of an individual. If we want a visitor to consider and have any kind of reflection, then he or she 333 has to see a real person, not just numbers and facts. Even in the barrack when we keep shoes (of the victims) and we have them tens of thousands. I ask my visitors, regardless youngsters, or adults beforehand to read a poem by Tadeusz Czajka “A Slipper”. It’s very simple, other thing is, that the youngsters it seems can read poetry now. I guide them into (the barrack), ask them to stare a little while, stay silent and pick a shoe. Then to think who the shoe was belonging to, how that person was dressed, where could he / she go to, how could that person look like. Earlier I ask whether they think shoes can tell a story about the owner, but I say it outside only; not inside; place I treat like a sacrum. I want them to have time and space for reflection, for their emotions, I inform them that whenever they are ready; I would be waiting outside. I do not ask how it was, I do not ask what they were imagining there, I just leave them some space. It is not my purpose to create additional emotions, I just want… the word is so fast now, everything is happening so quickly, and we have quite limited time, if any for reflection. I just want them to imagine all of that without my moralising, because it is not the right way, there is nothing achieved by doing that. If someone does not want to come inside, or leaves very soon after, I do not comment, it was just time enough for that person and I do not preach about that either. I try to make them stop for a while and think where they are, why and what I am actually telling them about. Coming back to the facts and numbers, they will not change that much, of course they are very important for the historians; it is imperative to know the number of victims, how many survived, how many people were here in total, sure it is important, but those who came here for the first time will not remember those facts anyway. (36:44) AS: It was a very important answer for me. We generally know about facts, about KL Majdanek and other extermination camps, we know the numbers, nationalities, we know what happened after Nuremberg trials, however, after many years of research and gathering data I got frozen while reading a poem by Achman, when mother is taking her daughter on her last walk to the gas chambers but tells her hat it would be fun, she would meet other children and play with them. Imagining a situation like 334 that was a massive emotional hit for me, together with, as you have said education. Because it is an education, it is a museum of reembrace, however the emotional input is still important… JL: That is absolutely correct. I do not negate facts, it would be illogical if I, working here did not expose visitors to any facts, however I am not delusional and I realise that most of what they could remember is number of Jewish victims versus non-Jewish. For instance, KL Majdanek took around 80 thousand lives. Ten thousand were Poles, not Jews. The latest data collection shows that 63 thousand were Jews, both Polish and European and that leaves us how many? (39:00) AS: Seven thousand? JL: And those would be members of other European countries, non-Jewish. (39:19) AS: Isn’t there a distinction for other groups like homosexuals, Jehovah Witnesses, they were unwanted kind according to Nazis? JL: I will show you a poem I was telling you about… (“A Slipper” by Tadeusz Czajka) (40:11) AS: It is very emotional indeed. I have read many partly documentary, partly factionary books such as “Tattooist of Auschwitz” or the story of ghetto’s teacher. Those are stories about someone, it did happen, however it not a document; it is not about named person, a named survivor. When I find 335 however, a documented story of a real person who was working in “Commando Puff” (camp’s brothel) it does become an emotional experience. JL: Yes. We do have a lot of question about the “Puff”. Overall, we have very limited data about it, what I wanted to say, Polish girls who came here as babysitters, or room cleaners for SS men, they were especially selected. They looked good, they wore white aprons, they did not sleep with other inmates in the barracks where the laces and ticks were. They were the subject of hate of other inmates of course. As my colleague was doing research for her next book about prisoners, only one woman on her death bed admitted she was abused sexually, and that is how she could get some more of that bread. Us as us; people living now; I have no idea whether it is a very Polish treat or a general one; we like to patronise, and they say, “I would do that...” or “I would never do that…”. And I always say it is great you have such an image of yourself, we all like to think good about ourselves, however we have no idea what we could do to survive, what we could do for our closest to survive. We have no idea… Or for instance save the group; women who were hiding in the forest or after the fall of Warsaw’s ghetto’s uprise were ready to suffocate their own baby, so it stays quiet, does not give away the whole group of thirty or forty people. We do not have an idea and I hope we would never have to have an idea, however when today I hear a question “Why they would never rebel?” I want to give up. It is a question asked in a good faith, however if that someone comes here around two pm, I assume that person have already eaten once or twice, snack maybe, drank a coffee, possibly a very nice one, is well dressed, then this person does not have any idea while saying “I would never ever…”. (44:02) AS: Is that specific for Polish groups? 336 JL: No, it is not a general overview, it is more about the individual comments. Foreign visitors, and they are important here, foreign visitor does not have to know about occupation time in central-east Europe, does not have to know how the occupation looked like in Poland. Just like many of us (Poles) does not have any idea about occupation in other countries, unless we read about it, research more about it. And for instance, there is a question “Why people of Lublin (bigger city next to Majdanek) did not help the victims of the camp?” I say: they did help, they smuggled bread, drugs, kites… They helped as much as they could. I would have to explain from the beginning how the occupation really looked like. (45:28) AS: You would be killed for helping the prisoners… JL: Yes. Or other disarming question, a guy from France, 24 years old asking to help him understand how SS men could shoot the pregnant women? I say; don’t ask me; check the literature. For that someone who was killing the war did not start on the 1st of September 1939. It started after the loss (of Germany) of the First World War. You need to read, we do not have time and space for me to make you understand how to groom a society to do what they (Nazis) wanted. How the propaganda works… (46:17) AS: It is my eternal question: “Are they born or made?” If we put those two impulses together; if you have a personality of a criminal, tendencies to kill and additionally you have a propaganda standing behind you and confirming what you do is right then there are no more inhibitions… JL: No, there are none. If we have a belief pushed into our mind that, let’s say a Jew is not a human, it is not even an animal, it is maybe a thing, it does not feel anything, does not think, because it is not human, then after multiple times of hearing that, if you have additionally a certain type of personality 337 and the circumstances were “favourable” both outside and inside then it is not a human being anymore (a typical Nazi). (47:33) AS: However, many Nazis did not stand this pressure…. JL: Yes, and what bothers me, although I am not a historian, I am bothered by the general approach “they were just yet another Germans”. You would like to say “No, not really”. There is a comment on our website that said they were just another Germans. Not Nazi Germans, just Germans is enough for some (to judge). And it is a result of lack of knowledge. Not all Germans were Nazis, and not Nazis were Germans. There were Nazis in United States, we all know Ford brand; Henry Ford was devoted to Hitler and was supporting him financially, I am not sure how many people know about it. (48:50) AS: I believe that considering it was pre-Internet time; it was the best propaganda ever? JL: Of course. He (Hitler) was a great speaker. That’s why he appeared and preached first in beer gardens, when initially everybody laughed him off. (49:04) AS: But he has Goebbels… JL: He was the only educated person among Hitlers’ henchmen. He had a PhD. 338 (49:33) AS: Majdanek was created on Himmler’s order. He was a “nobody” person who was enchanted by Hitler… JL: Yes. The psychologists describe him as very insecure man who found space to cover those insecurities and that’s why he was doing what he was doing. That’s why he was the way he was. (50:03) AS: Jolanto, until what degree the visitors can modify the visit? Are there any particular places that you know of when the visitors like to stop for longer, ask more, are there any places which are especially difficult and emotional for your guests? JL: Two types… I have to make a distinction between individual guests who visit on their own, so I can’t tell much about them. Then we have tours – groups consisting of individuals with going with the guide. And finally, we have educational tours. The answers will be different depending what type of visitors we are talking about. The guide who leads the group decides what to show, which order to keep and how to demonstrate it to the group in order to best tell the story of this place and those people who have been dragged here against their will during The Second World War. The guide also talks about the perpetrators, because without them this place would simply not exists. And the decision is up to the guide. If we are expecting a group that we know of is comprised of teachers for instance, people who specialize in this subject; then we can talk about them (particular places) as they will spend more time with us. We, as guides are then open for any inquisitive or very focused questions, we provide more information that to the usual visitor as those are people focused on the theme, interested in it. The whole terrain of the camp is open for everybody. We do not have places “for…” and “not for…”. We have “extremists” as well who wants to see it all in under an hour, but it is just simply impossible. 339 Coming back to places which can have bigger impact on visitors; that definitely would be gas chambers and crematories, as they are kept in their original form. (52:45) AS: Weren’t they destroyed? JL: No. Germans did not destroy KL Majdanek. They were very rushed; they did not think that Soviets will be moving so quickly from Chelmno. They left here 22nd (of July 1944), and on the 23rd of July (1944) the Soviets were here. (53:00) AS: They liberated only around one thousand people; it is not a lot… JL: Yes. Germans were liquidating the camp from March 1944, that’s why we have so little German documents, which would give us a lot of information. They took a lot of it with them and what was left was taken by Soviets and we will never get it back or even be allowed to look at it. (coming to the subject of particular places) It is interior of gas chamber. I leave them space as well here so the emotions could… so the person standing there could control their own emotions. I do not add things which can add additional anxiety. I believe to look at it is enough. Another place could be a selection pitch; it is a piece of grass. Now it is not surrounded by fence as it was during the war. When I said it was surrounded by the fence; Germans called it Rosengarten (Rose Garden). Beautiful name (smiles). It wasn’t a garden, there were no roses. People were sitting there for few, several or tens of hours without food or drink, in a heat or in freezing temperatures, before the decision was made who will live and who will die. There were only Jews there. Selection was for all the prisoners, but this place was reserved for Jews. If somebody is sensitive, to see that piece of grass, grass is today, there were no grass then; well, it could be a daunting experience. Another unnerving place is a barrack with shoes. 340 It makes an impression on everyone, regardless age, experience, knowledge and even level of emotionality. Also, when I tell the groups, not all the groups though, about the place called in the camp “swimming pool”. It wasn’t a swimming pool; when you are visiting pitch number three there is a piece of iron construction sticking out; around a meter tall, quite small circuit. It was filled with water; however, the prisoners were not allowed water, they could not drink when they wanted, they could not wash when they needed, apart when they were rushed to the baths – it was the only, seconds long contact with water they had. Drinks were only given in the morning, afternoon, and evening, it was something horrible. Unless it was snowing or raining. And the swimming pool I am talking about, it was hope, that the inmates could somehow, secretly, without Germans looking; they will be able to drink from it. It was, however, another instrument of torture; the inmate was half submersed then pulled up, again and again until he drowned completely. I talk about it when I am with the prison officers, sometimes youngsters ask me about it, but it is not a standard to be acknowledged by everybody. Inside of the crematorium is extremely daunting. As Germans burned all the bodies left and the wooden parts including walls and ceiling (of the crematorium) ware burned, the rest stayed untouched; the main cement, brick construction and five furnaces; it is all original. So it is, has to be daunting. And then you have to be careful and balance; I prefer to talk before or after, to give them space inside, not to overwhelm them, so the emotions they have inside, they could control on their own. Not to add to the drama but also to dignify that place. It is daunting to see the trenches left after “Erntefest”(Harvest Festival); they are still visible. It’s when you say what happened there and then, under the mausoleum is the massive embankment of turf mixed with the ashes; it is visible (how unnerving it is), you can see it. When people ask where they come from (the ashes); it’s because the new crematorium was broken most of the time, it was very modern but out of order most of the time; then the bodies were mostly burned outside, in the trenches. They put some underlay; rails of sort to create a grate and that’s how the burned the bodies. There were no actual bodies left buried in KL Majdanek. Even when (victims) were shot in the trenches they dig them out and burned eventually. 341 (58:26) AS: So, after “Harvest Festival” they burned the bodies as well? JL: Yes. It took three months to burn the bodies. We have places like that here. However, there is also a place, it is inside one of the barracks; exposition called “Shrine”. It is an artistic exposition, titled “In Memory of Anonymous Victim”. It’s twilight there, you could hear “Our Father” prayer in many languages and the music between the prayers is dark, but settled, it is just a tune really, which lasts. And there is a symbolism of wire and light or lack of light. There are balls made from wire, hang up with light bulbs. It ends at some stage and there are other wired balls, without light bulbs lying on the ground. Youngsters usually like to see that; they have time to think about the meaning of that and when they are out, I ask them what it meant for them. Normally, they hit the target: light is life, lack of life is end of life. (59:54) AS: Or hope or lack of hope. Often that was hope which helped people to survive… JL: Precisely that. As Halina Birenbaum has written “Hope dies the last”. (1:00:12) AS: Jolanto, please try not to treat this question as any kind of criticism; I analyse tourism blog TripAdvisor and based on my research from four days ago (end of July 2022) there are 731 feedbacks about Majdanek, could be few more by now, however Auschwitz has almost 15 thousand feedbacks. Why, you think, is there such a big difference? Is this about terrible comparison of number of victims of the camps; 1.1 million versus 80 thousand….? 342 JL: I don’t think so. Museum KL Auschwitz Birkenau is an international symbol, not a regional one. I assume that anywhere in the world even if there is someone who wouldn’t be able to bring many facts and figures, anything about Auschwitz he or she would at least hear about it. That’s one (reason). Two, it is what we have been talking about earlier; Museum KL Auschwitz Birkenau is next to Cracow. Lublin is beautiful but it is not Cracow. Most of international visitors will choose Cracow, they have heard about Cracow, but Lublin… must be recommended or someone must be really determined to discover something new, will search the Internet and find Lublin. You have to be directed here. (1:03:14) AS: Jolanto, what do you think are the expectations towards visiting Majdanek? People come to Majdanek to remember, to forget, to commemorate, there is a case of “Schadenfreude”? JL: I believe all those elements in moderation will be there as expectations. We ask about expectations of our guests when we are preparing workshops for teachers. We ask police officers, detention centres’ officers. We also ask the youngsters, when they come in organized, education-based group. Their expectations are in no particular order; to find out about this place, to get to know history of this place, “my friend was here so now we would be able to talk about it”; so cognitive reasons. It happens often, but I can’t say it is a majority; people who “must”, “should” see that place so the Second World War can never happen again; that would be valid before the war in Ukraine. It is more demand imperative. There are different words used, but there is this demand “I must know”, “I cannot forget”, “it must be remembered”. To remember and not to forget are often used descriptions. Also; “my mum, dad, grandma was here (as a victim) or probably was here during the war” … (1:06:04) AS: So, the personal reasons and expectations…. 343 JL: Personal experience, precisely that. I do not have many data about the relatives or descendants of former Jew inmates because we are not in touch. (1:06:29) AS: Do the veterans of KL Majdanek still happen to be around? JL: Our beloved Mr. Zdzislaw Badio, who was our walking encyclopaedia and heart and soul died last year (3rd of August 2021). Mr Badio was 96. He came to Majdanek when he was 17, in 1942, during the worst hunger, typhus and highest mortality. He was caught in round-up in a village near Krasnystaw (eastern Poland). He was here for 6 months. He made it by miracle, he was hit in his head with the gun, he was showing us the scar. Hmmm…. He survived. And as a round-up inmate – he was let free. He was saying that he met his neighbour while travelling by train after those six months. He was looking at her, wanted to say hello. She did not recognise him even if they used to live next door. He was a man who became a prisoner while he was a teenager, for six months. He remembers. Additionally, other thing that was fascinating about him; my grandma died last year… (1:08:00) AS: So did mine… JL: …and when I am thinking about my grandmother, I don’t know what kind of grandma I am going to be, what I wanted to say Mr Badio was a very warm person. No revenge, no martyrology, very open; when he was talking to youngsters, as he used to; he never refused them; they felt like talking to their peer. He did not moralise, sometimes he was almost shy to be a hero figure, he was saying “I didn’t do anything, I just survived”. He was using words of reconciliation, humanity, he was reminding that not everyone is the same. It is connected to what I have heard last weekend, during my shift, the men on motorbikes came, adults. One of them very clearly was saying that he hated Germans, because 344 they as much responsible today as they were before. One of his friends was saying “Don’t say that; these are totally different people today”, “but they are Germans!” (the first one answered). I couldn’t leave it like that, I started talking to them, without moralising I said that those bad people are gone, these people are different, new. I said “Do you know that Nazis in concentration camps recruited also from Austria, Slovakia… They also belonged to this party). There was a Nazi Party in Netherlands and Belgium during Second World War, they have been recruiting. France’s government Vichy was collaborating with Germans so then what about them? Of course, nobody is taking the blame from (Nazi) Germans, those who started the war and the whole cataclysm, but it is 2022 now… One more story about it…last year, it was probably January (2021), we were preparing the anniversary celebration. We were building it, my colleagues and myself and we wanted to make it in a dignified way. We always have some volunteers, most of places like us have some; Auschwitz has many from Poland and Germany. We have volunteers from Germany and Austria for the last thirty years, last year we had Valentino from Austria and Joanna from Germany. Joanna has Polish roots, her grandma was from Cracow, parents from Germany, she was born there but kept a little bit of speaking Polish. During the anniversary celebrations our local radio and papers’ reps came, probably out of boredom but still, they came to do the interview, pictures of laying the flowers… One of the radio reporters who interviewed me on that day; it was 27th of January – International Day of Holocaust Victims; he also found out there were volunteers here. He asked, “Could I talk to them?” I said yes, as long as you speak English, German, Valentino speaks also Spanish and Italian… “And how about that Joanna girl, it looks like a Polish name?”. I said that yes, she speaks a little bit of Polish. “I just want to ask her a quick, simple question” (reporter said). I had an hunch and followed him; we have a duty to look after our kids here (volunteers); they come here for a year when they are 18, they young creatures really. I do not remember the first question he asked, but the second was “You are German, do you feel guilty what you ancestors here were….” I grabbed his microphone and said “What are you doing? This kid is 18, she works here for the whole year as a volunteer, how could you ask her that? What an 18-year-old might be responsible for? Where is your professionalism gone? Is it your first time here??” He look 345 at me and I was just thinking I was going to hurt me if he contradicted me even once. I was furious, absolutely furious, it’s a lack of professionalism. I am sorry… (1:35:36) AS: It is very useful. Let’s come back to emotions. Knudsen (2011) said “what people get from tourism are mostly emotions and feelings”. How much is that statement current for Majdanek? JL: I would say it has a radical meaning; they mostly receive emotions and feelings, definitely also; emotions and feelings. If we started to analyse the expectations as a mathematical formula, then I would use the word “also”. Because as I said to you before it is (the expectations) remembrance, need to know the history, need to know because “I must, I should” so it is education, cognition. I assume none of the visitors entering the gates of our museum knows how he or she is going to react to this or that place, because they have never been here before. It I different when a guest is visiting as an individual, it is also different when he or she hears a personal story, I am also trying to show some photos, it makes sense because we talk about those people (inmates), not about their number. We rather not say “in one particular time there were 25 thousand inmates in KL Majdanek”, because how can you imagine 25 thousand people? However, when we tell them a story of Halina Grynsztain (also known as Halina Birenbaum), who was 13 (when she came here), who survived… I am a massive fan of Mrs Birenbaum, I mean Halina as we know each other on first names basis. She is active on Facebook, DOB 1925… She has written many poems, many books, she is simply incredible… (1:18:17) AS: How long has she been here for? JL: She came here when Warsaw ghetto’s resurrection failed, that was after June 1943 and then, after about a month here she was sent to Auschwitz. She has lost her mother here during the selection 346 process; (on that day) she was 13, she was tired, moody, she was hot. Her mother has some rapeseed oil in her basket for the way, they were travelling here for two days from Warsaw. She (Halina) was bickering. Her mother tried to talk to her, explain, she was 42 years old herself then. She said “look, people in stripes, they are working, we would definitely get a shower here…”. They are waiting in front of saunas, baths on that selection pitch I was telling you about. And there (orders) were: left or right. She survived by miracle because she was 13. The children up to fourteen, fifteen usually – straight to gas. She might have looked relatively decent, she was the baby in the family and as a baby she probably was getting some extras from her relatives, right. Her mother as a 42-year-old was recognised as too old and sent to gas, Halina and her sister-in-law – under the bath, then she started looking for her mum. When the water started running, she said to her sister-in-law; you were right, mum is not here anymore. When she currently tells the story, there is a video with it, she says that every time she is in Majdanek she always looks for her mother. It is very moving… (1:20:04) AS: Halina survived…. JL: She did. Majdanek. (1:20:09) AS: And Auschwitz? JL: If she wasn’t sent to Auschwitz by the end of summer (1943), she would have died on the 3rd of November 1943 in “Harvest Festival”. She survived Majdanek, Auschwitz, Ravensbruck, Neustadt-Glewe. In 1947 she left for Israel, she thought she has lost all her relatives, however her eldest brother Marek survived. Halina lives in Israel since 1947. She married very young, she had her sons very young, 347 she writes about it in her book “It’s Not The Rain, It’s People”. I have this book with her autograph here. Coming back to emotions and feelings is it… I got lost, could you repeat? (1:21:49) AS: It is one of the theses of course; we can argue that visitors receive mostly education, rather than emotions… JL: I would say “as well”. I would leave it like that and I would add, as it is a mixture of various factors; it is education, need of remembrance, it happens as well; as long as someone stays next to Mausoleum for few minutes longer; it is commemoration. That person can go further but if the visitor stays, and it does not happen to everyone, if that guest stays there and sometimes even bring a flower or candle it is it (commemoration). It is visible, was visible before the covid, however I believe it will come again; many groups were coming here; adults, youngsters, young Germans for study groups. They were ready, they knew why they were here, where they were, what was the task; usually they had to prepare something and then to present it at school. The last day was always the same; for few hours, not 5 minutes, not 15 minutes, not an hour; but for few hours they were going inside the camp, they could buy some flowers and leave them in a special place for them. And some time later we could see some single flowers threaded through the wires, or lying somewhere inside a barrack, it simply is a form of education, emotions, and commemoration. So, I wouldn’t focus on one aspect only. (1:23:40) AS: One of the most important questions; you have substantial experience in observing visitors; regardless of whether they come as individuals or with a group. Could you describe emotions they are manifesting or struggling with; both verbal and non-verbal. (AS is showing enlarged to A4 size “Wheel of Emotions” by Plutchik). I have prepared a model of emotions, it is a wheel and might even 348 look shocking (here, in Majdanek) as it shows all the emotions, negative, positive. Could you describe some that you recognise? JL: I think that… it just come to my mind; when someone comes here, at the beginning it could be interest, they are interested in history of this place and that how it begins. Then it comes: sadness and pensiveness both of them, then it could be loathing, but it is rare; as I said, happens very occasionally, at least how I see it. Occasionally we have fear, about the future, about the mankind, especially after the beginning of war in Ukraine. Hmmm… as long as we talk about visitors in this place that would be it. We also have emotions directed at us, but that is different matter now. And that would be it, I have looked at the wheel before….possibly distraction, but it depends how we define distraction. (1:26:34) AS: It is a lesser (weaker) emotion than a surprise. JL: Yes. Surprise, I am thinking about this word now and ok yes, in a way that “I did not realise that…”. And that would be all. Pensiveness, sadness, interest, the first emotion and with the time of visiting maybe this (surprise) “I did not realise that…”. However, I think the dominant emotion is pensiveness because there is a focus there, careful listening to what is being said; it is visible in the eyes, in the face whenever they are (emotionally) in a given moment. And the sadness that it happened. That a human is able to do things like that. That is what I would tick. (1:27:45) AS: Thank you very much. Almost towards the end (of the interview) … There is usually a cafe, restaurant, shop in places like here. It might be controversial as places like here are connected with death and suffering. Do you have such (commercial) places here? 349 JL: No, we do not. (1:28:12) AS: I hope you have a bookstore (smile)? JL: Yes. You can buy a book, we have two vending machines, it is a big land here, it is very warm today, not to say hot and as I have already told you; guests stay outdoors most of the time. We therefore encourage them to acquire a bottle of water if they do not carry one with them. There is a vending machine with water, coffee, and tea; mostly for people who came here when it was cold, they wanted to get warm, did not have coffee yet. They don’t take coffee outside with them, they stay in Visitors’ Centre. Possibly after visiting they are using our facilities and they buy a hot drink. It depends on the season as mentioned; the terrain is vast. Tea and coffee are our hot drinks selection. There is another vending machine with bottled water sparkling and still and bars, small ones. I always say to the youngsters that we do not eat on the camp as much as you do not eat at the cemetery, unless someone is ill, if someone has a sugar level problem then that person must eat and that’s why we have those energy bars, I believe they are called “Lion”, or such. I have not seen anyone buying those for a while however, we provide the opportunity. When the kids come for workshops and visiting, and they have some change but no lunch on them; they can before we go outside. I have seen some dry sticks as well. Two vending machines, that is all. (1:30:21) AS: How you, a person with such an experience working here, react on the recent commercialization with the use of selfies. Taking documental pictures is slightly different, but I think about picture with a smiley face posing with “Arbeit Macht Frei” gate behind. Do you experience such behaviour here? Do you intervene? 350 JL: I will give you two examples. Hmmmm. Yes, two examples. Before that though, I have to say I am absolutely not against Israeli groups. However, it is my common observation from when I stay in Visitors’ Centre over there, next to the main road. There is a glass wall in the Visitors’ Centre and when you pass this building there are some big stones, so it is visible from The Centre. I swear, it was almost always happening; mostly girls, occasionally boys were taking funny poses and taking selfies which also revealed the camp below. I was not going to shout across the camp, at the end their have their guides with them, they do not cooperate with us. It doesn’t look good; it shows a total lack of preparation to visit this place. Maybe a youngster is young and has a right to make silly mistakes, it is the age at the end of the day. That’s why I said before; it is a carer, guardian, teacher or whoever there is; that’s the person responsible to make them prepared and aware where they are going, what that place is about and how to behave there. That’s one important thing. But it is not that simplistic; education-based group consisted of teachers; we always finish by the Mausoleum. That’s how end (the tour), that’s the place where the ashes are, that’s the end of human’s life; people who did not survive. Some of the teachers want to take pictures there. There is a monument there and stairs. Over the Mausoleum we can see the citation of Franciszek Fenikowski “Our faith is a warning for you”. Then I asked them to stand on the stairs and take a picture of them. Sometimes youngsters protest: they don’t want pictures to be taken there, there ae ashes there. I agree. But I cannot forbid teachers to take pictures, they stand by the explanation that it is a documentation (of a trip) and it is nothing wrong with it as they won’t attempt to do “cheers” or such. However, kids sometimes are more unnerved by it, it does not sit well with them. When I expose them to basic information and inform where they can go and when I see a camera, I normally say they can take pictures but without the flesh and if it is a young person, I ask not to put it on social media. If someone is becoming difficult then I say we have our ways to find it out and bring the consequences. I make it up, but if it is to protect us from some silly or stupid action, then let it be. But when I ask, usually they understand it. I don’t have this problem with focus groups (educational). There is no need to say anything. Sometimes 351 they take pictures, but they more…. Artistic rather than anything else. For instance, there is a picture, we have it in our resources; taken by students, I don’t remember whether it was a girl or a boy; we can see a bath barrack before the renovation, old window, old window frame and we can see a butterfly sitting inside (of the barrack). And the kid took it when the butterfly opened the wings. It is a beautiful picture. Or the picture of the flower with red petals next to the wire. It is more reflective, more commemorating. (1:26:06) AS: I don’t want to comment or negate taking pictures in general, I hope myself to take a few… JL: Yes, yes yes, I totally understand where you are coming from… (1:36:20) AS: …as we also need some physical artifacts like pictures… JL: Of course, we keep record of our guests here as well. (1:36:34) AS: I meant taking typical selfies… JL: It happens, more with foreign kids though. There is, however, a colleague of ours, he takes pictures. He has a great knowledge of the subject, and I am going to show you a picture he took during a project constituted by teachers from twenty European countries. I had a shift then, my colleague was presenting and guiding through the camp. I want to show you a picture, a beautiful one which makes 352 you think a lot, we can even discuss it from educational point of view… (the picture shown presents a Jewish teacher skewed over the furnace of the crematorium, deep in his thoughts, with his reflection visible in a glass protecting the furnaces). (1:38:34) AS: Emotions are written all over his face, it is a great pensiveness and sadness… JL: So, the pictures, apart from those unfortunate selfies can serve and serve us as study material. (1:38:49) AS: And that was my question concerning, those selfies, this commercialization called often “kitchification”; with happy selfies. It does not concern the concentration camps, there is a kitchification problem in New York when Twin Towers fell; there is a mug with “I Love NY” and ruins on it, so I was talking about demonstrating in a very infantile way rather than preserving as a document which we always need. JL: I am not saying they do not happen here, just not with education-based groups. At least not over my fifteen years of working here, maybe there was an idea, but I asked them to think where they were and what they wanted to achieve through those pictures. Also – not to send them on social media. I did not experience a laughter or, mockery or irony. I wasn’t told they were expecting to take pictures, it was a standard. I am not saying it never happens, it does happen, we are not a desert island with perfect guests only. It happened many years ago, when I started working here and we were actually investigating that case very carefully. Specifically, in the crematorium we were presenting an actual furnace from the “Old Crematorium”. It was before we installed glass panels there and the furnace’s entry was open. There is a picture in Internet displaying a girl sitting on the furnace’s entry with a funny pose and signature “Greetings from holidays in Lublin”. When we saw it our jaws dropped and 353 after we have investigated that it appeared that the girl was 9 years old, she came to the region to visit her uncle and aunt and they were the ones who took a picture. She was told they wanted to have some memories of her… So, I am talking about variety of situation and what you have said about that gate “Arbeit Macht Frei” happens. Happens next to the Mausoleum. We are not able to control everything; we would have to put our people everywhere (around the camp). I believe the law stays that if the picture or details of it are inappropriate then the admin of the website could be alarmed and the picture – removed. We don’t have many cases of that, however, we neither have the number of tourists that our colleagues from Auschwitz experience, so the scale is different; everything is proportionate to the number of visitors. I am sure it happens; those are only people. (1:42:58) AS: Jolanto, Thank you ever so much for our discussion, it brough many interesting data to my research. JL: Thank you. 354 Appendix 3 In-depth interview with Marek Duda – State Museum at Majdanek, 4th of August 2022 – original version in Polish (0:07) Agnes Salajczyk: Przede wszystkim bardzo, bardzo dziękuję za czas poświęcony mi i mojemu badaniu.. Marek Duda: Nie ma problemu (0:14) AS: …i za możliwość spotkania w tak krótkim terminie. Panie Marku, Majdanek to przede wszystkim… MD: Myślę, że przede wszystkim były obóz, czyli miejsce nieprawdopodobnego cierpienia ludzkiego, zarazem miejscem pielęgnowania pamięci o tym cierpieniu, czyli jest to miejsce będące de facto cmentarzem; w znaczeniu dosłownym, bo są tutaj szczątki ludzkie, które tutaj spoczywają, ale też w tym znaczeniu metaforycznym, takim, że jest to miejsce właśnie upamiętniające, podobnie jak cmentarz, te ofiary, które tutaj nie tylko spoczywają, ale tych wszystkich, którzy tutaj cierpieli. Więc właśnie, takie są moje główne skojarzenia; miejsce cierpienia i miejsce pamięci. (1:16) AS: I tak jest w ogólnym rozumieniu; kiedy mówimy o Majdanku to mówimy o byłym nazistowskim obozie koncentracyjnym, miejscu cierpienia, miejscu strachu. Czy w Pana rozumieniu Majdanek może być określanym mianem lokalizacji „dark tourism”? 355 MD: Pewnie nie do końca jestem pewien, bo też nie wiem, czy jakby w pełni dobrze kojarzę tą definicję, to hasło. Generalnie… (1:54) AS: Dark tourism to są miejsca związane z przemocą, z nagłą śmiercią, z ludobójstwem, z morderstwem. MD: Rozumiem, bo szczerze mówiąc, generalnie bardziej skojarzenie z tym hasłem moje było takie, że, być może niepoprawne, że są to miejsca; owszem, związane z przemocą, ale jednak z różnych powodów traktowane nieco zabawowo, czyli bardziej z tym hasłem kojarzyły mi się miejsca takie, jak… nie wiem.. jakieś średniowieczne izby tortur, domki kata, kiedyś pracowałem (w takim miejscu), więc jakieś tam jęki tej osoby torturowanej, także to jest de facto wspomnienie czegoś strasznego, a jednocześnie podawane w taki sposób komercyjny, zabawowy. I szczerze mówiąc moje skojarzenie z takim hasłem „dark tourism” jest właśnie bardziej takie; z miejscami takimi niepoważnymi, więc jeśli „dark tourism” rozumieć faktycznie w taki sposób, że jest to miejsce cierpienia, ale trochę miejsce takie komercyjne, miejsce w którym o tym cierpieniu opowiadamy w sposób, powiedzmy lekko zabawowy, bo tak bywa, no to wtedy na pewno Majdanek nie może być moim zdaniem uznany za takie miejsce. Natomiast, jeśli te moje skojarzenia są błędne i po prostu to hasło „dark tourism” nie zawiera takiej konotacji, że to musi być miejsce, w którym o tym cierpieniu mówimy w sposób zabawowy, ale jeśli do tego hasła można zaliczać wszelkie miejsca upamiętniające po prostu masową śmierć związaną z przemocą, to wtedy, z natury rzeczy należałoby zaliczyć wszystkie takie miejsca jak Majdanek, Auschwitz, miejsca ludobójstwa, tego typu miejsc. (3:46) AS: Na pewno ma Pan racje, jeśli chodzi o „dark tourism”, bo są różne odcienie tego ciemnego. Czyli to nie jest coś takiego, że jest to bardzo czarne, ale są różne odcienie szarości, jak zawsze w życiu. 356 W Europie jest wiele takich miejsc o których Pan wspomniał, że one są traktowane z dozą takiego humoru, czarnego wręcz humoru; są pokazy sztucznych ogni w Malborku, w Anglii jest Muzeum Drakuli, które jest generalnie mityczne, bo Drakula nie mieszkał w Anglii, to po pierwsze, a po drugie, nigdy nie dowiemy się, czy on naprawdę był i żył. One są traktowane jako takie troszeczkę miejsca takiego „zdrowego leku”, bo wrócę do domu i napiję się kawy. Majdanek takim miejscem nie jest. Jak Pan decyduje się przeprowadzać ludzi przez obóz, przez Muzeum, czy bardziej koncentruje się Pan na faktach, datach, czy bardziej przedstawia to Pan z punktu widzenia pojedynczych ofiar albo przypadków? MD: Staram się na pewno łączyć obie te perspektywy, to znaczy uważam, i tak praktykuję, że nie można przejść przez to miejsce wyłącznie mówiąc o jakiś tam indywidualnych doświadczeniach, a nie podając jak gdyby najważniejszych faktów, takie jak chociażby lata istnienia, jakieś tło historyczne, dlaczego Niemcy utworzyli to miejsce tu i wtedy, takich faktów jak liczba osób, która przeszła przez to miejsce, ich pochodzenie, liczba ofiar, więc jak najbardziej to tło faktograficzne, historyczne jest moim zdaniem absolutnie niezbędne i zawsze też jednak sporo czasu poświęcam na wystawach z mapami historycznymi, z różnymi wykresami, które pomagają przedstawić tą wiedzę histograficzną. Jednocześnie uważam i praktykuję też tą drugą perspektywę, to znaczy uważam, że nie można pozostawić tego w takiej suchej formie, że jak najbardziej trzeba pokazać perspektywę indywidualną; zawsze mam ze sobą zdjęcia byłych więźniów, mam ich wspomnienia, staram się odczytywać te wspomnienia dosłownie, także w trakcie (wizyty) przytaczać wiele innych przykładów poszczególnych sytuacji przytoczonych przez poszczególne osoby. Staram się też przytoczyć przynajmniej jedną biografię; perspektywę sprawców żeby również tą identyfikację negatywną zwiedzającym zapewnić. 357 (6:59) AS: Do jakiego stopnia zwiedzający są w stanie zmodyfikować trasę albo tempo wycieczki. Czy generalnie jest Pan w stanie zidentyfikować, że są pewne miejsca szczególne, gdzie grupa stwierdza „postójmy trochę dłużej” albo „porozmawiajmy o tym trochę więcej”? MD: Tak. Z pewnością takim miejscem są przede wszystkim komory gazowe, myślę, że z dwóch przyczyn; po pierwsze dlatego, że jest to jeszcze względnie na początku zwiedzania, więc jeszcze wszyscy nie czują presji czasu, a także czyją jeszcze siłę, energię, koncentrację no i przede wszystkim dlatego, że jest to miejsce bardzo istotne, więc rzeczywiście w tym miejscu mam wrażenie, że można przedłużyć, że można spędzić o wiele więcej czasu. Znaczy; w komorach gazowych i miejscach związanych; plac selekcyjny, łaźnie, natomiast potem już trochę gorzej czyli w tych miejscach związanych z warunkami życia codziennego ta koncentracja już trochę ucieka, siły są zazwyczaj mniejsze bo też jest to później i wydaje się być może też zwiedzającym, że jest to może trochę mniej istotne, co jest nie do końca, myślę trafnym przekonaniem, ponieważ nawet jeśli chodzi nawet o liczbę ofiar, która tutaj na Majdanku zginęła porównywalna liczba osób z powodu bezpośredniej eksterminacji, jak z powodu warunków codziennych wytworzonych tutaj przez sprawców. W związku z tym tam jest na pewno już trudniej o tą koncentrację no i faktycznie zazwyczaj ta koncentracja już później ucieka wzdłuż trasy zwiedzania i wraz z uciekającym czasem. Takim miejscem, który wyraźnie to pokazuje są rowy egzekucyjne, czyli miejsce w którym w ciągu jednego dnia Niemcy zamordowali ponad 18 tysięcy osób. (9:11) AS: Dożynki, tak? MD: Dożynki, dokładnie; „Akcja Dożynki”, no i miejsce z nieprawdopodobnie przerażającą historią, które wymaga większej zadumy i oczywiście są grupy, które, mimo że jest to co najmniej po dwóch 358 godzinach zwiedzania, jakby widząc, słysząc co się tam dzieje potrafią wygospodarować więcej czasu i energii, żeby to miejsce jeszcze więcej przeżyć, obejrzeć, dopytać. Natomiast jednak w zdecydowanej większości przypadków z powodu już zmęczenia i czasu mimo że jest to tak ważne miejsce, to w większości zwiedzający już widać, że, że nie chcą spędzić tam zbyt wiele czasu. (10:01) AS: Teraz takie pytanie, tylko bardzo bym prosiła nie brać to jako swojego rodzaju krytykę czy wadę w żadnym wypadku, ale analizowałam opinie zwiedzających na forum turystycznym TripAdvisor i na koniec lipca (2022), czyli cztery dni temu Majdanek miał 731 opinii, porównywalnie do 14,500 (opinii), które ma Auschwitz. Czy myśli Pan, że ta różnica jest podyktowana jednak tą nieporównywalną skalą morderstw; 1,1 miliona do 80 tysiąca ludzi. Czy to może być większą „atrakcją”? MD: Oczywiście jest to związane z liczbą ofiar, ale jest to jednak tylko warunek początkowy, który sprawił, i być może jeden z kilku warunków, który sprawił, że Auschwitz stało się wręcz synonimem holocaustu czy też innych wątków związanych z okupacją niemiecką. Liczba ofiar nie jest tutaj wyłącznym warunkiem, ponieważ w Treblince zamordowano 900 tysięcy osób, więc jest to liczba już naprawdę bardzo porównywalna , a w ogóle w obozach „Akcji Reinhard”, które były tak naprawdę no poniekąd jednym organizmem, kierowanym z Lublina właśnie; czyli na Majdanku, w Sobiborze, w Treblince, w Bełżcu zamordowano 1,5 miliona osób, a w całej Akcji 2 miliony. A mimo to, naprawdę niewiele osób, wyłączając ekspertów, lub może osoby szczególnie zainteresowane tematem, wiele osób w ogóle nie słyszało tego hasła „Akcja Reinhard”, czy nie słyszało o miejscach; o obozach zagłady „Akcji Reinhard”, więc kwestia liczb jest bardzo istotna, ale jest tylko jednym z kilku, jednym z wielu warunków. Fenomen Auschwitz no wynika też z faktu, że właśnie; to miejsce stało się tym synonimem Holokaustu, więc jakby ta liczba opinii na TripAdviserze, tak samo jak liczba followersów na Twiterze, która jest, myślę że proporcje są analogiczne, nawet jeszcze o wiele większa jest różnica, czy też po 359 prostu liczba zwiedzających wynika po prostu ze statusu, jaki ma Auschwitz w tej pamięci historycznej, a ten status jest oparty też na liczbie ofiar, ale nie tylko krótko mówiąc. (13:12:) AS: Lokalizacja? MD: Lokalizacja oczywiście ma też ogromne znaczenie, bliskość granicy niemieckiej , czeskiej, bliskość Krakowa; ten słynny trójkąt turystyczny: Kraków - Wieliczka – Auschwitz, jak najbardziej. To jest też bardzo istotne… (13:26) AS: Bo tutaj, do Majdanka trzeba przyjechać (specjalnie)? MD: Tak, dokładnie (13: 35) AS: Z tego co widziałam wiele opinii jest takich, że Auschwitz jest zwiedzane jako kolejna (atrakcja) obok Wieliczki, albo nawet w tym samym dniu, natomiast tutaj, do Majdanka – trzeba przyjechać. MD: Tak, oczywiście, co nie zmienia faktu, że również Majdanek bywa zwiedzany po drodze jako jedna z atrakcji, jeden z nauczycieli szkolnych potrafi mi powiedzieć, że fajnie, że tutaj (Muzeum Majdenek) mieliście dostępnego przewodnika, bo chcieliśmy przyjechać do kina na jakąś tam, mi powiedział tytuł tego filmu, to była jakaś taka najtańsza strzelanka za kilka złotych, no ale dyrektor by nam nie pozwolił 360 przyjechać na ten film, no a tak jak jeszcze dorzuciliśmy Majdanek, to mogliśmy przyjechać. Wiec, więc jakby te motywacje nie sprawiają wrażenia, jakby ten motyw nie jest zawsze po drodze, przy okazji. (14:42) AS: Czy ludzie przyjeżdzający zobaczyć Majdanek preferują zwiedzanie w grupach, czy indywidualnie? MD: Myślę, że generalnie pięćdziesiąt na pięćdziesiąt (procent) powiedziałbym, dzisiaj nawet miałem jeden z tego częstszych przykładów, to znaczy codziennie o 11 (rano) w ciągu wakacji są tak zwane tury oprowadzania osób indywidualnych przez przewodnika, no więc tak co najmniej od godziny 10, czyli na godzinę przed rozpoczęciem tego zwiedzania wszystkich przychodzących tutaj do punktu informacji Centrum Obsługi Zwiedzających to pytam, proponuję też tą formę; albo zwiedzanie indywidualne i faktycznie klaruje się to mniej więcej pół na pół, jeśli chodzi o tych, którzy wolą indywidualne przejścia i tych, którzy wolą iść z przewodnikiem. (15:34) AS: Jakie Pana zdaniem, z Pańskiego doświadczenia, albo z pytań, jakie Pan zadaje, jakie są oczekiwania co do wizyty w Muzeum Majdanek? MD: Hmmm…. Oczekiwania są różne; jeśli chodzi o grupy szkolne to po prostu nauczyciele oczekują jakby profesjonalnego poziomu oprowadzania przewodnika, który mówi do uczniów, potrafi ich zaciekawić, więc jakby ściśle pragmatyczne oczekiwanie. Jeśli chodzi o uczniów, to na pewno podobnie; żeby było ciekawie, żeby można się było czegoś dowiedzieć w sposób w miarę bezbolesny, w miarę nienudny. 361 (16:33) AS: Czyli edukacja? MD: tak, edukacja ni i jakby ciekawe spędzenie czasu. Jeśli chodzi o resztę zwiedzających, to też w ogromnej mierze jest to „atrakcja” turystyczna, w tym znaczeniu, że przyjeżdża się do Lublina, żeby obejrzeć kilka miejsc i Majdanek jest jednym z nich, więc, no owszem, przychodzi się tutaj poniekąd, żeby ciekawie spędzić ten czas, zyskać wiedzę, zyskać doświadczenie bycia w takim miejscu. Więc właśnie oczekiwania są takie, żeby ta wizyta zwiedzającym to umożliwiła. Oczywiście są też osoby, które przychodzą po to, żeby oddać hołd, inni przychodzą, żeby skonfrontować się z jakąś swoją osobistą, rodzinną historią, oddać właśnie cześć ofiarom. Czyli myślę, że właśnie są różne motywacje. (17:48) AS: Jeden z badaczy behawioralnych powiedział „To, co turysta otrzymuje z procesu zwiedzania to głównie emocje i uczucia”. Czy zgadza się Pan z tym stwierdzeniem w kontekście Muzeum Majdanka? MD: Myślę, że tak, myślę, że tak bo jednak tą faktografię to można przeczytać artykuł na Wikipedii i wrócić do niego z pięćdziesiąt razy, natomiast wartością bezwzględna bycia tutaj jest właśnie ta emocja, to te odczucia związane z byciem w autentycznym miejscu, gdzie to zło się uosobiło, zaistniało. (18:37) AS: A z Pana doświadczenia, czy mógłby Pan określić, opisać emocje, z którymi borykają się zwiedzający? Werbalne, niewerbalne emocje… 362 MD: No na pewno jest to czasami forma rozpaczy, pojawiają się łzy, pojawia się czasem płacz. Inna emocja to pewnie jakaś taka wściekłość, nienawiść może nawet do sprawców. Na pewno emocja współczucia wobec ofiar… (19:26) AS: Ja mam tutaj dla pomocy takie koło teoretyczne, koło emocji, które opisuje cała skalę emocji; emocje pozytywne, negatywne, co się może nawet wydać dziwne, ale niektórzy zwiedzający, z badań wynika, uzyskują pewien spokój wewnętrzny, czyli taką pozytywną emocję związaną z wizytą. Jakby Pan spojrzał przez minutę na to koło (AS pokazuje powiększony do A4 obraz Koła Emocji Plutchika), gdzie najbardziej ludzie się umiejscawiają? MD: Myślę, że jednak przede wszystkim w smutku, aczkolwiek wiele innych tutaj też mógłbym wskazać tych emocji… (20:49) AS: Wspomniał Pan (poprzednio) o gniewie… MD: Tak, to na pewno. Być może nawet też cierpienie, bo słysząc o tym cierpieniu przypuszczam, że niektórzy po prostu słysząc to sami odczuwają to cierpienie czy też wchodzą na tym poziomie empatycznym tak mocno, że go też odczuwają. Myślę, że zdumienie również… (21:58) AS: Czyli pewnego rodzaju szok? 363 MD: Tak, dokładnie. Zdumienie nad skalą zbrodni, nad tą skalą zła. Tak, myślę, że również… no na pewno też ciekawość po prostu. Ciekawość tego, jak to działało; stąd są różne pytania, więc to kolejna emocja, którą bym wskazał. Być może również forma strachu przed tego typu sytuacjami. Mówiła tez pani, że paradoksalnie niektórzy mogą odczuwać jakąś formę uspokojenia, to owszem, też zgadzam się z tym, bo może tak być , głownie w przypadku osób, które gdzieś tam automatycznie konfrontują swoje lęki , swoje codzienne zmartwienia z poziomem tragedii osób, które cierpiały w takim miejscu, i wtedy dochodzą do wniosku, że te ich dramaty są nie tak straszne w porównaniu do tego, co musieli przejść ci ludzie tutaj. I przypuszczam, że na tej może podstawie może pojawić się poczucie pewnego docenienia swojej codzienności. (23:57) AS: Bardzo dziękuję. Nie będę już pytała o komercjalizację typu kawiarnia i sklep, dlatego że teraz (widząc to miejsce) już jestem sama w stanie ocenić, że jest to bardzo profesjonalnie wykonane, natomiast -stety, niestety sytuacja jest taka, że wiele z tych miejsc zagłady, czy masowego zabójstwa, strachu, np. Nowy Jork – Dwie Wieże stały się także symbolem komercji. I z Pana doświadczenia, czy ta komercja, a głównie mówię tutaj o robieniu selfie; czy występuje w grupach, czy są sytuacje podobne do słynnego, uśmiechniętego selfie na tle bramy Auschwitz z napisem „Arbeit Mach Frei”, gdzie są zadowolone twarze, szczęśliwe twarze i potem udokumentowanie tego na mediach społecznych, że „to był wspaniały dzień”. Uważam, że Muzeum Majdanek jest prowadzone na bardzo wysokim poziomie, ale czy właśnie takie infantylne zachowania wśród turystów występują nadal, zwłaszcza młodych? MD: Tak, one się zdarzają, jak najbardziej dotyczą zdjęć właśnie. Hałaśliwości i robienia zdjęć w nieodpowiednich miejscach, i to nie tylko myślę od ludzi młodych. Sytuacja, która mnie najbardziej zdziwiła, to była pracowniczka jakiegoś uniwersytetu w Mołdawii, którą tutaj oprowadzałem bezpłatnie na prośbę Uniwersytetu Lubelskiego, który gościł ta panią, nie pamiętam czy doktor, czy doktorantkę, bo jednak słysząc o tym stopniu naukowym, karierze naukowej automatycznie 364 spodziewałem się jakiegoś odpowiedniego zachowania, tymczasem bez przerwy prosiła koleżankę, z którą była, żeby robiła jej kolejne zdjęcia, łącznie z tym, że gdy nawet opowiadałem jej o wydarzeniach związanych z placem selekcyjnym, czy też czytałem wspomnienia osób, które przeszły przez tragedię tego miejsca, nawet w tym momencie ta Pani potrafiła przerwać i poprosić koleżankę, żeby zrobiła jej kolejne zdjęcie w tym miejscu. (26:49) AS: Czyli jej zdjęcie, nie dokumentalne? MD: Nie nie, typowo jej postaci. (26:52) AS: Ja tutaj nie staram się… Wszyscy potrzebujemy dokumentów, ja też mam nadzieję robić zdjęcia dokumentalne, natomiast chodziło mi o zdjęcia typy pocztówkowego. MD: Tak, tu akurat chodziło, że ta Pani nie prosiła o zdjęcia tych miejsc, tylko zdjęcia jej samej w tym miejscu, więc to kompletnie inna perspektywa , inna sytuacja. (27:37) AS: Czy jest Pan w stanie jeszcze coś ze swojej perspektywy dodać o emocjach turystów, czy zdarzają się bardzo silne reakcje typu; ktoś wchodzi do budynku i natychmiast wychodzi, albo wręcz przerywa zwiedzanie? MD: Tak, oczywiście zdarzają się takie osoby, które wychodzą, w trakcie widać, że jakby z powodu ciężaru emocjonalnego związanego z poznawaniem tych miejsc, no po prostu osoby, które bardzo 365 intensywnie płaczą, przeżywają szczególnie ciężko te miejsca. Być może szczególnie są to osoby, których bliscy w podobnych miejscach cierpieli, chociaż sądzę, że nie tylko. Natomiast jak najbardziej takie sytuacje się zdarzają (28:51) AS: Panie Marku, to wszystko ode mnie, bardzo dziękuję za poświęcony mi czas jeszcze raz. MD: Dziękuję bardzo. 366 Appendix 4 In-depth interview with Marek Duda – State Museum at Majdanek, 4th of August 2022 – translated version. (0:07) Agnes Salajczyk: Fist of all, many many thanks for giving me your time… Marek Duda: No problem. (0:14) AS: …. And for opportunity to see in on a short notice. Marek, Majdanek is most of all… MD: I believe it is most of all a former camp; a place of unbelievable suffering as well as a place of commemoration of this suffering, so it is de facto a cemetery, in actual meaning, as there are humans’ remaining here, but also in the metaphorical meaning; it is a commemoration for all those victims who died here and suffered here. So those are my thoughts of this place, a place of suffering and remembrance. (1:16) AS: And so it is; when we talk about Majdanek, generally we talk about former Nazi concentration camp, a place of death and suffering and fear. Would you say that Majdanek could be specified as a location of dark tourism? MD: I am not sure entirely, as long as I understand the definition…. 367 (1:54) AS: Dark tourism describes locations connected with death, suffering, macabre, genocide… MD: I understand. To be honest my understanding of places like that, possibly not totally right one was, that yes, those places (dark tourism ones) are connected with violence, however in more funny way, for instance medieval torture chambers, executioner’s hut (I used to wok in a place like that), there are some cries of the tortured one so it is a reminder of something horrible, however supplied in a funny and commercial way. So my connotation with dark tourism is such so; places which are not too serious. If we understand dark tourism through the lenses of commercialized and manufactured terror places, as it happens then Majdanek cannot be linked with such a definition. However if I misunderstand that (definition) and dark tourism simply does not have that funny, commercial link and if under umbrella of dark tourism we could include all the places commemorating world genocide and violence then yes, we could count Majdanek in, places like Auschwitz and such so. (3:46) AS: You are right in many ways, while digesting dark tourism we have many shades of grey there. It is nothing black and white (obvious) about it. There are many places in Europe not dissimilar to what just said; we have mythical Dracula Experience in England. Did Dracula really lived in England, did he feed from the blood, was he real… Those places are treated like a slight entertainment, “healthy fear” places, to come back home from and have a good cup of coffee after. Majdanek is not such a place. Do you focus more on facts and figures or individual personal stories of victims, while guiding visitors though the terrain of the camp? MD: I am trying to do both. I believe and I practice the approach that you can’t just visit this place knowing only about the personal experiences, without having any facts with it such as years of activity, historic background, why Germans created this place there and then, how many people went through 368 the camp, their origins, numbers of victims – so the historic background which I find absolutely necessary. I always spend considerable time on exhibitions with historic maps and pictures which help demonstrating this historic knowledge. On the other hand, I believe and practice the other approach; you cannot treat this place with only formal approach, you need to show a personal perspective. I always carry pictures of former inmates, I have their memoirs, I try to read those memories aloud. Also, during (the visit) I supply many other examples of many stories told by many inmates. I try to bring at least one full biography of the perpetrator to demonstrate that perspective as well. (6:59) AS: To what extend can visitors change or amend the route or its pace? Could you identify the places, special places, when the group asks to stop for a little longer, asks more questions? MD: Yes. Certainly, one of those places are gas chambers and for two reasons; firstly, it is happening relatively towards the beginning of the route so there is no time pressure yet; the visitors still have energy and are more motivated and focused. Additionally, it is a very critical place so I feel we can spend some extra time there as well. I would say, the gas chambers and places connected with it, selection pitch, baths. Then it is getting slightly worse; in barracks demonstrating the life conditions the focus is escaping, the energy is slightly lower but also, possibly the visitors might not identify that as something very crucial. I don’t believe it is a right approach; even taking into account the number of fatalities of Majdanek; we have similar number dies through direct extermination to fatalities who died due to life conditions created by perpetrators. However, there is a decreased focus there and keeps on decreasing with time (of visit). The place which defies that however are execution trenches, when Germans murdered 18 thousand of people in one day. (9:11) AS: The “Harvest Festival”? 369 MD: “Harvest Festival”, precisely. It is a place with an incredibly horrid history, requesting some attention. There are groups who, despite being in the terrain for more than two hours stop there and are able to focus, get interested, ask some more in-depth questions. Generally, however, and in most cases; regardless of the vital meaning of that place people are already too tired to extend their stay for longer. (10:01) AS: My next question… I would ask you not to treat as a criticism in any shape or form. I have analysed feedback posted to common tourism forum TripAdvisor. By the end of July (2022) so few days ago, Majdanek had 731 pieces of feedback left. Auschwitz had them 14,500. Do you think it could relate to the sheer scale of mass murder committed in both camps; 1,1 million (in Auschwitz) and 80 thousand (in Majdanek). Do you believe that scale could be more “attractive”? MD: Yes, it could be related to the number of victims, however it is just an entry condition, could be one of many which caused Auschwitz to become a symbol and synonym of Holocaust or other historic truths connected with German occupation. The number of fatalities s not the only condition; there were 900 thousand people murdered in Treblinka, so it is quite comparable to Auschwitz. In camps connected with “Action Reinhard” which were really one big machine led from Lublin; camps in Majdanek, Sobibor, Treblinka and Belzec 1,5 million victims were killed. During the whole “Action Reinhard” 2 million people in total were murdered. Regardless of that (the number of victims) not many people actually ever heard about “Action Reinhard”, or places of extermination connected with “Action Reinhard”, so numbers are important but it just one of many other conditions. The phenomenon of Auschwitz is determined also by the fact that is became the synonym of Holocaust, so the numbers od feedback on TripAdvisor, or on Twitter, which I believe would be proportionally 370 huge as well, or just a sheer number of visitors as such stems from the status of Auschwitz in the historical memory. And this status is based on numbers of fatalities as well. (13:12) AS: Location…? MD: Location has got a great impact as well of course. (In Auschwitz case) the proximity to Cracow, Golden Tourist Triangle: Cracow – Wieliczka – Auschwitz, yes of course, it is very important as well… (13:26) AS: Because here to Majdanek you’d have to come on purpose? MD: Exactly that. (13:25) AS: I have read many opinions saying that Auschwitz might be just yet another tourist attraction, next to Wieliczka, to visit possibly the same day, but Majdanek – you come here for the specific purpose…? MD: Yes, of course. It does not change the fact, that Majdanek tends to be also visited (on the way), as one of the touristic attractions of the area. One of the teachers told us that it has been great to get a guide to visit Majdanek. The class actually came here to see the movies (in Lublin); something really cheap and cheerful, but the director would oppose to come here just to the movies so we topped it up with visiting Majdanek, so we could come at all. So the motives are different, not always suggesting the visitors came here for the right purpose. 371 (14;42) AS: Visitors who came to see the former KL Majdanek. Do they visit individually or in groups with the guide? MD: I would say fifty/fifty. I had one of supporting examples for that today; every day during the holiday period at 11am we gather so called “tours” which leave with the guide. Since around 10am; an hour before the tour starts, we ask people gathered in the Visitors Centre, we offer this guided form of visiting the terrain as an alternative to individual visiting. Indeed, around half of our guests decide to go individually and the other half chooses guided visit. (15:34) AS: Based on your experience, what the expectation are towards visiting Museum Majdanek? MD: Hmmm... The expectations are different. When it comes to the school trips then the teachers expect professional guided tours, they expect a guide who can speak to young people, who can grab their interest, so it is very pragmatic expectation. While it comes to the students, it quite similar, they want it to be interesting, the way of finding some historical facts in relatively available, not tedious way. (16:35) AS: So… education? MD: Yes, education plus spending some inspiring time here. When it comes to rest of visitors, it is a treated as a touristic “attraction”; if you come to Lublin area to see some places Majdanek is one of those places, so yes, they come here to spend some interesting, inspiring time; gain some knowledge, 372 gain an experience of being in a place like that. So, they expect that a visit here will fulfil all those expectations. Obviously, there are also guests who come here to commemorate; other come to confront a personal or family story, honour the victims. So I believe the motivations are quite different. (17:48) AS: One of the behaviourists said, “Tourist receive mostly emotions and feelings from the process of visiting”. Would you agree with that statement while having Museum Majdanek in mind? MD: Yes, I believe so. If you just want some images, pictures you can always come to Wikipedia and come back 50 times depending on your need, however being here gives you that unprecedented value of having real emotions, feelings connected with being in an authentic place, where the evil erupted and lasted. (18:37) AS: Based on your experience would you be able to point out some emotions that the visitors are demonstrating and struggling with. Both verbal and non-verbal? MD: It is definitely a form of despair; they are occasional tears or actual crying. Another emotion is anger, hate towards the perpetrators. Definitely feeling sorry for the victims. (19:26) AS: To help us, I have prepared a theoretic tool; a Wheel of Emotions describing whole umbrella of emotions; negative and positive emotions, what could be sounding bizarre (here, in this place), such as serenty. Could you have a kind look at the wheel and point out where you see the visitors’ emotions the most? 373 MD: I believe definitely sadness, although I could think about some more emotions here… (20:49) AS: You mentioned anger before…. MD: Yes, certainly anger could be there. Maybe even grief, because listening about the suffering, I believe other people can display grief themselves; they became so empathetic to feel that emotion as well. I believe they feel sone kind of… (21:58) AS: Shock? MD: Precisely that. Amazement of the sheer scale of the evil. Also, I think… interest, certainly kind of interest. Interest of how it all worked; that’s all the questions come from, so that would be another emotion I would indicate. Possibly also fear of the circumstances like this one. You mentioned some can feel some kind of serenity, and I would agree, it can happen in case of people who are confronting their fears, their everyday struggles with the level of tragedy that happened here to people. As a result, they realise that whatever happen to them, their dramas are not as severe as they were for the people who were here. I believe based on that we can talk about some kind appreciation of our everyday life. (23:57) AS: I will not be asking about the level of commercialization happening here (in Majdanek) such as café shop and restaurants, as I know (from the previous interview and my own observation), that implementation of this elements here. There are however places, many of them of, or connected with death and suffering which are oozing more commercial site to it; for instance, Twin Towers Memorial in New York presents some unwanted commercialism. 374 What is your experience with selfies taken inside the camp; do they happen in Majdanek? By that I mean those happy selfies, with smiley faces posing in from of gates “Arbeit Macht Frei” which are send all over social media later. Do those infantile behaviours happen here, especially among young visitors? MD: Yes, it happens. Being too loud and taking pictures in places totally inadequate for this purpose, however, we are not talking about young people only. I had once case, which left me extremely bemused; we had a professional from one of the Moldavian universities, a lady who was offered complimentary visit with a guide here, I believe she had a PhD or was reading for her PhD. Nevertheless, find out about her professional status I have been expecting… a professional. On a contrary: she spent a lot of time here asking her colleague to take selfies of her, even when I was explaining her the process of selection of inmates, or when I was reading memoirs of people who survived this place. She literally asked me to stop and busy herself with taking selfies. (26:49) AS: A selfie, not a document? MD: Not at all, typical selfies. (26:52) AS: As for documental pictures go, I wouldn’t condemn that, I myself hope to take some documental pictures while visiting the camp. MD: You are correct, however that person was not interested in documenting the places as much as posing to the selfies. 375 (27:37) AS: Would you be able to add some more to the subject of emotions (in Majdanek)? Do you have extreme situations when someone gets into a barrack for instant just to leave it a second after or breaks the process of visiting at all? MD: Yes, of course, we have visitors like that; they leave a particular place due to emotional weight of this place. There are people who intensively cry, they experience this place on a very deep level. Possibly those are people who’s relatives went through places like that during the war, however that is not necessarily the rule. Nevertheless, those situations do happen… (28:15) AS: Mark, it all from me and thank you again for you time. MD: thank you. 376 Appendix 5 In-depth interview with Dr Jacek Lachendro – Auschwitz-Birkenau, 10th of August 2022 – original version in Polish (0:7) Agnieszka Sałajczyk: No więc właśnie, położenie Oświęcimia jest dosyć specyficzne, bo to jest często taki edukacyjny dodatek dla nauczycieli, żeby to wpleść w fajną wycieczkę po Krakowie i okolicach.. Dr. Jacek Lachendro: Tak, nieraz tak się dzieje, jak wspomniałem szczególnie dla młodzieży ze środkowej lub północnej części Polski, regionów Polski, że głównym celem jest właśnie zwiedzanie Krakowa, tam dalej wyjazd na Podhale, do Zakopanego i można przypuszczać, że zwiedzanie Auschwitz jest tak, niejako przy okazji. I tutaj trudno mówić o emocjach, znaczy jakie emocje są tej młodzieży, która zwiedza (teren Muzeum), bo można przypuszczać, że ich nastawienie jest zupełnie inne. Inaczej pewnie jest w sytuacjach, kiedy przyjeżdżają grupy, których głównym celem jest zwiedzanie Auschwitz, nieraz takie pogłębione; bo można zwiedzać standardowo obie części Muzeum zwiedzić w około 3,5 godziny, ale można też i zwiedzać 6 godzin; takie zwiedzanie już pogłębione, studyjne; czasami to można nawet dwa razy po 6 godzin. 6 godzin tutaj w obozie macierzystym (Auschwitz 1), znaczy byłym obozie macierzystym plus jeszcze jakiś warsztat na przykład i jeszcze potem Birkenau znacznie wykracza poza to zwiedzanie standardowe. Trudno mi też powiedzieć o gościach przybywających z zagranicy, bo jak Pani wie, nie mam kontaktu bezpośredniego ze zwiedzającymi. To, co czasami słyszę, to jakiś czas temu modne były wyjazdy młodych Anglików na takie wieczorki kawalerskie, no i oni też po takim wieczorze chcieli, powiem nieładnie „zaliczyć” również Auschwitz, no bo blisko, znaczy Muzeum Auschwitz, no i też, tu koleżanka mówiła, wielu było, jak to mówimy po polsku „wczorajszych”. Więc też trudno jest powiedzieć, jaki jest odbiór tej grupy. Czy to jest dla nich „dark tourism” czy to jest .. nie wiem co (śmiech). W każdym razie, no niestety w wielu wypadkach jest tak, 377 że wszyscy słyszeli o Auschwitz, wszyscy słyszeli o Muzeum w Auschwitz, znaczy prawie wszyscy, jak są już w Polsce lub gdzieś w okolicy to tak, przy okazji chcą zobaczyć to miejsce. Na pewno są też i tacy, którzy przyjeżdżają celowo, także zapoznać się z tym miejscem szerzej i nawet tutaj popracować, bo jest coraz większa grupa woluntariuszy, którzy chcą tutaj pracować. Jakie intencje im przyświecają, to trudno mi powiedzieć, to trzeba by rozmawiać z tą osobą, która odpowiada za wolontariat. Natomiast jeśli chodzi już o to, co panią najbardziej interesuje, to myślę, że tutaj Pan Tomasz Michaldo, który odpowiada za szkolenie i pracę przewodników, to ma najwięcej wiedzy w tej kwestii ale ponieważ sam oprowadza to też ma na pewno dużo doświadczenia; oprowadza po hebrajsku, oprowadza po angielsku, być może też polskie grupy, także tutaj to spektrum takie będzie znacznie większe. (4:36) AS: Panie doktorze, Auschwitz Birkenau to przede wszystkim… JL: To przede wszystkim, może to teraz już tam wiele lat po wojnie, może zabrzmi tak… trywialnie, ale to przede wszystkim jest cmentarz. Miejsce, gdzie zginęło bardzo, bardzo dużo ludzi, możemy tylko to określić szacunkowo – około 1 miliona 100 tysięcy. I także taki specyficzny cmentarz, bo nie ma grobów, może poza jednym takim wyjątkowym miejscem, gdzie pochowane są ciała tych więźniów, którzy zginęli dosłownie w tych ostatnich dniach funkcjonowania obozu; to byli najczęściej chorzy, osłabieni, którzy nie byli zdolni do marszu ewakuacyjnego; Marszu Śmierci i pozostali na terenie obozu. Kilkuset z nich zmarło, albo zostało z premedytacją zabitych, szczególnie chodzi o grupę Żydów przez esesmanów jeszcze z takich lotnych patroli; grup, które co jakiś czas przyjeżdżały na teren obozu, żeby doglądnąć jak wygląda sytuacja, pochowani też w tych grobach są ci, którzy zmarli krótko po wyzwoleniu, ponieważ tutaj wojskowe władze sowieckie zorganizowały szpitale polowe o ochotnicy Polskiego Czerwonego Krzyża zorganizowali też szpital. Ponieważ znaczna część tych pacjentów była w bardzo ciężkim stanie, tych pierwszych kilkuset z nich umarło, no ale z drugiej strony możemy powiedzieć, że ponieważ opieką medyczną zostało objętych ponad 4,500 tysiąca wyzwolonych, więc 378 około 4 tysięcy wróciło do sił na tyle, że mogli opuścić to miejsce. Te groby są na takim cmentarzyku bardzo blisko tutaj, na terenie dawnego obozu macierzystego, ale to jest taki wyjątek, natomiast cały ten teren, szczególnie Birkenau to jest jeden wielki cmentarz bez grobów. I właśnie dobrze by było pamiętać, i ci, którzy tu przyjeżdżają uprzedzać ich, że to jest cmentarz, a przynajmniej w naszej tradycji cmentarz, polskiej chrześcijańskiej, cmentarz to jest miejsce, w którym pamięta się o zmarłych, w którym szanuje się zmarłych, pamięć o nich. No w jakimś tam stopniu oddaje się im cześć. Natomiast to nie jest takie miejsce i nie powinno to być miejsce poszukiwania jakiś takich sensacji, czy doszukiwania się jakiejś atrakcyjności w cierpieniu i śmierci. (7:58) AS: Doczytałam, że wyzwolono niewiele ponad 6 tysięcy więźniów. Jaka to niewielka liczba w porównaniu z tym 1,1 miliona a także kilkoma tysiącami, które zginęły w Marszu Śmierci… JL: Ja mogę sprostować to; wyzwolonych zostało około 7,5 tysiąca więźniów, przy czym tu na obozie Birkenau, obozu macierzystego (Auschwitz 1) i obozu w Monowitz (Auschwitz 3), który był kilka kilometrów na wschód od obozu macierzystego, około 7 tysięcy, natomiast w kilku podobozach w sumie około 500 zostało wyzwolonych. Więc to jest nieduża liczba w porównaniu z tymi, jak pani mówiła, którzy zginęli. Natomiast jeśli chodzi o marsze ewakuacyjne, to do niego zostało włączonych, czy właściwie zmuszonych do tego marszu 56 tysięcy ludzi. Do końca nie wiemy, ilu zginęło, możemy szacować, że.. to znaczy 56 tysięcy musiało maszerować głównie do dwóch stacji; we Wodzisławiu Śląskim i w Gliwicach, natomiast ponad 2 tysiące bezpośrednio wywieziono do Mauthausen pociągami, dla tych to szczęście, że nie musieli maszerować… W sumie ewakuowano, chociaż to nie jest najszczęśliwsze słowo, ale nie ma lepszego w tym kontekście wywożenia więźniów z likwidowanego obozu, łącznie 58 tysięcy ewakuowano. Do innych obozów wiemy że trafiło około 44 tysięcy, więc coś się stało z tymi 15 tysiącami. Potwierdzone są pochówki w miejscach śmierci dla mniej więcej 9 tysięcy, więc co najmniej 9 tysięcy na pewno zginęło, ta maksymalna liczba to może być około 379 15 tysięcy, ale też prawdopodobnie nie było tyle, dlatego, że wiemy też, że sporo tych więźniów też zdołało uciec. Nikt tego do tej pory nie policzył, bo tutaj też jakieś szacunkowe dane, może to było kilkaset, no trudno mi to powiedzieć, ale jakaś tam część uciekła; gdzieś się pochowali i zdołali przeżyć, więc co najmniej 9 tysięcy na pewno zginęło, myślę, że ta liczba jest większa, ale tutaj nie mamy danych. (11:01) AS: W ogólnym i historycznym znaczeniu Auschwitz Birkenau to były, nazistowski obóz koncentracyjny. Miejsce związane ze śmiercią i cierpieniem. Czy w Pana rozumieniu Muzeum Auschwitz Birkenau można zakwalifikować do kategorii lokalizacji tak zwanego „dark tourism”? JL: Chciałbym, żeby tak nie było, ponieważ dark tourism to mi się kojarzy właśnie z takim poszukiwaniem sensacji, nie wiem.. fascynacji śmiercią. Być może się mylę, ale jest to moje skojarzenie, no i teraz trudno mi odpowiedzieć na to pytanie z tego względu, że trzeba by było znać intencje tych ludzi, którzy to przyjeżdżają, bo jeśli są to ludzie, którzy przyjeżdżają tutaj do miejsca, jako swoistego cmentarza, no to wtedy wcale nie będzie ten dark tourism. Natomiast no ci, którzy szukają tu jakiejś atrakcji, jakieś po prostu.. no są zafascynowani śmiercią i w tej śmierci, w sposobie zadawania bólu i cierpienia i zabijania widza coś takiego dla nich ekscytującego, to byłoby to miejsce w ramach tego dark tourism. Tak, jak powiedziałem, nie chcę żeby tak to było, wiem, że; z przekazów prasowych głównie, nawet kiedyś się tym zajmowałem; kiedy żołnierze sowieccy opuścili teren obozu, tutaj tego obozu macierzystego pod koniec 1945 roku, a Birkenau, czy części Birkenau pod koniec lutego 1946 roku, dość szybko ówczesne władze podjęły decyzję o utworzeniu Muzeum. I pierwsze grupy, pierwsi zwiedzający tutaj przyjeżdżali, zwiedzali to miejsce, gdzieś czerwiec – lipiec 1946 roku i to, z tych relacji wynika, że dla wielu z nich to po prostu było święte miejsce, miejsce cierpienia, gdzie trzeba było pojechać i oddać hołd tym, pomordowanym. Oni traktowali to faktycznie jako cmentarz, w sensie takim ogólnym; na przykład osoby, które tutaj nie miały żadnych krewnych – żadni krewni 380 nie zginęli to chcieli zobaczyć to miejsce, żeby oddać hołd tym pomordowanym. Byli też i ci, którzy tutaj stracili bliskich, albo wojna się skończyła, bliscy nie wrócili, a Oświęcim, bo tego polskiego słowa Polacy używali podczas okupacji kojarzy się z czymś strasznym, kojarzył się z tym, że jak mój, nie wiem ojciec, brat, syn nie wrócił do domu, no to pewnie zginął w Auschwitz. I oni tutaj przyjeżdżali; to było bardzo emocjonalne chociażby dla tych pracowników pierwszych, którzy w większości byli zresztą byłymi więźniami Auschwitz; kiedy przyjeżdżali, rozpytywano ich, czy znaliście tego czy tamtego, czy widzieliście co się z nim stało. Więc to też była taka, taka forma, z jednej strony poszukiwania informacji, a z drugiej strony no też jakiegoś przeżywania tego cierpienia związanego z czasem wojny i okupacją. W takim czasopiśmie żydowskim „Opinia” z 1946 roku znalazłem naprawdę taką wstrząsającą wzmiankę; autor tego, właściwie to był taki reportaż ze zwiedzania Muzeum tuż po jego otwarciu pisał, że przechodził przez stronę dawnego obozu Birkenau i spotkał człowieka, który niósł kamień w rękach. I zagadnął go, a on mówi, że o jest kamień z krematorium i być może albo mój syn zginął tutaj, być może jak jego ciało było palone, to owiało ten kamień, więc dla niego to była taka relikwia. Natomiast też z tych relacji prasowych, szczególnie jednego takiego artykułu wynikało, że wielu ludzi traktowało to miejsce wtedy, jako taką kolejną atrakcję turystyczną, którą trzeba zaliczyć. To już jest rok 1948, a więc krótko po wojnie, gdzie przyjeżdżali tutaj, a tedy to były pewnie wycieczki zakładowe jakimiś ciężarówkami, wysiadali sobie z tych ciężarówek, szli zwiedzać Muzeum; byli zdziwieni, że trzeba było płacić bo wtedy wejście było za kupieniem karty wstępu, a pieniądze przeznaczane były na organizację Muzeum. Wprawdzie władze państwowe przeznaczały pieniądze na to, ale to nie było wystarczające, żeby to remontować, odnawiać te wszystkie budynki, więc oni byli wzburzeni, zdziwieni tym, że trzeba płacić, później jak ich już wywozili, to komentowali, że tutaj; nic tutaj nie ma, ani krwi, ani trupów, tylko jakieś stare buty i okulary i tego typu podejście, nawet wtedy, chociaż nikt tego jeszcze nie nazywał, nawet nie miał w głowie, że coś takiego może się pojawić, ale wtedy to już może był taki swojego rodzaju właśnie dark tourism. 381 (17:32) AS: Dark tourism jako termin naukowy pojawił się całkiem niedawno, także ci ludzie, nawet przy bliższym zainteresowaniu się literaturą nie mieli szans… Stworzyli go Lennon i Foley w Stanach Zjednoczonych i ten proces dark tourismu ma wiele odcieni szarości; to nie jest tak, że jest to jeden wielki Disneyland, tylko są to właśnie różne odcienie szarości, o których zaraz powiem, natomiast w większości publikacji dokumentalnych, historycznych, naukowych Auschwitz występuje jako przykład tej najczarniejszej formy dark tourismu na równi z Kambodżą i Polami Śmierci, na równi z Nowym Jorkiem i Dwoma Wieżami, ale są również inne przykłady ciemnego tourismu. Na przykład są lochy pod Londynem, jest Tower of London, które było byłym więzieniem, jest Body Worlds w Amsterdamie, jest w Anglii „Dracula Experience”, gdzie stworzono zamek w którym on mieszkał; wiadomo Dracula raczej nigdy nie mieszkał w Anglii, po drugie jest to postać prawdopodobnie fikcyjna, a nawet jeżeli nie to nigdy nie dowiemy się, czy to rzeczywiście polegało na piciu tej krwi i tak dalej… Mamy pokaz fajerwerków na zamku Krzyżackim w Malborku, także te miejsca są traktowane z pewną dozą czarnego humoru i mniejszym skupieniem emocjonalnym; to jest bardziej oparte na atrakcji. W przypadku Auschwitz Birkenau jest to zupełnie coś innego, to zupełnie inne miejsce, nawet jeśli mówimy o czarnym tourismie czy thanatourismie. Jak Pan chciałby, żeby były przedstawiane w Auschwitz informacje dotyczące tego cierpienia, czy wolałby Pan doktor, żeby wszystko, albo większość oparte było na faktach, liczbach, czy także poprzez indywidualne historie rodziny, czy rodzin, czy osób, które tutaj… JL: Może odpowiem na to pytanie taką trochę okrężną drogą, a zaraz się pani zorientuje do czego zmierzam. To też jest tak jakoś powiązane z tą ciemną turystyką, chociaż tak jak mówię; będę odnosił się do sytuacji, kiedy w ogóle nie wiedziałem, że coś takiego będzie. W przeszłości, kiedy ci pierwsi pracownicy tworzonego już Muzeum zaczęli tutaj pracować, a jak powiedziałem byli to w większości więźniowie i to byli więźniowie Auschwitz; tam w 1947 pracowało 55 było zatrudnionych, na pewno większość to byli byli więźniowie i to byli młodzi ludzie w sumie; trzydziesto-, czterdziesto-; między trzydzieści a czterdzieści lat mniej więcej, taki przedział wiekowy, którzy przed wojną, na pewno jeden 382 z nich skończył studia; Tadeusz Wąsowicz, który był dyrektorem, ale to byli ludzie, którzy właściwie, kiedy wojna wybuchła, kiedy oni trafiali do obozu, to byli bardzo młodzi, czy stosunkowo młodzi i pewnie gdzieś liznęli tej instytucji kulturalnej przed wojną, a tutaj mieli tworzyć instytucję, której praktycznie poza Majdankiem nie było w świecie, bo to miało być miejsce, muzeum, też zastanawiam się, czy tutaj te słowo w ogóle pasuje, w tym miejscu, w miejscu, gdzie wymordowano tak wielu ludzi, gdzie w tak okropny sposób znęcano się nad ludźmi, zadawano im ból, cierpienie i w końcu śmierć, i ci właśnie pierwsi pracownicy, którzy mieli stworzyć ta instytucję i tworzyć wystawy uznali, że nie można odwoływać się do jakieś taniej sensacji, używano takiego określenie „Grand Viniol”, gdzieś było takie muzeum; nie wiem czy w Stanach czy we Francji, gdzie właśnie epatowano taką makabrą. I na przykład na Majdanku, na pierwszej wystawie użyto figur woskowych do pokazania więźniów. Tu (w Muzeum Auschwitz) to absolutnie od razu zarzucono, żeby pokazywać życie więźniów i takie figury woskowe ubierać w pasiaki, czy próbować pokazać poprzez taka figurę woskową już więźnia skrajnie wycieńczonego i tych więźniów nazywano muzułmanami. Więc z tego zrezygnowano zupełnie. Starano się pokazać, to, co działo się w obozie przez… w taki bardzo skromny sposób; dokumenty, zdjęcia. Problem polegał na tym, że tych dokumentów i zdjęć było mało, bo dokumenty wszystkie trafiały czy prawie wszystkie do Głównej Komisji Badania Zbrodni Niemieckich, tak jak to wtedy nazywano; do Krakowa, ponieważ kompletowano dokumentację do procesów esesmanów. Były jakieś zdjęcia, ale przyznam szczerze, że nawet nie wiem, czy je pamiętam. Na tej pierwszej wystawie, to chyba nawet nie było zdjęć. No to coś trzeba było pokazać i wtedy, ponieważ jeszcze w blokach, w sąsiedztwie, właściwie to była część dawnego obozu macierzystego znajdowały się rzeczy zrabowane deportowanym Żydom; buty, okulary, mnóstwo odzieży, walizki i tak dalej i tak dalej. I tego było bardzo dużo, więc Dyrektor (Tadeusz Wąsowicz) przejął to i one zostały wykorzystane do, w taki sposób; w ogromnej ilości , właśnie starano się przez tą ogromną ilość rzeczy pozostawionych po pomordowanych ludziach pokazać ogrom zbrodni. I to robiło piorunujące wrażenie i to robi piorunujące wrażenie do dnia dzisiejszego. I później jak już mieli więcej dokumentów no to oczywiście te dokumenty zaczęto pokazywać na kolejnych tam wersjach wystawy, pierwsza była 1947-go, druga 383 z 1950, a trzecia z 1955 i w zasadzie ta z 1955, po różnych modyfikacjach jest pokazywana do dnia dzisiejszego. Jeśli pani przejdzie, to Pani zobaczy ten pomysł, żeby nie epatować makabrą, tylko w jakiś skromny sposób pokazywać wszystko, co tutaj się działo, no to może robić wrażenie. Też starano się i z tego pierwszego okresu powojennego pokazać różne epizody, czy jakieś tam zjawiska z życia, z egzystencji więźniów, z funkcjonowania obozu poprzez prace plastyczne byłych więźniów, i w ten sposób starano się to pokazać. Niektóre to naprawdę perełki, jeśli chodzi o stronę artystyczną. Więc to był taki skromny przekaz. Wracając do pani pytania to ja przygotowywałem różnego rodzaju teksty; przede wszystkim chciałem się oprzeć na źródłach, głównie dokumentach, jeśli nie ma dokumentów, a trzeba opisać jakieś zjawisko, a są relacje byłych więźniów to wykorzystujemy relację byłych więźniów. Najlepsza sytuacja jest wtedy, kiedy jest dokument i jest relacja byłego więźnia, czy byłych więźniów, które wzajemnie się tam uzupełniają, no to to jest świetna rzecz. Oczywiście takim źródłem są zdjęcia. Oczywiście zdjęcia wykonywane przez różne osoby w czasie funkcjonowania obozu. Czy to przez esesmanów, no bo tutaj działa tak zwany Central Baurleit, czyli tak umownie kierownictwo budowy, rozbudowy obozu no i oni musieli, oczywiście, jak to w takich wypadkach pisać sprawozdania do swoich zwierzchników, ale te sprawozdania były często ilustrowane różnego rodzaju zdjęciami. I kilkaset takich zdjęć się zachowało. (28:12) AS: To niesamowite, dlatego, że wiadomo było, że Niemcy wszystką dokumentację związaną z tym miejscem póki mogli – niszczyli. JL: No ale tego było tak dużo, że nie byli w stanie wszystkiego zniszczyć, wszystkiego spalić. Część zdjęć jakoś udało się uratować byłym więźniom, albo po prostu schować, wykraść esesmanom, skopiować i schować, właściwie ten zespół Baurleitungu, tam dwóch więźniów wykradło i zrobiło odbitki krematoriów na przykład, czy więźniów przy pracy, akurat taki cel im przyświecał. Były też zdjęcia robione, no to te słynne zdjęcia wykonane przez więźniów z Sonderkommando; tam przy Birkenau, 384 przy paleniu zwłok, te nagie Żydówki, które idą do… – im się wydaje że idą pod prysznic, prawda? Wiec to są takie znane zdjęcia. Czasami też robotnikom cywilnym, bo tutaj były zatrudniane firmy niemieckie specjalistyczne; a te z kolei zatrudniały Polaków, udało się zrobić kilka zdjęć, ale tak naprawdę jest niewiele. Ale w każdym razie, to jest ten zasób źródeł, na którym bazuję. Owszem, żeby te teksty nie były już tylko wyłącznie super hiper naukowe, więc staram się tam wprowadzić trochę emocji, ale to przy opisie nie wiem, jakieś sytuacji i zachowań esesmanów, odczuć więźniów, które chciałbym po prostu streścić, no ale to byłoby to jakieś, jakieś uproszczenie, spłycenie tego wszystkiego, na pewno bym swoim językiem nie oddał tych emocji tam, ale jednak staram się, żeby te emocje nie górowały nad faktami. (30:29) AS: Czytałam parę Pana doktora (Lachendro) publikacje, a także parę publikacji doktora Setkiewicza, który tutaj można powiedzieć bardzo ostro stara się przekazać to ukoloryzowanie niektórych sytuacji, na przykład „Chłopiec w Pasiastej Piżamie” nigdy nie miał możliwości w ogóle taka sytuacja zaistnieć, więc jest to zupełnie jakiś taki twór na potrzeby komercji, na potrzeby wyciskania łez, natomiast jest to sytuacja z punktu widzenia tamtego obozu koncentracyjnego zupełnie nierealna. Natomiast jest wiele książek, no ja przyznam się, ostatnio przeczytałam książkę „Komando Puff” Rattingera i poruszyła mnie ta książka, myślę, że jest w niej sporo prawdy, jest to książka fikcyjna, to znaczy można powiedzieć zbitek opowieści wielu osób i z tego jest stworzona jedna osoba, natomiast myślę, że pewne realia jednak tego życia w Auschwitz od strony więźniów są zachowane… JL: Znaczy muszę przyznać, że akurat tej książki nie czytałem, natomiast stronię od tych książek, jak pani powiedziała o tym chłopaku w pasiastej piżamie, ponieważ to jest właśnie takie epatowanie jakąś taką sensacją, jakaś taka próba przyciągnięcia emocją, emocjami, próba w ten sposób zdobycia czytelników, ale czy tylko tu chodzi o czytelnika, czy chodzi po prostu o pieniądze. 385 (32:22) AS: Przede wszystkim jest to sytuacja nierealna, ja czytałam syn Rudolfa Hessa, bo chyba o nim w tej książce mówimy, on jest w tym czasie komendantem; syn Rudolfa Hessa w ogóle nie identyfikował się z więźniami, był wyniosły… JL: To znaczy, generalnie, no bo tutaj na tym terenie w pobliżu obozu wcześniej mieszkali Polacy, mieszkali Żydzi; zostali wyrzuceni z własnych domów, część z tych domów została zburzona, ale część tych, takich nowszych powiedzmy czy jakiś większych, nowocześniejszych, budowanych krótko przed wojną to została przejęta przez esesmanów, ich rodziny. Oni mieli dzieci, ale te dzieci najczęściej przebywały pod opieką albo matek, albo służących, najczęściej młodych dziewczyn, dosłownie dziewczyn, takich kilkunastoletnich Polek no i oni mieli tam swoje ogródki i jeżeli już no to wychodzili z tych ogródków, wychodziły te dzieci z ogródków pod opieką tych dorosłych, chociaż pewnie zdarzało się, że te dzieci same też się błąkały, bo jest taki rozkaz chyba Hessa, no któregoś z komendantów, to trzeba by było sprawdzić, gdzie uczulał esesmanów, żeby te dzieci same nie chodziły po tym terenie. Więc, skoro uczulał, to znaczy, że musiały być jakieś przypadki że te dzieci gdzieś tam chodziły bez opieki, ale generalnie tutaj ten ruch był dość taki ograniczony. Jak było z tymi dziećmi, jak one zapatrywały się na tych więźniów to pewno w dużym stopniu zależało od tego, co tatusiowie i mamusie im mówili. Jeśli im tłumaczyli, że to są jacyś bandyci, zbóje których należy unikać to pewnie taką wizję miały tych więźniów, którzy gdzieś tam pracowali w okolicy, albo pracowali w ogródku, no jakieś tego typu rzeczy na rzecz esesmanów wykonywali. Natomiast właśnie jest cała, no teraz już można powiedzieć nawet masa tej literatury, takiej sensacyjnej, w jakimś tam stopniu, oczywiście nie w tym sensie, dawniej używaliśmy określenia; książka sensacyjna, ale takie szukanie tej sensacji, żeby przyciągnąć czytelników, zwiększyć nakład i zarobić, to są te wszystkie książki, które maja w tytule „…z Auschwitz”, czyli tam… ostatnio się ukazała „Krawcowe z Auschwitz”, nie wiem… „Bibliotekarka z Auschwitz”. Mój kolega, który jest szefem tutaj biblioteki twierdzi, że on jest dyskryminowany, bo nie 386 ma jeszcze książki „Bibliotekarz z Auschwitz”, prawda… Bo takich książek jest całe mnóstwo, bo już raz zdębiałem, bo była książka „Lekarz z Auschwitz”, no to pierwsze skojarzenie, że… (35:44) AS: Mengele? JL: No, może być Mengele, może być po prostu jakiś lekarz w obozie, prawda. A tu chodziło o szlachetną postać człowieka, który właśnie był kierownikiem tego szpitala PCK, utworzonego po wyzwoleniu, a więc po obozie, ale znowu, żeby przyciągnąć prawda, no to – „lekarz z Auschwitz”, a to już od razu bierzemy książkę. Ostatnio też wziąłem książkę, kupiłem, nawet nie oglądałem, widzę w kiosku o ucieczce pierwszej więźniarki Polki z obozu, no i kupiłem ją, bez oglądania, ale patrzę; to przecież jest tak niemiłosiernie zbeletryzowane, że stwierdziłem, że nawet nie będę jej w mojej biblioteczce trzymał, tylko zaniosłem do biblioteki tutaj, żeby już nie kupowali, więc tego typu literatury jest sporo, i ona też, szczególnie kiedy słyszę od osób, które kontaktują… znaczy przewodników, którzy oprowadzają grupy, to ona ma wpływ na zwiedzających. Niektórzy pewnie podejmują, na pewno nawet, podejmują decyzję, żeby przyjechać do Auschwitz, bo przeczytali „Chłopca w Pasiastej Piżamie” i później pytają przewodnika o jakieś tam rzeczy związane z tą książką; gdzie to było, gdzie to mogło być i tak dalej i tak dalej. No i przewodnicy po prostu mają w tym momencie problem. Jest taki artykuł, i to nasza koleżanka napisała, gdzie analizowała i rozprawiała się z niektórymi wątkami właśnie niektórych tych książek „…z Auschwitz”. To jest nawet dostępne w Internecie, nie wiem, czy pani się z tym zetknęła; w Internecie jest taki periodyk wydawany przez Muzeum „Memoria”. I to jest tekst, to można znaleźć przez wyszukiwarkę i proszę wpisać Wanda Witek-Malicka to ten artykuł się tam powinien pojawić, bo on jest bardzo naprawdę taki rzeczowy, gdzie ona stara się pokazać z naszej strony tutaj pracowników naukowych, skomentować tą całą literaturę. A ona (owa literatura) w ogromnym stopniu pobudza emocje, bo to jest w dużym stopniu pisana, no i jak emocje, no to sięgamy po książkę, czytamy ją, i potem na podstawie tak 387 skonstruowanej fabuły ludzie mają wyobrażenie, jak to było w obozie. A często to ma niewiele wspólnego z realiami obozu. No i to jest takie niebezpieczeństwo dla nas. Jak mi powiedziała koleżanka, która jest profesorem na University of British Columbia, jest antropolożką; antropologiem, antropolożką, że na zachodzie, nie wiem czy u pani też, ale tam w Kanadzie właściwie to już nie liczą się fakty, tylko liczy się narracja. Nie to, co mówimy, tylko jak to przekażemy, niekoniecznie to musi być zgodne z faktami, ważne żeby to było to przyjęcia dla czytelnika, interesujące dla czytelników czy dla słuchaczy, to jest dobre. (39:52) AS: Wiem, że w Anglii jest tez wiele książek; „Tatuażysta z Auschwitz” na przykład jest taką popularna lekturą , natomiast, mówię, o ile traktuje się to z pewną dozą tego, że jest to fabuła, to jest to oczywiście do przeczytania, natomiast jeżeli się to koreluje z faktami, to czasami może nawet boleć, albo uwierać, bo tu Państwa praca polega właśnie na tym, żeby ukazywać zupełnie odwrotną stronę niż ta przejaskrawiona w jedną albo w drugą stronę wspomnienia. JL: Tak. Tak.. (40:26) AS: Panie doktorze, do jakiego stopnia zwiedzający są w stanie; mogą zmodyfikować trasę wycieczek, czy są jakieś szczególne miejsca, o których Pan doktor słyszał, że proszą żeby się zatrzymać, proszą żeby może troszeczkę więcej czasu spędzić? JL: Naprawdę, trudno mi odpowiedzieć na to pytanie, bo nie mam kontaktu z tymi grupami, na pewno są, nie wiem czy jest to możliwe w ramach standardowego zwiedzania, natomiast jeśli są grupy studyjne to tutaj jest chyba większe pole manewru dla przewodnika i też dla grupy, na pewno też, jeśli jest to grupa naprawdę zainteresowana to może poprosić o jakieś warsztaty czy wykład na dany temat. 388 Są też grupy takie naprawdę bardzo specjalistyczne, na przykład są to grupy przyjeżdzające tutaj z tego University of British Columbia; studenci czy przewodnicy izraelscy w ramach takiego seminarium z Yad Vashem czy inne grupy jeszcze, ale to naprawdę są już bardzo specjalistyczne, gdzie pokazuje im się to, czego zwykle zwiedzający nie widzi, czyli na przykład ogród Rudolfa Hessa czy blok dziesiąty, gdzie przeprowadzano eksperymenty czy jedziemy gdzieś na teren dawnych podobozów. Tam przeważnie już niewiele zostało, ale jak człowiek się dobrze przygotuje, to historia tego podobozu przy pomocy jakiś planów, zdjęć, fragmentu relacji można przedstawić, ale jeśli chodzi o standardowe zwiedzanie to tutaj nie ma pola dla jakiś większych manewrów. A to pole zostało jeszcze zawężone przez covid, teraz nasi konserwatorzy wchodzą, pracują tam, także różnie jest… (śmiech). (42:56) AS: Panie doktorze, jak Muzeum Auschwitz Birkenau udaje się oddać autentyczność tego miejsca właśnie dla osób, które chcą więcej. Wspominał Pan o warsztatach. Wiem na przykład, że Majdanek. Muzeum w Majdanku prowadzi warsztaty dla pracowników więzień… JL: To zostało zainicjowane przez nasze Muzeum (śmiech). I tutaj nasi koledzy, ja tylko raz byłem, dla mnie to było ogromne przeżycie, w Sztumie byłem (Zakład Karny w Sztumie Zakład Karny w Sztumie - Służba Więzienna (sw.gov.pl) ale moi koledzy jeździli częściej tutaj do tych więzień bliżej Oświęcimia, czyli gdzieś tam na Śląsku czy w Małopolsce, natomiast Majdanek to pewnie gdzieś tam bliżej Lublina, a koledzy ze Sztutowa (były obóz koncentracyjny Stutthof) to tam Pomorze czy Warmia i Mazury, no gdzieś tam w tamtym rejonie. Natomiast tutaj wróciłbym do tych pierwszych pracowników, a jeszcze raz chcę podkreślić – byłych więźniów i do dyrektora Tadeusza Wąsowicza, który kładł nacisk na to, żeby to miejsce pozostawić w jak najbardziej takim stanie, znaczy w takim stanie jak najbardziej zbliżonym do wyglądu tego miejsca w czasie funkcjonowania obozu. Czyli żeby było jak najmniej, nie wiem, jeśli coś zostało zburzone, to żeby tego nie odbudowywać. Jeśli coś było już mocno zniszczone, to żeby to jakoś zachować. No oczywiście jeśli były tylko niewielkie zniszczenia typu połamane, 389 wyrwane framugi, czy okna, okiennice czy drzwi czy gdzieś tam zniszczone podłogi, podrapane ściany to starano się odmalować i no, niestety później tworzono wystawy, więc tych ingerencji w wygląd poszczególnych bloków, wnętrz poszczególnych bloków był coraz większy. Ale zachowano kilka budynków zachowanych w takim stanie, w jakim były w czasie funkcjonowania obozu, tam nawet tych malunków na ścianach nie zmywano; blok drugi i trzeci, blok dziesiąty, dwudziesty ósmy, przy czym bok drugi, no te bloki są możliwe do zwiedzania no ale to się jakoś trzeba umówić, też jak wyglądają te procedury to nie wiem dokładnie, bo się tym nie zajmuję, ale one są; blok drugi, trzeci i dziesiąty są możliwe do zwiedzania. Blok dziesiąty są na pewno grupy studyjne, takie specjalistyczne tam mogą wejść… (46:12) AS: Bo to jest ten blok badań, blok eksperymentów (medycznych)? JL: Tak. To blok eksperymentalny. Blok dwudziesty ósmy no to tam się nie wchodzi, bo tam trzeba jakieś remonty przeprowadzić, jakieś wzmocnienia, trudno mi powiedzieć. W każdym razie on jest w stanie oryginalnym, ale tam akurat grupy nie są prowadzone, być może ze względów bezpieczeństwa. Więc takie miejsca są możliwe do zobaczenia. Jak ktoś bardzo by chciał, to może też wejść na wieżyczkę wartowniczą, ale to też nie jest możliwe dla masowego zwiedzającego, bo z tych wieżyczek by bardzo niewiele zostało. No to są tego typu rzeczy, znaczy to są tego typu miejsca. No są też warsztaty prowadzone przez różne osoby, głównie przez kolegów z Centrum Edukacji, chociaż i koledzy z archiwum i tutaj z naszego działu (Badań) koleżanka też prowadzi warsztaty, gdzie pokazuje się dokumenty, no oczywiście nie w oryginale tylko skany, które wiernie oddają oryginał, na tej podstawie można też odtworzyć różnego rodzaju zjawiska, epizody z historii obozu. 390 (47:57) AS: Knudsen powiedział, że to co turysta otrzymuje z procesu zwiedzania to głównie emocje i uczucia. Czy zgodziłby się Pan doktor, jeśli chodzi o typowego odwiedzającego Auschwitz Birkenau? JL: Naprawdę nie wiem, bo tak jak mówię, nie ma kontaktu ze zwiedzającymi, a nie chcę tutaj wchodzić w buty pana Tomasza. (48:27) AS: Dla takiej informacji, ponieważ moje badania opierają się także na netnografii, czyli badam to, co jest dostępne w Internecie, to co zostawili właśnie zwiedzający. Na forum turystycznym TripAdvisor na koniec lipca tego roku, czyli teraz może być jakieś pięćdziesiąt więcej, było czternaście i pół tysiąca opinii na temat wizyty w Muzeum Auschwitz Birkenau i oczywiście pomijając te opinie w których głównym tematem jest to, że jest za gorąco albo za zimno to główną emocją, którą ludzie wyrażają jest smutek, zaduma i jakaś taka pustka w środku. To wychodzi z prawie 15 tysięcy, jeszcze nie do końca przejrzanych przeze mnie opinii… JL: No to jestem pełen podziwu, że pani to przegląda. Tak ogromną liczbę tych wpisów… (50:25) AS: … no i tutaj też jest problem bo TripAdvisor jest forum turystycznym, na którym ocenia się jakość miejsca w pięciu gwiazdkach (od jednego do pięciu). I właśnie wiele osób mówiło, że jest no można powiedzieć zauroczonych wizytą w Auschwitz pod względem osobistym, natomiast ciężko jest im dać pięć gwiazdek takiemu miejscu. Bo jak mogę dać pięć gwiazdek i powiedzieć, że jest to wspaniałe miejsce; to jest niewspółmierne porównanie, można powiedzieć oksymoron, że to miejsce jest wspaniałe, albo bardzo się cieszę, że tu byłem, natomiast takie opinie się pojawiają i myślę, że są to opinie dosyć szczere. 391 JL: No to być może ci, którzy nie chcą dać pięciu gwiazdek przyjazd tutaj nie był taką częścią tej ciemnej turystyki. No to pocieszające. (51:50) AS: Naprawdę, proszę uprzejmie zajrzeć, ale z moich obserwacji, z blogów lub forum turystycznym Auschwitz jest naprawdę postrzegany (w pozytywnym znaczeniu). I właśnie tutaj takie dodatkowe pytanie; jestem Polką, oprowadzający są głównie Polakami, Pan doktor jest Polakiem, natomiast jeżeli mówimy o tej ciemnej przeszłości obozu, to staramy się użyć tej niemieckiej terminologii (Auschwitz Birkenau). Czy jest za tym właśnie jakaś logika? JL: Tak. No my używamy, staramy się w naszych publikacjach, mówiąc szczerze nie wiem jak do końca jest w narracji, ale używamy niemieckiej terminologii dla podkreślenia że to był obóz niemiecki. Nie ma póki co języka nazistowskiego, tylko jest język niemiecki i ta terminologia była niemiecka i to nie byli jacyś naziści z kosmosu, tylko to byli Niemcy. Owszem, no i Austriacy jeszcze czy też ewentualnie volksdeutsche, ale to byli ci, którzy przyznawali się do tego pochodzenia niemieckiego. Ja mam pochodzenie niemieckie, ale jestem dumny z któregoś z tych moich przodków, którzy się spolonizowali i bardzo się z tego powodu cieszę. Więc używamy tej terminologii niemieckiej ponieważ w którymś momencie zaczęto nam wpierać na arenie międzynarodowej, że poprzez taki, wydawałoby się niewinny zwrot „polski obóz koncentracyjny” przerzucenie ciężkości winy na kogo? No na Polaków. I to w dużym stopniu się zaczęło niestety udawać. Więc naszą odpowiedzią, moją odpowiedzią jest podkreślanie tego, że to był niemiecki obóz, czy też niemiecki – nazistowski, bo tutaj możemy dyskutować, czy wtedy wszyscy Niemcy byli nazistami, bo pewnie byli przeciwnicy no ale w którymś momencie ogromna większość tego narodu dała się uwieść Hitlerowi, dała się uwieść nazistom, co nie tylko można tam popatrzeć jeśli chodzi o wyniki głosowania, póki te wybory były jeszcze jako tako 392 swobodne, ale po prostu przez te filmy, gdzie dziesiątki tysięcy ludzi w prawie w ekstazie wiwatuje na widok Hitlera i to nie był jeden taki przypadek, tylko w wielu miejscach, w wielu miastach w różnym okresie na przestrzeni tych kilku czy kilkunastu lat, więc dali się uwieść Hitlerowi, tak samo jak teraz Rosjanie dali się uwieść Putinowi i no to tak właśnie było. Dlatego tej terminologii niemieckiej trzymamy się i jak najbardziej staramy się to wyeksponować. (55:12) AS: W 1933 roku, tak samo jak w 1939 i 1944 nie było Internetu także, jeżeli można było posłuchać Goebbelsa wiwatującego za Hitlerem i całej tej propagandy to nie można było tego z niczym innym skorygować. Teraz mamy Internet i dostęp do neutralnych środków wiedzy także… Ja zresztą mówię, że w epoce przed-internetowej niestety, ta propaganda była jednak bardzo udana. Propaganda Goebbelsa. JL: Zgadza się, Niemcy dali się uwieść i popierali, myślę że po prostu w ogromnej większości (Hitlera). Nie twierdzę, że sto procent Niemców, ale ogromna większość, czy znaczna większość. (56:33) AS: W wielu miejscach związanych z dokonaną zbrodnią i okrucieństwem zaduma i szok spotyka się z komercjalizacją. Czy w Muzeum Auschwitz Birkenau funkcjonuje sklep, kawiarnia? W jaki sposób może to wpłynąć na autentyczność tego miejsca? JL: Funkcjonuje bar, restauracja w budynku, który został zakończony pod koniec 1944 roku i nigdy nie spełniał do końca swojego przeznaczenia czyli tak zwanym budynku przyjęć więźniów, znaczy nowo przybyłych; on był do tego przeznaczony, tam byli kierowani więźniowie z transportu, mieli wziąć prysznic, oczywiście zmienić odzież, być zarejestrowanym. Ten budynek, tak jak mówię, został oddany do użytku ale tych transportów, to może jeden był skierowany. Na pewno nie były tam realizowane 393 zadania, jakie postawiono w znaczniejszym zakresie. Teraz w tym budynku jest pracownia konserwacyjna konserwatorów, jest Centrum Obsługi Odwiedzających no i przy tymże centrum, tam gdzie zwiedzający wchodzą na teren Muzeum, no teraz z powodów bezpieczeństwa muszą przejść przez bramki, w każdym razie przy tym wejściu, tam gdzie są ci zwiedzający jest ta restauracja, tam jest jeszcze jakiś bufet i tam jest księgarnia. I w zasadzie to jest wszystko, jeśli chodzi o ta stronę taką komercyjną. No można powiedzieć, no dobra tutaj tego nie było w czasie funkcjonowania obozu, no ale jeśli tu się przewija przed pandemią ponad 2 miliony ludzi było w 2019; dwa miliony trzysta tysięcy, no to siłą rzeczy ci ludzie jak jest gorąco chcieli by się czegoś napić prawda, czy później już coś zjeść… (59:19) AS: Nie jest to panie doktorze w żadnym sensie jakaś krytyka organizacyjna, tutaj ja nawiązuję do przypadków skrajnych; powiedzmy w miejscu gdzie padły Dwie Wieże jest wiele przypadków tego co się nazywa „kiczyfikacją”… JL: To znaczy tutaj dbamy o to, bo różni ludzie mają różne pomysły typu o ile pamiętam albo zapalniczka gdzie, taka typowa plastikowa zapalniczka, gdzie tam był obwiedziony oczywiście to był rysunek drutu kolczastego, czy na kubku coś takiego było z jakimś takim motywem drutu kolczastego (śmiech). No to tego typu rzeczy tutaj ścigamy i absolutnie takie rzeczy nie są sprzedawane. Znaczy ścigamy, no po prostu na terenie Muzeum takie rzeczy nie są sprzedawane, jeśli się pojawiają, to gdzieś tutaj w tych punktach komercyjnych, przy parkingach poza Muzeum, ale tam Muzeum nie może nakazać, że to mają usunąć, tylko z tego co kojarzę, to koledzy z biura prasowego interweniowali. Tak coś słyszałem. I raczej tego typu rzeczy, takich gadżetów pachnących kiczem i tanią atrakcją staramy się, żeby tutaj nie było. 394 (1:00:55) AS: Jak Pan doktor reaguje na te nowe trendy udokumentowania wizyty w Auschwitz ale w niestety tym bardziej kiczowym znaczeniu typu selfie na social media. Ja nie mówię o zwykłych zdjęciach dokumentalnych, które mam nadzieję i ja będę mogła zrobić, na których będzie tylko tło, ale mówię o tych typowych zadowolonych selfie na tle „Arbeit Macht Frei”; bramy z uśmiechami, z podpisami „To był wspaniały dzień”. Czy jest na to jakaś reakcja, czy dyrekcja czy przewodnicy starają się to jakoś ujarzmić? JL: Ja myślę, że trzeba by było się o to zapytać właśnie moich kolegów z biura prasowego, bo oni zajmują się różnego rodzaju przypadkami takimi wpływającymi na wizerunek, czy to Muzeum, czy na pamięć o zmarłych i pomordowanych tutaj. Więc oni wtedy reagują, natomiast trudno mi tu powiedzieć o te właśnie selfie. Wiem, że kiedyś była burza w polskich mediach bo jakaś dziewczynka weszła i zrobiła, nawet nie było selfie; ktoś jej zrobił to zdjęcie, to było w Majdanku, weszła do pieca (krematoryjnego). No to wtedy była taka burza, to też proszę zapytać o to pana Tomasza, bo myślę, że przewodnicy na jakieś drastyczne takie sytuacje reagują, chociaż czasami jest to bardzo trudne; to się dzieje bardzo krótko, prawda, zrobienie sobie selfie w jakimś takim miejscu nieprzystającym do robienia selfie. Nieraz widziałem, ale to tak jak mówię, po prostu to jest tak krótko dana sytuacja, że nawet człowiek nie zdąży pomyśleć aby zareagować. Chodzi mi tutaj, to jak pani pewnie będzie na terenie to zauważy przy podejściu do ogrodzenia z drutów kolczastych, drutu kolczastego, którym kiedyś płynął prąd w obozie ustawiono tabliczki z trupią czaszką i napisem Halt! – Stój! No i te tabliczki są tam odnawiane, w każdym razie zauważy pani, no to właśnie już widziałem nieraz ludzi którzy robią sobie zdjęcia przy tych trupich czaszkach, przy tych tabliczkach, w różnych takich pozach. Proszę zapytać pana Tomasza, bo chyba przewodnicy są też na to jakoś wyczuleni. Ale to jak mówię; zwiedzających jest tak dużo, że po prostu czasami to jest niemożliwe do uchwycenia, do wychwycenia. Ale generalnie mi osobiście to się bardzo nie podoba. Selfie nie robimy na cmentarzu, tak mi się przynajmniej wydaje; nigdy bym nie zrobił selfie, nigdy bym nie zrobił selfie przy grobie mojego taty. 395 (1:04:32) AS: No więc właśnie, pewno jakaś niewiedza taka…? JL: No to pewno robią ci, którzy traktują to miejsce jako kolejną atrakcję do zaliczenia i pochwalenia się właśnie na facebooku czy jakiś innych miejscach w Internecie, że się było i się widziało i się zaliczyło. A te robienie zdjęć pod bramą to jest też częste. (1:04:57) AS: Bo to (brama z napisem Arbeit Macht Frei) jest symbol? JL: To jest ikona teraz, to jest jedno z najbardziej rozpoznawalnych miejsc, obiektów na świecie. (1:05:16) AS: Panie doktorze, jaką rolę w oddaniu autentyczności Auschwitz Birkenau dla odwiedzających mają byli więźniowie obozu, i tutaj jest to, zdaję sobie sprawę że ja stoję na takim ostatnim etapie, kiedy ci ludzie są jeszcze dostępni, bo może ze względu na wiek nie są już w stanie uczestniczyć w tych spotkaniach, tudzież kiedy trafili do Auschwitz byli tak małymi dziećmi, że po prostu niewiele pamiętają. Ale czy zdarza się pomoc edukacyjna, teraz w 2022 roku, gdzie goszczą jeszcze Państwo byłych więźniów i oni identyfikują się z grupami zwiedzających? JL: To znaczy z grupami z Izraela często przyjeżdża, z Francji chyba też, ale bardziej jako grupy specjalistyczne, przyjeżdżali właśnie ci ocaleni. I oni tutaj przyjeżdżali razem z nimi i dawali świadectwo; opowiadali o swoich przeżyciach, pokazywali miejsca w których pracowali, mieszkali czy po prostu przeżywali jakieś dramatyczne sytuacje. Jeśli chodzi o polskie grupy to z tego co kojarzę, to rzadziej coś takiego się zdarza, być może ileś tam lat wstecz, ale teraz nie kojarzę, żeby z polskimi 396 grupami przyjeżdżali ocaleni. Natomiast centrum Edukacji o Auschwitz i Holokauście realizuje różnego rodzaju sesje, do których byli zapraszani, są jeszcze zapraszani byli więźniowie z tym, że, no siłą rzeczy z powodu upływu lat tych ludzi jest coraz mniej. Jeszcze jest sporo tak zwanych „Dzieci Warszawy” czyli tych, no teraz to są osiemdziesięcio-, dziewiędziosięciolatkowie, chociaż nawet nie, bo jak się ktoś urodził w 1942, 43, 44 to teraz ma prawie osiemdziesiąt lat. Wielu jeszcze jest sprawnych fizycznie i psychicznie więc oni przyjeżdżają i tutaj czy biorą udział w uroczystościach czy właśnie w tych sesjach i powiadają o tych wszystkich swoich przeżyciach , z tymże musimy brać poprawkę, że to są już osoby, które jeśli były w obozie, to albo praktycznie niewiele z niego pamiętają, albo przybyły do obozu w czasie Powstania Warszawskiego, więc sierpień, wrzesień 1944 i nawet jeśli mieli tam kilka, może kilkanaście lat no to też to już była końcówka funkcjonowania obozu, więc raz, że będą opowiadali z perspektywy dziecka, co też czasami robi wrażenie i dobrze, jeśli można tak powiedzieć; dobrze się tego słucha bo łączy fakty ale też emocje, szczególnie jak się ma własne dzieci, no to różne myśli przychodzą do głowy. Natomiast, no już coraz trudniej jest z tymi więźniami czy więźniarkami, znaczy byłymi więźniami, byłymi więźniarkami, którzy tutaj trafili jako dorośli, bo to byliby obecnie, no około stulatkowie, więc jest trudno. No ostatnio, kilka dni temu zmarła pani Zofia Posmysz w wieku 99 lat; pisarka, autorka słuchowisk, między innymi na jej twórczości został nakręcony ten słynny film „Pasażerka”. Jeszcze niedawno, kilka lat temu opowiadała o swoich przeżyciach, ale teraz już siłą rzeczy ona odeszła, odeszło wielu innych, więc tych ludzi jest coraz mniej. Oczywiście część ich wypowiedzi została nagranych, więc można to, i to Centrum Edukacji może to w ramach tych sesji to odtworzyć. Ale też są już spotkania albo z dziećmi, albo z wnukami, z dziećmi na pewno; tych więźniów i oni opowiadają właściwie o tym, co było po, lub opowiadają o obozie historie zasłyszane od swoich rodziców, no to też jest ciekawe, ale to już nie jest ten pierwszy przekaz. 397 (1:12:01) AS: Ja mam nadzieję, że moje badania na dniu dzisiejszym się nie skończą i będę mogła do Pana doktora się odezwać. Panie doktorze, to wszystko na dzisiaj, bardzo dziękuję za poświęcony mi czas i za odpowiedzi, które są bardzo cenne dla mojego badania. Bardzo dziękuję. JL: Proszę bardzo. 398 Appendix 6 In-depth interview with Dr Jacek Lachendro – Auschwitz-Birkenau, 10th of August 2022 – translated version (0:07) Agnes Salajczyk: Doctor, the location of Auschwitz is quite specific, coming here could often yet an educational addition for schools; so it goes well with visiting Cracow and its vicinity... Doctor Jacek Lachendro: Yes, it happens. Especially for the students from central or north regions of Poland the main goal is actually visiting Cracow, Podhale (Tatra Mountains) and Zakopane and it could be assumed that visiting Auschwitz is just an addition. It is difficult to talk about emotions, especially those young people, because their attitude could be utterly varied. It is different when the groups who aim especially at visiting Auschwitz come, sometimes for the in-depth focus groups; you could see both sides of the Museum in around 3 and half hours, you could also have an in depth visit which lasts 6 hours. Occasionally even 6 hours per site; 6 hours here in Auschwitz I plus a workshop and then (6 hours) in Birkenau. It is much beyond the standard visit though. It is difficult for me to say about foreign visitors, I do not have much of a contact with them. Occasionally I could hear about very popular stag dos organised by young men from England to Cracow, after good night in the city they also wanted to “tick” Museum KL Auschwitz due to the vicinity and they were coming here really hanged over. So, it is difficult to tell what the emotional experience of them really was. Is it dark tourism for them or… I don’t know (laugh). However, the sad truth is; everybody heard about, everybody heard about Museum KL Auschwitz, I mean almost everybody, so when they are somewhere near, they want to see this place. I am sure there are people who come here with a focus; to get to know this place, maybe even work here as we have growing number of volunteers. What are they intentions… you must talk to the person responsible for volunteers. However, talking about the core of your interest 399 you will be knowing more after you speak to Tomasz Michaldo, responsible for training and work of all guides. He himself is also a guide, he guides Israelian and English-speaking tours. (4:36) AS: Doctor, Auschwitz Birkenau is mostly… JL: It is most all, perhaps it would sound trivial so many years after the war, but most of all it is a cemetery. The place where many, many people died; we are only able to give estimates; around 1,2 million. And a quite specific cemetery to that, there are no graves, apart from one special place consisting of bodies of inmates who died in the last days of KL Auschwitz Birkenau existing. Those were people too ill and too exhausted to be forced to Death Walk hence they stayed behind in the camp. Few hundreds of them died or were killed with premeditation, especially Jews killed by remaining SS man. The graves also contain the remnants of inmates who died shortly after camp was liberated; Soviet Army together with Polish Red Cross created a field hospital here. As majority of their patients were in a terrible state, few hundreds of them died, however as 4,500 were taken care of, we can claim that around 4 thousand of them recovered and went home. Those graves are here on a small cemetery located in Auschwitz I, but it is an exception; the rest of both camps, especially Birkenau is one big graveyard without the graves. It would be decent to remember that and those who come here should be warned it is a graveyard; and at least in out Polish tradition graveyard is a place when you reminiscent the dead, when you cultivate their life. When you honour them. It is not a place, it should not be the place at which the cheap sensation is chased, when you would look for any kind of fascination in death and in suffering. (7:58) AS: I have read that around 6 thousand of inmates were liberated from both camps. It is not a lot compering to 1,1 million murdered and few thousand who died in a Death Walk… 400 JL: Just to make it clear; there were around 7,5 thousand liberated in total. 7 thousand were liberated in Auschwitz I, Birkenau (Auschwitz II) and Monowitz (Auschwitz III), followed by around five hundred in adjacent camps. So, it is not a big number compared to those who were killed. In terms of Death Walk, there were around 56 thousand people joined, or was forced to join it. We do not have exact numbers of fatalities (of Death Walk); we can estimate… I mean 56 thousand were marched to two train stations: in Wodzislaw Slaski and Gliwice. More than 2 thousand people were sent directly to Mauthausen by trains; luck for them; they did not have to walk. All together there were 58 thousand people evacuated, for any better word during KL Auschwitz liquidation. There were 44 thousand people redirected to different camp, so we do not know the faith of remaining 15 thousand. We have 9 thousand people’s final resting place confirmed so at least 9 thousand definitely died on the way. It could be possibly up to 15 thousand, however, some people managed to escape, we do not have figures to say how many; no one counted it so far, we are working on estimates, it could be therefore few hundred escapees. (11:01) AS: In general, and historic meaning Auschwitz Birkenau is a former Nazi concentration camp. A place of death and suffering. Do you believe Auschwitz Birkenau could be an example of dark tourism location? JL: I wish it wasn’t, as dark tourism to me is a way of looking for sensation, I don’t know…fascination with death. I might be wrong, but this is the connotation I have is such. It is difficult to answer that questions because you have to know to intention of each visitor; if they come here to visit and commemorate the graveyard then it would not be a dark tourism. However, if they are looking for some kind of attraction, are… simply fascinated by death as a death, way it was inflicted, in a way a 401 pain and suffering was executed… if they are inspired by that then it would be within the realms of dark tourism. As I said, I don’t want it to be (dark tourism destination). I know from the press and publication, I was involved in it as well, that when the Soviet soldiers left this camp (Auschwitz I) end of 1946 and Birkenau in February 1946, there was a swift decision coming from government to make this place a museum. First groups of visitors started arriving somewhere between June and July 1946. Their intentions were clear; it was a sacred place for them, a place of suffering, when they come to memorialise and honour the dead. They were seeing it indeed as a graveyard, in a general meaning; for instance, there were people without any relatives murdered in here, but they still wanted to see this place and commemorate the victims. There were visitors who had lost their relatives, or the war was over, the relatives did not come back, and Oswiecim, as the Polish name was used during the war, was linked to something horrific. I was connected with a thought; if my father, brother, son did not come back home, he probably died in Auschwitz. It was very emotional when they were coming here, also for the first employees of the camp; they were mostly recruited from the former Auschwitz inmates and they were asked by the visitors whether knew such and such, whether they knew what happened with such and such person. So, it was a way of looking for some information, but also experiencing this suffering connected with war and occupation. There was a Jewish paper called “Opinion”. In 1946 edition I found a shocking mention; it was a feature of visiting Museum just wafter it was open; the author (of this paper) mentioned he was walking through former Birkenau campsite and saw a man carrying a stone in his hands. He asked him what it was about. The man answered that it was a stone found in the crematorium, as most likely his son died here maybe the smoke of his burned body drifted towards this stone, so it was a sacrum for him. Other features mentioned that many other visitors were already considering Auschwitz as a tourism attraction, which needs to be ticked. It was 1948, so soon after war finished; the work companies were organizing trips to Auschwitz, those people were coming here, firstly they were surprised you have to buy a ticket; well, the Museum needed the money for further development, conservation and upkeep. The government was dedicating some grants, but they were not enough to cover the works here, upkeep the building, 402 barracks. So, they were bemused they had to pay. Them toward the end of their visit they were openly disappointed there were no blood here, no bodies to see, jus some old shoes and specs, this kind of approach. Nobody knew, no one could even call it like that, but it was a kind of dark tourism even then. (17:32) AS: Dark tourism as a term was coined quite recently so those people, even with could not call it like this. The term was created by Lennon and Foley in United States and dark tourism spectrum has many shades of grey; it is not one big Disneyland, there are different shades of dark, however most publications nowadays hold Auschwitz as darkest form of dark tourism comparable with Cambodia Killing Fields, or New York and Twin Towers. However, there are other examples of dark tourism for instance London Dungeons Tower of London, a former prison, there is a Body Worlds Exhibition in Amsterdam, there is Dracula Experience in England. Most likely Dracula did not leave in England, additionally it was probably a fictional character, and even if nor we never know about his famous blood drinking habits. So, places alike that are treated with some kind of dark humours and less emotional engagement; it is more based on entertainment. In case of Auschwitz Birkenau is is completely different place, even in a realm of dark tourism or thanatourism. How would you prefer this place, filled with suffering and death was presented to the visitors; would you rather prefer most of the information was based on facts and figures or through the lenses of individual stories of a victim or the whole families who were send here…? JL: I would tackle that question in cryptic way, which I explain in a minute. It is also connected with dark tourism, although I would be speaking about two situations happening before I actually found out what dark tourism was. When Museum started functioning the staff was mostly consisted of inmates, former inmates of Auschwitz, there were about 55 people employed. There were mostly relatively young, in their thirties and forties. At least one of them was a university graduate – Tadeusz 403 Wasowicz – here was director. There were mostly people who were quite young or relatively young when they sent to the camp. They probably had received some cultural education from before the war and after (the war) they were asked to a cultural institution here which by that time only existed in Majdanek. It was supposed to be a museum, I am wondering now whether museum is the right word for place where so many people were murdered, where so many people were tortured in most cruel way, where they were exposed to pain, suffering and death at last. Those first employees who were to create this institution and build exhibitions decided that they could not create a cheap thrill; not like “Grand Veniole” – a museum in United States or France which was emitting a macabre. For instance, there were vax figures used initially in Majdanek to demonstrate the inmates. Here in Auschwitz the idea was rejected as inappropriate to be showing the life of inmates in striped clothes, or to show extremely exhausted inmates through those figurines. So, the idea was immediately dropped. Instead, there were pictures or documents showing what happened in KL Auschwitz, it was quite humble, respectful way. The only problem was that there were not many documents left; what was left was going to The Main Commission for the Investigation of War Crimes, as it was called then, to Cracow, as the Commission was gathering any documents useful in SS men trials. There were some pictures, however, to be honest, I am not sure I can remember them well. Perhaps they were only few pictures displayed on the first exposition. However, something had to be shown. In Auschwitz I, in the reminding barracks were still personal belongings taken from the deported Jews; shoes, specs, lots of cloths, suitcases and so forth. The Director (Tadeusz Wasowicz) took it over and utilized the belongings of the murdered people to show the enormity of crime committed. It made then and is still making a devastating effect. When they were able to obtain some more documents and pictures they created more exhibition, first in 1947, then in 1950 and third in 1955. The last one, slightly modified lasts until now. When you are around the camp you would see me made a huge effort in order to stay humble and truthful instead of expatiating macabre. At the beginning they were also trying to show some episodes and explain the life and existence of inmates through art created by former inmates. Some are real rarity in terms of artistic finish. So, it was a really humble exhibition. Coming back to your 404 question, (when I talk about Auschwitz) I mostly like to use some documents, facts, but if there are none of those, we use the testimony of former inmates instead. Best case possible is when we have both documents and testimonies of former inmates and they both complement each other. The pictures are such a source; pictures taken through different times of the camp’s existence; most likely they were taken by former SS men. The building management was located here so they (SS men) had to take some pictures of the progress and send them over to their bosses. That’s how we obtained some of those pictures. (28:12) AS: It is incredible; we generally believe that Germans took most of the documents with them… JL: Yes, but it so many documents, they were simply unable to take it all away or burn it. Some pictures were saved by the inmates, some were taken from SS men, taken, hidden, then copied. Two inmates working for building management have stolen some pictures of crematories or pictures of inmates while doing chores. There were also pictures taken by… the infamous pictures taken by Sondercommando; there at Birkenau while burning the bodies, naked Jewish women rushed into gas chambers thinking…. they were going to have a shower isn’t it. So we have some documental pictures here. Sometimes civil workers were taking them; the German companies were employing Polish workers (non-prisoners), but those are rarer. So, the pictures are one of the sources I am backing myself with. Naturally in order not to overwhelm with the scientific figures only, I try to introduce some emotional features, mostly when I describe a situation, a case of behaviour of SS men, feelings of inmates and so on. However, it would be a simplification of some sort, shallowing it; I would not be able to describe all those emotions in my own words. 405 (30:29) AS: I have read some of your papers, as well as Doctor Setkiewicz’s papers where I found many criticisms towards “kitchification” of certain stories, for instance “A Boy in A Stripped Pyjamas” was totally unrealistic situation, which would never have happened in the camp; it was created solely for commercial and emotional reasons, without sticking to facts and the reality of the former camp existence. However, there are some books, I would have to admit are realistic, recently I have read “Commando Puff” by Rattinger; it is a fiction book, the main thread is created probably by many single stories. I would like to believe we can see the realms of the everyday camp’s life in books like that… JL: I have to admit, I did not read that one, however I stay away from books like that. You mentioned “A Boy in A Stripped Pyjamas” – this is expatiating of some cheap sensation, an attempt of bringing the attention of a reader while playing with his emotions, but is it really about the reader or is it simply about the money? (32:22) AS: The story is unrealistic (A Boy in A Stripped Pyjamas); I have read somewhere that the son of Rudolf Hess, it was probably based on him, he was a commandant during that time, was very arrogant and did not identify himself with the inmates…. JL: I mean, generally this area was inhabited by Poles and Jews before the war. They were evicted from their own houses, some of the buildings were demolished, some of them, the newer ones, built just before war became overtaken by SS men and their families. They used to have children, but they were taken care of by their nannies, most likely young girls, literally girls – Polish teenagers. When the children were going to play outside it usually happened under the watchful eyes of nannies or their parents. Perhaps they were isolated cases when the children walked too close (to the camp)… There was a directive made by Hess, when he was warning the SS men not to allow their children near the 406 camp. So, perhaps if there was a directive that possibly there were some children on a loose but generally communication into the camp was very limited. How those children perceived the inmates depended on the way their fathers and mothers were saying. If they were portraying the inmates as sheer criminals which needed to be avoided then they could have had such a general understanding of the inmates, occasionally working for their households or in the gardens. Nevertheless, there is a mass of books, we call them fiction, but fictional in order to seek for sensation, bring readers, increase the edition, those are all the books with “…from Auschwitz” name on their covers; “Taylor from Auschwitz”, “Teacher from Auschwitz”. My colleague who manages our library here says he is being discriminated as there was no book called “Librarian from Auschwitz” yet. There are many, many books like that, I was really stunned when I saw a book called “Doctor from Auschwitz”. The first connection would be… (35:44) AS: Doctor Mengele? JL: Yes, it could be Mengele, could be any other doctor in the camp. The book was however about, how honourable character of a doctor who created a camp hospital after the liberation, so after the camp existed, but to catch the reader it was called “Doctor from Auschwitz”. Recently I bought a book, I did not even look at the synopsis, just saw it was about the first Polish escapee from the camp. When I looked and I discovered it was so terribly simplified I could not even read it. I brough it to the library here with a warning not to buy this book. There is a lot of books like that, but I got some words from our guides saying that those books could have an influence on people somehow. Some people perhaps decide to come to Auschwitz, I am sure it happens, they have read “A Boy in A Stripped Pyjamas” and while here they ask the guide to show them the places connected with that book, where such and such story happened. And the guides are in trouble then. There is a paper written by one of our colleagues who deals with the subject of features called “…from Auschwitz”. The paper is available, 407 there is a journal called “Memoria”, put that in the search box and the name Wanda WItek-Malicka to find it. She is trying to show our perspective; the employees of the Auschwitz Birkenau Museum in this paper and comment the common literature. That literature is written to awaken emotions, so if it promises us emotions then we buy it more often and then we could have a picture of camp based on that. And this literature has nothing to do with the reality of a camp. And it is a ganger for us (the Museum). My friend who is a professor at University of British Columbia, she is an anthropologist; she said that in western societies, maybe in England as well, the facts do not count that much recently. The narratives do. Not what we say but the way we say it, it has a secondary meaning whether it is based on facts. It has to be interesting for the reader, fascinating for the readers. That counts. (39:52) AS: I can understand that. There are many books published, also in England such as “Tattooist of Auschwitz”. Could we agree that as long as we treat it as fiction or mainly fiction it is reader worthy, however if we want actual facts, it could be painful. Your job is all about showing the real chronicles rather than exaggerating in any way. JL: Yes, precisely. (40:26) AS: Doctor, to what degree the visitors can modify the visit? Are there any particular places that you know of when the visitors like to stop for longer, ask more, are there any places which are especially difficult and emotional for your guests? JL: It is difficult to me to say something in general, I do not have a constant contact with groups, but I am sure there are (such places). I am not sure whether that is possible during a standard tour, however if it is a focus group then the guide and the group has got more possibilities, if they really interested, 408 they could ask for some kind of workshops or lectures. They are also some extremely interested and involved groups coming, for instance the groups from the University of British Columbia, students or Israeli guides under Yad Vashem Programme or some other groups. They are really very involved, and the tours are very much focused. We show them what regular visitors do not see for instance Rudolf Hess’ Garden or barrack ten when the experiments were run, or we take them to the other sub camps in the area. There is not too much left of it but if you well prepared, you can talk about this place with the help of former maps, plans, pictures. Standard tour does not have that possibility. Now we also have our conservators working here as finally covid subsides… (42:56) AS: Doctor, how Museum Auschwitz Birkenau creates an authenticity factor for people who want more. I know that Museum Majdanek runs workshops for penitentiary institutions… JL: It was actually initiated here in our museum (laughing). And here our colleagues, I have been once only, it was massive experience; I was in Sztum (Penitentiary Institution in Sztum (www.sw.gov.pl). My colleagues were going more often; to prisons located close to Oswiecim, Slazk or Middle Poland, from Majdanek they would probably go closer to Lublin and colleagues from Stutthof (Former Concentration Camp) probably around seaside, Pomerania, Masuria Lake District… I would like to however come back to the subject of first employees; once again; former inmates and director Tadeusz Wasowicz, who emphasised the importance of allowing this place to be as authentic as possible, as it really looked like when the camp was still functioning. So, if something was demolished – do not rebuild, if something was damaged – maintain it. When the damages were minor such as broken window seals, doors, gutted flooring, scratched walls then it was mended and then the exhibitions were unfortunately created, so the interference in blocks, the inside of blocks was bigger and bigger. But there are some buildings maintained exactly as they were when the camp was fully functioning; even the pictures on the wall were preserved; it’s barrack two and three, block ten, 409 twenty-eight. Those blocks are possible to visit but after earlier discussion, the guides might know better about those specialised places such as block ten… (46:12) AS: Block ten; unfamous for the medical experiments? JL: Yes, the experiment block. Block twenty-eight is under reconstruction at the moment so unavailable due to safety issues. Possibly there is a chance to claim the guard tower but again, only special circumstances as there are not much left of them. There are as well the workshops run by colleagues from Education Centre, Archives or Research Centre; our colleague runs workshops showing the documentation, scanned documents which help recreate the episodes of life of the camp. (47:57) AS: Knudsen (2011) said “what people get from tourism are mostly emotions and feelings”. How much is that statement current for a regular visitor of Museum Auschwitz-Birkenau? JL: I am not too sure as I do not have much time with visitors, our guide will for sure answer that better. (48:27) AS: My research is also based on netnography; I look at the data available on internet and feedback left by visitors. At the end of July 2022 there was fourteen and half thousands reviews of Museum Auschwitz Birkenau and if we skip the reviews about “it was too cold, it was too hot” the main emotion people articulate is sadness, reflectiveness, emptiness. This is shown by almost 15 thousand feedbacks…. 410 JL: I am full of admiration for you to look through that… that huge amount of entries… (50:25) AS: …. And there is an issue here as well; TripAdvisor is a tourism forum which grades the tourist attraction from one up to five stars. Many people were stating there that there were personally captivated and mesmerised by Museum Auschwitz Birkenau, but it was difficult for them to give five stars to such a place. … How can I give five stars to this place, to say that this is a great location, it is uncomprehensive, it is almost an oxymoron to say that this place is great, and I am happy to come here. Such feedback does happen, and I believe it is quite honest... JL: Maybe for those who gave five stars coming here is the part of this “dark tourism”. It’s comforting… (51:50) AS: Please, do have a look yourself, however backing on my research, looking at blogs, forums Auschwitz Birkenau is perceived very positively. And here I have another question; I am Polish, most of visitors and Polish, you are Polish, however when we talk about the former camp site, we use this German terminology Auschwitz Birkenau (as against Oswiecim Brzezinka). Is there a particular logic behind it? JL: Yes. In our publications we use German terminology to state and underline that this was a German camp. There is no Nazi language, there is German, and that German terminology is hence there; the Nazi were not from space, they were from Germany, they were Germans. Of course, also the Austrian, many volksdeutche; people who were claiming their roots to be German. I have German roots, but I am particularly grateful to one of my ancestors to get “Polonised”. So, we use this German terminology, because at some point the world started to use a phrase “Polish concentration camp” which shifted the blame on who? On Poland. And to some stage this strategy was successful. So as our 411 answer was to emphasise that it was a German camp. Well German Nazi. We can obviously discuss whether all Germans were Nazi sympathetic, I am sure there were people against it, but at some stage altogether the vast majority of that nation allowed to be seduced by Hitler, seduced by Nazis; we know that not only by the majority of votes but also by watching documentaries when thousands of people were extatically waving to Hitler, in many, many places across Germany and over several years. The same with Russia being seduced by Putin now. That’s why we keep the German terminology and exhibit that. (55:12) AS: In 1933 same as in 1939 and 1945 there was no Internet. If you were seeing Goebbels applauding Hitler and listening to all his propaganda; there was nothing to check it against. Now we have access to knowledge, neutral sources of truth. I still believe that Goebbels’ propaganda was very successful then… JL: I agree with you, Germans allowed to be swayed and majority was supporting Hitler. I am not claiming there were 100% of Germans, but the vast majority for sure. (56:33) AS: In many places connected with a crime, genocide a feeling of reverie, shock meets commercialization. Is there a cafe or restaurant within grounds of Museum Auschwitz Birkenau? How does it reflect the authenticity of that place? JL: There is a bar (cafe), there is a restaurant situated in building set up in 1944 and never used for its primary task; administration of new coming inmates, offering them shower and registration. Maybe one transport went through this building, no more and that was it. Now there is a conservation site there, there is A Centre for Visitors and also when the visitors cross the security gates then there is a 412 restaurant created for them, buffet, café and bookstore. And that is it when we examine the commercial site. Yes, we could say; ok, the restaurant and café weren’t there were the camp was fully functioning, but just before pandemic we had 2 million 300 hundred; so, it is natural that at some stage they would like to have a drink, possibly eat. (59:19) AS: Please do not take it as any sort of critique of your organization. I am just trying to distinguish it from some extreme cases, like Twin Towers where there are cases of “kitschification” of the place… JL: I mean here, we look after it. There are some crazy ideas sometimes; as far as I remember; a fire lighter, a regular plastic fire lighter which was supposed to be covered by the picture of the wire… or mugs with the motive of a wire (laugh). I chase up those kinds of ideas and those kinds of gadgets are never allowed to be sold. I mean – we chase up – simply on the grounds of the Museum such things are not being sold, maybe they are in some commercial centres – the Museum cannot stop it, however our PR department tried to intervene. Also, not to allow things connected with kitsch and cheap sensation being around here. (1:00:55) AS: Doctor, how do you react to the new trends of documenting visiting Auschwitz however in more kitsch meaning such as selfie on social media? What I mean are not those documental pictures showing the theme of the camp, the ones I hope I could take as well. I mean the happy holiday selfies showing smiley faces on the background of “Arbeit Macht Frei” gate and texts such as “It was a great day!”. Is there any reaction from the Museum, do the guides try to intervene? 413 JL: I believe it would be best to ask our PR team, they deal with all the cases which may relate to the image of Museum or the memory of dead and murdered. I know that once there was a massive storm in polish media, it was about one girl, it wasn’t even her selfie, it was a picture taken of her while she was posing in the middle of the crematorium’s furnace. It was in Majdanek. Do ask Mr Tomasz (Head of Guides); I believe our guides are reacting actively to those extreme situations. It is difficult; however, taking selfie is happening fast; it is difficult to react ahead. Many times, I saw cases like that but... as I say it is happening to fast you don’t have a chance to think and react to it. There is a place you see when you are on the ground of the camp, on the way to the wired fence which used to be under current there is a plate saying “Halt!” (stop!) and a scull. Some people tend to take selfies with this plate posing inappropriately. Ask Mr Tomasz, the guides also know about and are sensitive around this place. However, as I said; there are so many visitors that sometimes it is impossible to catch them on the act. Generally, I don’t like it. We do not take selfies on the cemetery, I believe at least, I would never take a selfie next to my father’s grave… (1:04:32) AS: Exactly, so do you think it is unawareness? JL: Definitely those are people who treat being here as another tourist attraction to tick and to revel about it on Facebook or some other space in the Internet. And those taking pictures, selfies next to the entrance gate is very common as well… (1:04:57) AS: Because the gate (with Arbeit Macht Frei) is a symbol? JL: It is an icon, yes, it is also one of the most recognisable places in the world. 414 (1:05:16) AS: Doctor, what role in showcasing the authenticity of Auschwitz Birkenau for visitors have former inmates of the camp? I do realise that we are in possibly last moment in time when those people are still “just” available because in terms of age they are not able to attend the meetings. Possibly when they arrived at the camp, they were still children who do not remember much. Do you however have now, in 2022 the help of former inmates who come here and identify themselves with the visiting groups? JL: Yes, they come with the groups from Israel, possibly from France. The survivors do come with the specialist focus groups. They (the survivors) were coming here, they were giving the testimony, talking about their life, showing the places they were working, leaving at or just dealing with some dramatic situations. When it comes to Polish groups, I believe it happens not so often, many years ago yes, it was happening but not too often nowadays anymore. The Centre of Education about Auschwitz and Holocaust however is organizing some sessions with the former inmates attending. Naturally with time it is less and less of them attending those meetings. There are many so called “Children of Warsaw” so those who are now eighty – ninety years old, maybe even not so, as someone was born in 1942, 1943 or 1944 is now under eighty years old. Many of them are physically and mentally able, they come here, take part in ceremonials, or those sessions, they talk about what they have been through. We have to understand though that those people either do not remember the camp well as they were little children, or they came here during Warsaw Resurrection so in August – September 1944 so it was a last month of functioning of the camp. Twofold here, once they would be telling from the point of view of a child, which often is sensational, it good, if you can say that it is good to hear that because those are facts and emotions... especially when you have your own children are strong. It is however difficult to host here former inmates who came to Auschwitz Birkenau as adults, they would be around 100 years old now so it difficult. Mrs Zofia Posmysz died recently, just few days ago aged 99. She was 415 a writer, based on her memoirs the famous movie “The Passenger” was made. She was telling about her life just few years ago, now she is gone and so are many others. Obviously, they talks were being recorded and the Centre of Education can replay it. There are also meeting and chats with children, grandchildren (of the former inmates) and they talk about what was happening after or they repeat the stories of the camp they heard from their parents. It is also very interesting but it not the primary message. (1:12:01) AS: I hope my research will no end today and I would be able to stay in touch with yourself. Many thanks for the time and the answers. They are extremely helpful for my research. Thank you again. JL: You are most welcome. 416 Appendix 7 In-depth interview with Tomasz Michaldo – Auschwitz-Birkenau, 10th of August 2022 – original version in Polish (0:10) AS: Panie Tomaszu, przede wszystkim bardzo dziękuję za możliwość rozmowy z Panem, za czas poświęcony mi. Auschwitz Birkenau to dla Pana przede wszystkim… TM: Tak, no to jest wydaje mi się bardzo szerokie pojęcie. Pytanie, czy patrzymy na to z perspektywy historycznej czy z perspektywy bieżącej. To jest jedna kwestia. Z drugiej strony to naprawdę dla każdego odbiorcy tego miejsca Auschwitz będzie czymś innym. Więc, jasne; patrząc z perspektywy czysto historycznej obóz koncentracyjny, obóz zagłady czy właściwie ośrodek zagłady Żydów, czy Romów, też o czym nie możemy zapomnieć, z drugiej strony, z perspektywy bieżącej dla mnie, jako dla pracownika tego miejsca no to jest to przede wszystkim Muzeum, miejsce pamięci i ośrodek badawczy, bo jednak trzeba przyznać, że pracownicy naszego działu naukowego są chyba jedynymi na świecie specjalistami tak; to jest bardzo wąska specjalizacja oczywiście; jedno miejsce, natomiast to są ludzie, którzy mają gigantyczną wiedzę, jeżeli chodzi o były obóz Auschwitz. A dodatkowo możemy patrzeć na to w wymiarze też takim, dosyć takiego wiodącego ośrodka jeżeli o kwestie zachowywania konserwacji terenów poobozowych i myślę, że tutaj w tym zakresie Muzeum Auschwitz jest jednym z liderów, znaczy to, że to jest miejsce autentyczne, to że w tym 1947 roku faktycznie udało się, jakby uchronić tak dużą przestrzeń to jest z jednej strony oczywiście gigantyczne szczęście dla nas, znaczy szczęście; jest to coś bardzo istotnego, ale z drugiej strony jest to też oczywiście obowiązek, tak. Bo my teraz jako ludzie, którzy tutaj pracują zajmują się edukowaniem, czy też zachowywaniem tego miejsca; no jest to ogromny też obowiązek, więc koledzy i koleżanki pracujący w dziale konserwacji zwykle tak naprawdę nie maja żadnego wzoru, na którym mogliby się oprzeć „z poza”, tak. Na przykład mam tutaj na myśli kwestie konserwacji baraków w Birkenau; no generalnie to są tak specyficzne 417 konstrukcje, że oni uczą się konserwując. Więc nie możemy sobie pójść, pojechać gdzieś do Niemiec, zobaczyć jak tam konserwowano takie miejsca, bo zwyczajnie drugiego takiego miejsca jak Birkenau nie ma, więc to jest ogromne wyzwanie jak zakonserwować, jak później to udostępniać odwiedzającym. A z drugiej strony tak jak mówię; dla różnych grup odwiedzających, dla różnych grup odbiorców Auschwitz jest czymś innym, tak. No bo z jednej strony mamy odwiedzających, którzy są mocno związani z tym miejscem poprzez historie rodzinne, bo rodzice, bo dziadkowie, bo drugie, trzecie pokolenie; mówię tutaj głównie o oczywiście gdzieś tam potomkach ocalonych Żydów, ale oczywiście mówię tutaj też o potomkach Polaków, którzy przeszli przez obóz czy Romów znowu. Więc dla nich to jest miejsce w dużej mierze symboliczne, nawet jeżeli oczywiście członkowie rodzin byli tutaj krótko, to jednak Auschwitz stało się pewnego rodzaju symbolem. My mamy w ogóle taką perspektywę w Europie bardzo „Auschwitzo-centryczną”, nie wiem czy to dobrze brzmi czy nie, ale myśląc nawet o Holocauście, no myślimy: Holocaust – Auschwitz, czasem zapominamy o tych peryferiach, a te peryferia są jednak nie mniej istotne. Patrząc chociażby na to, co się działo w okupowanym Związku Radzieckim, na działalność Einsatzgruppen i tak dalej; z naszej perspektywy gdzieś to są peryferia zagłady, no ale z drugiej strony patrząc na liczby, na efektywność, to nie są peryferia zagłady, to jest jakby jedno z kluczowych elementów przecież najnowsze badania mówią 2,5 do 2,8 miliona ofiar działalności Einzatzgruppen i ich pomocników, więc no to zdecydowanie nie są peryferia, prawda. Ale z drugiej strony mamy też odwiedzających, którzy nie są związani z tym tematem; dla nich to właśnie Auschwitz oznacza Holocaust, często dopiero przyjeżdżając tutaj dowiadują się, że tutaj byli też deportowani więźniowie nie-Żydzi i myślę, że dla nich jest to dość duży szok. To znaczy, my mówimy też bardzo dużo o innych więźniach, o innych grupach więźniów… (5:39) AS: Czyli świadomość, że trafiło tutaj mnóstwo osób z Powstania Warszawskiego jest… 418 TM: Świadomość jest minimalna, to znaczy ja myślę, że nawet wśród Polaków ta świadomość nie jest specjalnie duża. Wydaje mi się, że Powstanie Warszawskie jest mocno jakby w tej pamięci zbiorowej wpisane, ale że bardziej są wpisane takie rzeczy jak Rzeź Woli, zburzenie Warszawy, a niekoniecznie to, że tak dużo kobiet i dzieci zostało deportowanych do Auschwitz. Myślę, że to nie jest wiedza powszechna, moim zdaniem, ja nie pracuję z odwiedzającymi polskojęzycznymi, więc nie mogę o tym wiele powiedzieć, ale mogę powiedzieć, że jeżeli chodzi o odwiedzających spoza Polski, to w ogóle wiedza o Powstaniu Warszawskim to jest… abstrakcja. Brytyjczycy, co ciekawe wiedzą, nie wszyscy ale jest gdzieś ta wiedza, coś się tam pojawia, ale generalnie w innych przypadkach – zupełnie nie. (6:47) AS: Może dzięki Muzeum (Powstania Warszawskiego), które niedawno powstało… TM: Ciężko mi jest powiedzieć bo to są też ludzie, to są też ludzie w wieku powiedzmy 70+, więc myślę, że to jest bardziej jeszcze nie wiem, jakieś tam te relacje rodzinne, być może też dlatego, że dość dużo Polaków zostało po wojnie w Wielkiej Brytanii, być może to jest bardziej z tym związane. Natomiast jak chodzi o odwiedzających z innych miejsc to Auschwitz jest symbolem Holocaustu. Tu należałoby postawić kropkę i dopiero przyjeżdżając tutaj ci ludzie dowiadują się czegoś więcej. (7:24) AS:… że to nie wszystko, że to prawdopodobnie 90%? TM: Około 90%, na pewno tak trzeba (zakładać). Tutaj oczywiście musimy być bardzo ostrożni, jeżeli chodzi o liczby i pewnie też doktor Lachendro o tym gdzieś wspominał; to są wszystko szacunki. Ale no tak, 90% ofiar to są Żydzi, później więźniowie polscy, jeńcy sowieccy; tutaj w ogóle już tej świadomości praktycznie nie ma, o tym że w ogóle jeńcy sowieccy byli deportowani do Auschwitz to jest coś zupełnie abstrakcyjnego, być może niektórzy wiedzą o Sinti, o Romach, ale to jest bardzie, myślę, w 419 przypadku odwiedzających z Niemiec, z Austrii, to jest bardziej tam ta edukacja jest dość powszechna. Więc, tak jak mówię; bardzo ciężko jest chyba uchwycić Auschwitz, czym tak naprawdę jest bo każdy na to Auschwitz patrzy ze swojej perspektywy i kiedyż spotkałem jedną z ocalonych, generalnie zadałem pytanie: „Jak ja mogę Cię tutaj oprowadzać, skoro Ty tutaj byłaś, Ty znasz Auschwitz (Birkenau tak naprawdę)”, a ona mi powiedziała, co myślę, że jest też bardzo mądre, że „dla mnie moim Birkenau był mój barak i ludzie, z którymi pracowałam, ja nie wiem, co się działo w wymiarze globalnym, ja tego nie wiem i ja mogę Ci opowiedzieć, jak ja żyłam, co ja robiłam, gdzie ja byłam, z kim się spotykałam, ale to jest tylko mój wycinek historii”. Ja myślę, że tak samo jest z odwiedzającymi; każdy ma ten swój malutki wycinek historii, a to, co my próbujemy zrobić jako przewodnicy, nie zawsze się to udaje, to jest pokazanie takiego szerszego obrazu. (9:24) AS: W ogólnym i historycznym rozumieniu Auschwitz Birkenau to jednak były nazistowski obóz koncentracyjny. Miejsce związane ze śmiercią i cierpieniem. Czy w Pana rozumieniu Auschwitz Birkenau odpowiada lokalizacjom, zaliczanych do grona „dark tourism”? TM: Moja odpowiedź jest taka, moim zdaniem nie, to znaczy my nie chcemy też epatować tak, jak wiele innych miejsc, które pani nawet przywołuje w tym pytaniu, prawda? Niektóre z tych miejsc po prostu epatują jakąś grozą, epatują takimi… próbują mocno grać na emocjach odwiedzających. To co dla nas jest istotne, i to, co myślę ciągle nas odróżnia, a le do tego też dojdę, to to, że my przede wszystkim chcemy pokazać ten autentyzm tego miejsca i poprzez historie osobiste, ale też oczywiście nie zapominamy o faktografii; chcemy pokazać pewien proces tego, jak Auschwitz z obozu tego modelowego, obozu koncentracyjnego stał się ośrodkiem zagłady i tak dalej. (10:42) AS: Bo na początku był obozem pracy? 420 TM: Obóz koncentracyjny, pewnie to z doktorem Setkiewiczem może pani o tym porozmawiać dużo, bo to też ten początkowy okres to jest jednak taki typowy obóz koncentracyjny, ta kwestia pracy jest istotna pewnie od początku 1941 roku, ale z drugiej strony prawda jest taka, że jeżeli odwiedza nas 2,300 miliona odwiedzających i to są dane z 2019 roku, czyli przed wybuchem Covidu, no to siłą rzeczy zmienia się to miejsce w pewien sposób w takie popularne miejsce turystyczne, jakkolwiek źle to brzmi, prawda? No bo mówić Auschwitz – miejsce turystyki… no niestety, to tak to wygląda, i pewnie, my chcielibyśmy tutaj mówić o jakiejś pogłębionej edukacji, o efektach i tak dalej, ale nie zawsze jest to możliwe, zwłaszcza jeżeli odwiedzający przyjeżdżają na 3,5 godziny. W 3,5 godziny też nie jesteśmy w stanie, już pomijam, że nie jesteśmy w stanie wszystkiego pokazać, ale też to nie jest zwykle nic pogłębionego. Ale z drugiej strony też wydaje nam się; mnie się przynajmniej wydaje, że: ok, zacznijmy od tych 3,5 godzin, jeżeli nawet w przypadku 5 – 10 procent naszych odwiedzających to będzie jakaś motywacja, żeby zrobić coś więcej, doczytać, przyjechać tu kolejny raz, zainteresować się tematem, to już jest ogromny sukces. Więc ja tutaj nie chcę mówić „A, 2,3 miliona, wspaniale, robimy doskonałą pracę”, bo ja wiem, że dla niektórych ludzi to jest po prostu miejsce, które należy odwiedzić; „bo jestem blisko, bo jestem gdzieś tutaj w okolicy”. (12: 41) AS: Czyli dzisiaj Auschwitz, jutro Wieliczka, pojutrze Kraków… TM: No niestety, czasem tak to wygląda. Dlatego, tak jak mówię; my to też tu rozumiemy, to nie jest tak, że my tu wymagamy od odwiedzającego głębokiej refleksji nad tym. Jeżeli ktoś taką refleksję ma – świetnie, to znaczy, że to co robimy jest dobre, jeżeli ktoś tu wróci – jeszcze lepiej, jeżeli ktoś tu wróci i będzie chciał coś więcej, nie wiem; warsztaty, zostać woluntariuszem, tym lepiej, ale wiemy, że nie każdy tak to zrobi. 421 (13:26) AS: W ujęciu „dark tourism” rzeczywiście myślę, że to pojęcie się troszeczkę spopularyzowało, natomiast „dark tourism” ma też różne odcienie szarości to nie jest tak, że wszystko jest takie komercyjne. Auschwitz w wielu publikacjach jest stawiany na czołowym miejscu w tym najczarniejszym punkcie ciemnej turystyki, na równi z Killing Fields w Kambodży, czy z Nowym Jorkiem i dwoma wieżami. Natomiast w Europie są miejsca, które są związane z ciemną stroną historii, podziemia Londyny, Tower of London, Body Worlds w Amsterdamie, czy Dracula Experience w Anglii, które nie mają żadnego (lub niewiele) podłoża teoretycznego; Drakula prawdopodobnie nigdy nie mieszkał w Anglii, a jeżeli już, to czy on na pewno pił krew to jest dyskusyjne. Na zamku Krzyżackim w Malborku są pokazy „Światło i dźwięk”. Te miejsca są traktowane z większą dozą czarnego humoru i mniejszym skupieniem emocjonalnym. W przypadku Auschwitz Birkenau jak Pan osobiście przedstawia wizytującym miejsce śmierci i cierpienia; czy opiera się Pan głównie o fakty i numery, czy przedstawia Pan także historie indywidualne? TM: Wydaje mi się, że nie da się przedstawić historii Auschwitz tylko w oparciu o fakty, daty i numery. Po pierwsze dlatego, że to nie jest rzecz, która zwiedzających zainteresuje. Po drugie to przewodnik; trzeba w jakiś sposób też skrócić ten dystans historyczny; to jest jednak te prawie osiemdziesiąt lat i wydaje mi się, że użycie odpowiednich historii osobistych jest kluczowe. I mnie się wydaje, że nam się udało wypracować coś w rodzaju takiego, oczywiście nie każdy z przewodników sobie z tym radzi, nie każdy z przewodników to robi dobrze, ale wydaje mi się, że jest konieczne swojego rodzaju balans pomiędzy faktografią a historiami osobistymi czy historią mówioną jako taką. W ogóle wydaje mi się, że tutaj, w Auschwitz my skupiamy się trochę bardziej, to jest wymuszone tak naprawdę przez ekspozycje, przez wystawę; tutaj mówimy nieco więcej o faktografii, natomiast w Birkenau mamy większą możliwość użyć tych historii osobistych. Wydaje mi się, że tak to oprowadzanie powinno wyglądać, chociaż na przykład w Auschwitz I też jest miejsce na historie osobiste; mówimy nawet o 422 bloku dziesiątym, bloku jedenastym, placu apelowym; tam używamy tych historii osobistych. I tak jak mówię, wydaje mi się, że nie możemy zwiedzającego zarzucić ogromną ilością dat, faktów i tak dalej bo i tak nikt tego nie zapamięta i to wprowadzi tylko większy chaos, niż przed wizytą. Ja osobiście używam dwóch, może trzech konkretnych dat w ciągu całego zwiedzania. Uważam, że i tak to jest za dużo i uważam, że i tak większość ludzi tego nie zapamięta. Więc dla przewodnika, zwłaszcza nowego przewodnika, który ma głowę pełną faktów, bo my no, to sprawdzamy w czasie egzaminów, sprawdzamy też umiejętności przekazywania tych informacji, ale z drugiej strony, no egzamin wygląda tak, że mamy trzy części; jest egzamin pisemny, jest egzamin ustny i tutaj to jest wiedza, natomiast później to jeszcze mamy oprowadzanie i tutaj bardziej sprawdzamy umiejętności przekazywania tej wiedzy. Tak jak mówię, po takim egzaminie młody przewodnik ma głowę nabitą faktami i jemu się wydaje, że musi wszystko powiedzieć odwiedzającym. Tak nie jest, ja myślę, że po pół roku, po roku oprowadzania każdy to zaczyna rozumieć i każdy zaczyna widzieć, że musi jednak to zmienić. Ja o tym mówię od początku w procesie szkolenia przewodników, ale nie do każdego od razu to dociera, także to jest kwestia wypracowania sobie odpowiedniego schematu plus trzeba też pamiętać, że to zwiedzanie musi być dostosowane także do odbiorcy, to znaczy nie użyję takiej samej historii, bo uważam, że nie powinienem użyć tej samej historii osobistej jeżeli oprowadzam Włochów i kiedy oprowadzam na przykład Francuzów, bo w każdym przypadku są takie postacie, które są w danym kraju bardziej znane, kojarzą się większej ilości ludzi. Ja myślę, że historia osobista kogoś, kto jest znany odwiedzającemu mocniej oddziałuje, niż historia osobista osoby, która jest mniej znana. Nie zawsze tak jest oczywiście, ale takie mam generalnie przeświadczenie. (19:18) AS: Panie Tomaszu, do jakiego stopnia zwiedzający są w stanie zmodyfikować trasę zwiedzania, czy są szczególne miejsca, gdzie zwiedzający proszą, żeby zatrzymać się dłużej, albo wręcz przeciwnie – proszą żeby wyjść? 423 TM: My staramy się pokazać każdemu odwiedzającemu, który tutaj przyjeżdża w ramach tego zwiedzania standardowego te same miejsca. To jest blok czwarty, blok piaty, blok szósty bądź siódmy, blok jedenasty, plac apelowy, budynek komory gazowej w Auschwitz, w Birkenau: brama główna, rampa, ruiny komór gazowych i krematorium, czyli to jest jakby ta podstawa. (19:58) AS: Czyli nie blok dziesiąty? TM: Koło bloku dziesiątego przechodzimy, więc wiadomo, że też się tam zatrzymujemy, ale to nie jest wejście do środka, ale tak, jasne; o bloku dziesiątym jak najbardziej w standardzie mówimy. Wiec zwykle to jest tak, że jeżeli to jest grupa złożona z trzydziestu osób, które odwiedzają indywidualnie, my to organizujemy na miejscu takie zwiedzanie, my to nazywamy zwiedzanie w turach. Więc wiadomo, że w takim wypadku my nie jesteśmy w stanie zmodyfikować zwiedzania, bo jeżeli każda z trzydziestu osób miałaby swoje własne życzenie, no to byłoby to bardzo ciężkie. Jeżeli jest to zwiedzanie grup prywatnych, tak to jest przewodnik i tylko grupa jakiś czterech czy pięciu osób, gdzie to faktycznie jest jakaś historia rodzinna, to przewodnik może zmodyfikować zwiedzanie, nie ma żadnego problemu, to znaczy ja pracuję w większości z Izraelczykami, więc to jest bardzo częste, że idziemy w takie miejsce, które jest związane z historią babci, dziadka i tak dalej, o ile to miejsce istnieje, o ile jest dostępne. Natomiast w tym standardowym zwiedzaniu tych modyfikacji raczej nie ma. (21:33) AS: Kto przyjeżdża do Auschwitz? Kto jest takim typowym odbiorcą? TM: Znowu, nie możemy mówić o typowym odbiorcy, to jest bardzo złożone, bo mamy, wracając do tego, co powiedziałem wcześniej mamy ludzi, którzy są emocjonalnie związani z miejscem i mamy ludzi, którzy są z tym miejscem niezwiązani; przyjeżdżają dlatego, że uważają, że jest to miejsce warte 424 zobaczenia. Natomiast to są ludzie tak naprawdę z całego świata, znów wracam do 2019, czyli do tego roku, gdzie było faktycznie tak dużo odwiedzających; mieliśmy ponad 300 tysięcy Polaków, ale zaraz za Polakami była ogromna grupa Brytyjczyków i Amerykanów; bardziej patrzymy też pod kątem języka. Generalnie są to Europejczycy plus dodałbym Stany, Izrael oczywiście, coraz więcej odwiedzających z Azji Południowo-Wschodniej; tutaj myślę od Korei przez Japonię po Singapur, Indonezję i tak dalej. Myślę, że stosunkowo mało odwiedzających przyjeżdża ciągle z krajów afrykańskich, z Ameryki Południowej. Znaczy z Ameryki Południowej to też się zmienia; Brazylijczycy, Argentyńczycy trochę więcej, ale to też to nie są aż tak duże liczby, żeby powiedzieć, że to jest podstawa. Dużą część to jest młodzież; to są programy zwiedzania, na przykład programy norweskie. Gdzie tutaj mają inny tryb też nauki więc co kilka miesięcy mają krótką przerwę i często w tych przerwach całe szkoły przyjeżdżają do nas. Mamy też model brytyjski; Holocaust Educational Trust, te przyjazdy jednodniowe, mamy model francuski też przyjazd taki kilkudniowy, mamy model niemiecki, gdzie to nie jest tylko przyjazd do Auschwitz, ale też przyjazd nawet do samego miasta Oświęcim; jakby takie bardziej pogłębione nie tylko zwiedzanie, ale też zwiedzanie miasta, zastanawianie się nawet nad okresem przedwojennym; tym, co doprowadziło do Auschwitz. Ale mam też odwiedzających oczywiście dorosłych i tutaj tak jak już mówiłem, te motywacje bywają różne, więc nie jest tak, że można powiedzieć, że jest jakiś uniwersalny, albo jeden model naszego odwiedzającego, można różnie do tego tematu podejść i to widać nawet w tych grupach; turach, które mamy; z jednej strony może to być drugie pokolenie po Holocauście; Izraelczycy czy Stany, a z drugiej strony możemy mieć właśnie odwiedzających z Azji Południowo-Wschodniej, gdzie temat Holocaustu czy w ogóle zbrodni niemieckich, nazistowskich funkcjonuje, ale zawsze patrzy się na niego przez pryzmat na przykład zbrodni japońskich w Korei czy w Chinach. Więc tutaj są często takie porównania, gdzie oni próbują te dwie kwestie porównać. 425 (25:20) AS: Ja jestem Polką, mieszkającą w Anglii, natomiast nawet wtedy, gdy jestem w Polsce i rozmawiam z Polakami, to jak gdyby automatycznie używam, w mówieniu o Muzeum nazwy Auschwitz Birkenau, a nie – Oświęcim. Czy jest to jak gdyby taka norma też? TM: Tak, zdecydowanie norma. Znaczy my w odniesieniu do samego obozu zawsze już używamy nazwy „Obóz Auschwitz Birkenau”. To jest coś, co zostało wypracowane w ciągu ostatnich dwudziestu-, czy dwudziestu pięciu lat tak naprawdę, bo przez długi czas była używana nazwa „obozu w Oświęcimiu”. „obozu w Brzezince”, ale myślę, że to jest bardzo słuszne; pokazanie, że to, wiemy; te wszystkie problemy z nazywaniem tego „polskim obozem”… Nazwa Auschwitz Birkenau w jakiś stopniu pomaga. I jasne, że jeżeli chodzi w odniesieniu do Muzeum, no to też nasza nazwa to jest Państwowe Muzeum Auschwitz Birkenau, czyli jest to Muzeum obozu Auschwitz Birkenau; my się odnosimy do tego okresu w historii, nie odnosimy się do miasta Oświęcim, znaczy wiadomo; w oprowadzaniu tak, ale nie mówimy o Oświęcimiu i o Brzezince. (26:54) AS: Bo jest to niemiecki obóz zagłady, ale zlokalizowany w Polsce? TM: Dokładnie tak. (27:05) AS: Wspominał Pan, o takich bardziej pogłębionych grupach, gdzie ta autentyczność może być bardziej zweryfikowana, wspominał Pan, że organizują Państwo warsztaty, czy coś więcej można o tym? 426 TM: Jasne. W ogóle dział, w którym ja pracuję, znaczy dział jednoosobowy (śmiech), ale jest częścią składową Międzynarodowego Centrum Edukacji o Auschwitz i o Holocauście. Mamy nową siedzibę, otwartą w 2020 roku i my proponujemy też właśnie zwiedzającym możliwość pogłębionej wizyty. To znaczy jak gdyby podstawą jest zawsze zwiedzanie; to jest powiedzmy jądro całej wizyty, natomiast my bardzo zachęcamy grupy, żeby sobie to w jakiś sposób obudowały, to znaczy mamy na przykład warsztaty wprowadzające do wizyty, mamy warsztaty podsumowujące. Jeżeli to jest wizyta dłuższa niż jednodniowa, to możemy też… różnego rodzaju wykłady, jeżeli ktoś chce tutaj już, prowadzone oczywiście przez pracowników Centrum Badań. Mamy też warsztaty na obiektach, to nie są autentyczne obiekty, ale prezentujemy jakieś obiekty i staramy się gdzieś pobudzić do dyskusji; to są zwykle jakieś grupy młodzieżowe. Są bardzo ciekawe warsztaty dotyczące propagandy nazistowskiej, z okresu poprzedzającego wojnę i tak dalej. Więc ja myślę, że ta propozycja jest dosyć szeroka, jeżeli pani jest zainteresowana to na pewno na naszej stronie internetowej w zakładce edukacja ta cała lista warsztatów, tematów jest dostępna. I jest zainteresowanie. Naprawdę widzimy, że na przykład w tym roku, gdzie też te obostrzenia związane z tym covidem są mniejsze, niż powiedzmy rok temu, zainteresowanie przyjazdem, zainteresowanie dłuższą wizytą jest naprawdę, naprawdę duże. I to jest świetne, że też nauczyciele widzą taką konieczność. My też staramy się gdzieś pozyskać różnego rodzaju granty, na to na przykład, żeby młodzieży polskiej umożliwić dłuższy pobyt tutaj, nawet dzięki temu mamy sfinansowane koszty warsztatów, zwiedzania i tak dalej, więc jedynym kosztem, który ponosi szkoła, to jest zapewnienie kosztów transportu do i z powrotem, I wiadomo, jeżeli chodzi o edukację pogłębioną to nie są już takie gigantyczne liczby w odniesieniu do podstawowego (zwiedzania), ale myślę, że w tym roku na pewno przekroczymy 25 tysięcy uczestników tego rodzaju edukacji, co jest, ja uważam, że naprawdę bardzo dobrym wynikiem. (30:08) AS: Słyszałam o warsztatach prowadzonych dla pracowników zakładów więziennych… 427 TM: Tak, mamy dla… W ogóle to są tak naprawdę nie tylko dla pracowników, nie tylko dla straży więziennej, ale mamy też, przynajmniej jeździliśmy przed covidem do więzień, do osadzonych w więzieniach z wystawami objazdowymi, z warsztatami i tak dalej i wiem, że to też był dosyć duży sukces, to znaczy, jeśli można mówić o sukcesie, ale fatycznie w wielu przypadkach było to zainteresowanie no to, co myśmy starali się pokazać to to, do czego może prowadzić nienawiść na tle rasowym, na tle jakimś etnicznym i tak dalej. Ale mamy też programy dla policji, mamy programy dla straży pożarnej, która się ostatnio tym też zainteresowała, dla Lasów Państwowych… I też służby mundurowe są tym bardzo zainteresowane; tematyką Auschwitz. Jasne, to jest troszkę pod innym kątem, tak, bo oni bardziej mówią o kwestii wykorzystania władzy, munduru i tak dalej. To, czy przywileje, jakie daje mundur, jakie daje władza, które jednak te służby posiadają jak może być wykorzystana później. Mieliśmy też warsztaty dla całej kadry kierowniczej na przykład Policji, to było lata temu oczywiście, ale myślę, że są to bardzo cenne rzeczy. (31:43) AS: Absolutnie, zupełnie się zgadzam. Knudsen w 2011 powiedział „To, co turysta otrzymuje z procesu zwiedzania to głownie emocje i uczucia”. Czy zgodziłby Pan się z tym w nawiązaniu do zwiedzania Muzeum Auschwitz Birkenau? TM: Tak, jak mówiłem wcześniej, to nie jest tak, że odwiedzający otrzyma tutaj mocne uderzenie faktograficzne, bo nie jest tego w stanie znieść. My też wiemy, że ludzie przyjeżdżają tutaj z różnym nastawieniem, to nie jest tak, że to miejsce nie pozostawia żadnego wpływu na osoby, ja tak bardzo często obserwuję co się dzieje tutaj; nie słychać tego na nagraniu, ale mamy dosyć duży szum za oknem. Ludzie rozmawiają, są jeszcze tacy pobudzeni. Bardzo często jak już wchodzimy, zaczynamy to oprowadzanie następuje taki moment uspokojenia, wyciszenia. I ja myślę, że to jest właśnie kluczowe u nas, że to miejsce w taki sposób działa, że faktycznie wyzwala różnego rodzaju emocje, różnego rodzaju reakcje też. My nie oczekujemy od zwiedzanego określonej reakcji czy zachowania, to nie jest 428 tak, jak niektórzy mówią „nie płakałem w Auschwitz, czyli coś jest źle ze mną”. Wcale nie. Ale i miejsce i historia wyzwalają różne emocje, zdecydowanie. Ja myślę, że dla wielu odwiedzających to jest po prostu mocne, emocjonalne przeżycie. Jeżeli nałożymy na to fakt, że znowu; duża część tych ludzi miała tutaj bliskich, którzy przeszli przez to miejsce, zginęli w tym miejscu no to może to być porównywalne do, nawet nie porównywalne: jest to wizyta na cmentarzu, w miejscu, gdzie moi bliscy zostali zamordowani. Na pewno jest to bardzo emocjonalne. Stąd te reakcje, a reakcje są bardzo różne. (33:55) AS: Jeżeli mogłabym prosić; to jest taka teoria emocjonalna opracowana przez Plutchika. (tutaj pokazuję Koło Emocji Plutchika w powiększeniu). Jeżeli byłby Pan w stanie nakreślić parę (emocji). To jest koło ogólne, czyli tutaj widzimy emocje wszelakie; od radości i uniesienia po szok i cierpienie włącznie. Jakie emocje widzi Pan w grupach? TM: Myślę, że na pewno, o czym już wspominałem, to jest ta zaduma, niewątpliwie też myślę, że smutek jest też jakąś emocją, która się tutaj pojawia. Ale też, myślę, że te emocje typu zdumienie, zdziwienie, one jak najbardziej się tutaj pojawiają. Nie wiem, czy te emocje, które są tutaj na zewnątrz wypisane to są?... (35:22) AS: To jest nasilenie emocji, czyli powiedzmy lęk przeradza się w strach, a później w grozę. Jest to to samo źródło emocji, natomiast z różnym natężeniem. Na przykład możemy czuć pewien rodzaj akceptacji historii, która się wydarzył, natomiast wydaje mi się, że mało kto przeżywa uczucie zaufania, czy podziw. TM: Rozumiem. Zastanawiam się też nad tą kwestią ciekawości, bo ona też gdzieś się pojawia, ale… ja bym się zatrzymał na tych, o których mówiłem do tej pory. 429 (36:14) AS: Bardzo dziękuję. W wielu miejscach, przy czym proszę nie traktować tego jako jakąkolwiek krytykę ale w wielu miejscach związanych ze zbrodnią i śmiercią są elementy… szok zaduma miesza się z elementami komercyjnymi. W Auschwitz funkcjonuje restauracja, kawiarnia. Czy wpływa to w jakiś sposób na autentyczność tego miejsca? TM: Ja może odpowiem tak, jak odpowiada mój bardzo dobry znajomy, Izraelczyk, który pewnie mógłby tu też, jest związany emocjonalnie z tym miejscem i on zawsze mówi, że to, że tu jest restauracja to, że tu jest kawiarnia to jest coś zupełnie normalnego. To znaczy w każdym miejscu, które jest odwiedzane przez ludzi taka infrastruktura być musi. I nie dziwmy się temu, bo jeżeli by tego nie było, takich miejsc nie było; tej infrastruktury to ludzie by automatycznie pytali „dlaczego nie zapewniacie…?” tego, czy czegoś innego. Tak jak mówię, my tutaj nie chcemy wpływać na emocje ludzi w ten sposób, że.. ‘a musicie… nie możecie zrobić tego, nie możecie jeść..” Znaczy na terenie oczywiście nie (jest zakaz jedzenia), więc mi się wydaje, że to jest siłą rzeczy, w każdym tego rodzaju miejscu taka infrastruktura być musi. Nie doszukiwałbym się tutaj, tak jak niektórzy próbują jakiegoś drugiego dna. (38:04) AS: To znaczy ja też proszę, żeby tego pytania tak nie traktować, bo ja generalnie przeczytałam wiele publikacji na temat wręcz „kiczyfikacji” miejsc związanych ze śmiercią, na przykład w Nowym Jorku te słynne kubki; z jednej strony „I love NY”, a z drugiej gruzy wież, albo miś ratownik. Więc pod tym kątem pytam i wiem, że w Muzeum w Auschwitz jest to i stonowane i dostosowane do można powiedzieć takich bazowych potrzeb turystów, natomiast nie jest to rozbudowane na skalę komercji i próbowania sprzedaży tanich emocji. 430 Jak Pan reaguje na nowe trendy w Auschwitz, podczas zwiedzania, czyli właśnie robienie selfie ale z takim podtekstem właśnie bardziej infantylnym, typu „happy day” na tle bramy „Arbeit Macht Frei”? Ja nie chcę tutaj krytykować robienia zdjęć (dokumentalnych), bo sama mam nadzieję, że sama podczas zwiedzania obiektu będę mogła takie zdjęcia robić, natomiast zdjęcia dokumentalne, a zdjęcia infantylne przesyłane na social media to coś zupełnie innego. TM: Ja jestem zdecydowanym zwolennikiem nie robienia tego typu zdjęć i my staramy się uprzedzać naszych zwiedzających, znaczy prosimy ich, żeby raczej takich zdjęć nie wykonywali, no ale to jest tylko prośba i reakcja odwiedzających może być różna. I wiemy doskonale co tutaj się dzieje, tak jak pani mówiła, w mediach społecznościowych możemy znaleźć mnóstwo zdjęć, które są po prostu nieprzystające do tego. Ale myślę, że też wrażliwość ludzi pracujących tutaj jest inna od wrażliwości ludzi, którzy znowu przyjeżdżają tutaj, dlatego że jest to miejsce godne polecenia. Mamy takie przykłady, a przecież to nie jest autentyczne miejsce; w Berlinie Pomnik Pomordowanych Żydów Europy, taka konstrukcja, prawda, i tam też się różne rzeczy dzieją. Jakby miasto Berlin też próbuje reagować, uświadamiać. My też próbujemy, ale nie jesteśmy w stanie tego zabronić, nie jesteśmy w stanie wyeliminować takich zachowań, możemy tylko przypominać, ostrzegać, sugerować, żeby takich zdjęć nie wykonywać. Jasne, zdjęcia dokumentalne to jest coś zupełnie, zupełnie innego. Chociaż ja jestem bardzo zadowolony, jeżeli moi odwiedzający mówią „wiesz co, ja nie robiłem tutaj zdjęć, dlatego, że ja chciałem się skupić na byciu w tym miejscu a nie na dokumentowaniu, robieniu zdjęć, czegoś, co tak czy inaczej mogę i tak znaleźć w Internecie”. Ale też rozumiem, że telefon, aparat to może być jakąś barierą; to znaczy być może jakoś łatwiej emocjonalnie jest przejść takie miejsce, jeżeli ja wykonuję te zdjęcia. I ok. Tak jak mówiłem, jestem zadowolony, jeżeli mi ktoś powie, że „nie robiłem tych zdjęć świadomie, bo chciałem tego miejsca inaczej doświadczyć”. To jest w porządku. 431 (41:50) AS: Jaką rolę w oddawaniu autentyczności Muzeum Auschwitz Birkenau mają byli więźniowie? I ja zdaję sobie sprawę, że ja pytam o nich w okresie, kiedy już to prawie nie jest możliwe, bo ci ludzie siłą wieku jakby niezdolni do wykonywania tych funkcji, albo przybyli do Auschwitz Birkenau jako malutkie dzieci, które niewiele pamiętają. Ale czy mają Państwo (tą możliwość)? TM: Ja powiem tak; kiedyś oczywiście, nawet przypuszczam te dwadzieścia- dwadzieścia pięć lat temu ta rola była gigantyczna, bo wielu z nich pracowało też w Muzeum. Jak może pani z doktorem Lachendro rozmawiała na ten temat; to byli pracownicy, to byli przewodnicy, rola w utrzymaniu tego autentycznego przekazu ich była gigantyczna. W tym momencie to jest faktycznie tak, jak pani mówi; większość z nich była albo nastolatkami, no albo naprawdę dziećmi. Z racji tego, że wielu z nich nie żyje (mieszka) tutaj w okolicy, to mamy jakby mniejszą możliwość korzystania ich głosu, ale z drugiej strony staramy się też robić spotkania z ocalonymi, z byłymi więźniami; jeżeli wiemy, że ktoś jest w formie, ktoś jest w stanie przyjechać, to Centrum Edukacji takie spotkania robi. No ale, tak jak mówię, w tym momencie ta rola jest, znaczy my cały czas słuchamy tego, co mają do powiedzenia i ich głosu, ale to nie jest tak, że, bardzo teoretyzując; przyjeżdża sobie grupa z miejscowości X i chce się spotkać z byłym więźniem i my mówimy „tak, oczywiście”. To nie jest tak, jak na przykład w Muzeum Holocaustu w Waszyngtonie, tam, gdzie wielu byłych, ocalałych z Holocaustu pracuje jako wolontariusze. Można się tam z tymi ludźmi spotkać. U nas takiej możliwości nie ma, z jednej strony, że jak mówiłem wielu ocalonych, zwłaszcza Żydów wyjechało z Polski, nie zostało tutaj, a z drugiej strony ci na przykład; dzieci z Powstania Warszawskiego, ci, którzy jeszcze żyją mieszkają raczej w Warszawie, więc to też jest kwestia dojazdu i tak dalej. Ale staramy się; mamy kilku takich byłych więźniów, którzy tutaj do nas często przyjeżdżają. Może Pani słyszała, że teraz Pani Helena Dunicz Niwińska zmarła, 99 lat, była więźniarką polityczną, grała w orkiestrze obozowej, no niezwykła też historia jej tylko nam pokazuje, że to jest już naprawdę ostatni moment. 432 (45:01) AS: Jak przeżyła obóz? TM: No ona była później wywieziona do innych obozów i dopiero w 1945, w maju została faktycznie wyzwolona, ale napisała kilka książek, także bardzo też polecam. Jej książki to są bardzo, bardzo dobre, mocne rzeczy. Z perspektywy kobiety, z perspektywy więźniarki… (45:42) AS: Panie Tomaszu, to już koniec mojego badania, bardzo, bardzo dziękuję za poświęcony mi czas i za informacje, zwłaszcza te związane z odwiedzającymi. TM: Dziękuję również. 433 Appendix 8 In-depth interview with Tomasz Michaldo – Auschwitz-Birkenau, 10th of August 2022 – translated version (0:10) Agnes Salajczyk: Tomasz, first of all, thank you very much for the possibility to talk to you in person. Tomasz, Auschwitz Birkenau is mostly for you… Tomasz Michaldo: Yes, it actually has a very wide meaning. The question is whether we look at it from historical or actual point of view. That is the first issue. Secondly Auschwitz means something different to each visitor. So, sure; looking at the pure historic meaning it is a concentration camp, extermination camp of Jews and Roma’s, who we mustn’t forget here. On the other site, from the current point of view for me, as an employee, this is foremost a museum, a place of commemoration, centre of research; I must admit our researchers are probably the only one in the world researching such a niche path; one destination; nevertheless, they people with the gigantic knowledge about Auschwitz. Additionally, we can look at this place as a leading centre in terms of preservation of former concentration camp sites, Auschwitz is a leader of a kind – it is an authentic place, we managed to preserve a huge part of the ground in 1947, it is as much of a luck as much as an obligation to keep on preserving it. We, as people who look after education here or conservation have a duty, especially our colleagues from conservation centre – they do not have any pattern or formula from “outside” which they could use for they work here. I am talking here for instance about conservation barracks in Birkenau; these buildings are so specific; they (conservationists) actually learn how to conservate it while doing it. We cannot go for instance to Germany and look how it is done there, there is no other place like Birkenau, so it is a huge challenge how to preserve it and how to share it to the visitors. As I also mentioned; Auschwitz is something different to different groups of visitors. From one site we have visitors who are linked to this place through their family’s history; parents, grandparents, I mean 434 here descendants of survived Jews, Rom, Poles who went through the camp. It is a much of a figurative place, even if members of their families were there for a short time, still Auschwitz became a sort of a symbol. In Europe we tend to have quite “Auschwitz-focused” perspective, I am not sure whether it sounds good. However, when we talk about Holocaust we think – Auschwitz. We often forget about the peripheries of that (genocide), it is becoming less important. While looking at what happened in occupied Soviet Union, looking at the activities of Einsatzgruppen and so forth, from our regular perspectives those are sort of side lines of the extermination. However, looking at their effectiveness they are no side lines; it was one of the key elements of genocide; the latest research mentioned about 2.5 to 2.8 million of victims of Einsatzgruppen, so they are definitely not side lines. On the other hand, we have visitors who are not related to this subject, Auschwitz was an equivalent of Holocaust for them. They often come here and find out for the first time that there were many non-Jewish inmates deported here. It is an actual shock for them. That’s why we say here a lot about other (non-Jewish) groups of inmates. (5:39) AS: So, the awareness of Polish people being deported here after Warsaw Resurrection is… TM: The awareness is minimal. I am inclined to think that even among Polish people that awareness is not too great. I think that Warsaw Resurrection is embedded in the general memory but not as much as Wola’s Slaughter, demolishment of Warsaw. Not as much as awareness of so many women and children deported to Auschwitz. I believe it is still not a common knowledge, however I do not work with Polish speaking groups so I might not be aware of those issues. I can say however that speaking about visitors from outside Poland the knowledge about Warsaw Resurrection is… an abstract. British visitors know a little, not all of them, but it happens occasionally, but the others… not at all. 435 (6:47) AS: Maybe the Brits know due to (possibly visiting) Warsaw Resurrection Museum which was created few years ago… TM: It is rather difficult to say, they are people let’s say seventy plus (years of age), so perhaps it is more due to, I don’t know; some family relations, maybe because many Poles stayed in the UK after the Second World War and cultivated that memory… Nevertheless, for other visitors coming here Auschwitz is a symbol of Holocaust. This is a fact. By coming here, they actually learn it might be something more than that. (7:24) AS: …that it is not all, it is probably 90% (of victims being Jews)? TM: Yes, around 90%, that is what we should be assuming. Here we have to be very careful in terms of numbers, I am sure Dr Lachendro mentioned it as well; it is all based on educated assumptions. But yes, 90% of victims were Jewish, then Polish inmates, Soviet inmates; here the awareness of Soviets prisoners were deported to Auschwitz is non-existing; it is an abstract. Possibly some visitors know about Sinti, Rom; however, the awareness is higher in case of visitors from Germany, Austria – the education there is just more available. So, as I was saying before; it is very difficult to confirm what Auschwitz actually means, because everyone is looking at Auschwitz from a different perspective. Once I have met one of the survivors, I asked her a question: “How I am supposed to guide you through the camp, you have been here, you know Auschwitz; well; Birkenau really…”. She answered me in a very wise way that “…for me my Birkenau was my barrack, people I was working with. I do not know what was happening all over here. I can tell you how I was surviving, what I was doing, where I have been, who I was meeting, but it is just a fragment of the history (of this place)”. I believe it is slightly 436 similar with the visitors; everybody has a certain focused imagination and what we, guides are trying to show here is the more general picture. (9:24) AS: In general, and historic meaning Auschwitz Birkenau is a former Nazi concentration camp. A place of death and suffering. Do you believe Auschwitz Birkenau could be an example of dark tourism location? TM: My answer would be no. In my opinion we do not want to overwhelm as so many other places you have been mentioning, right? Some of those places just overwhelm with fear, they full of… they try to play on visitors’ emotions too much. What is important for us, and what I believe differentiate us constantly, later on about it; we mostly want to show the authenticity of this place, both using personal stories, without however forgetting about facts, we want to show the process of how Auschwitz started as a model camp but then became a concentration camp, an extermination camp. (10:42) AS: …because Auschwitz was a work camp at the start? TM: Concentration camp actually, you could probably have a conversation with doctor Setkiewicz about it as well. At the beginning of functioning, it was a typical concentration camp, the forced labour is valid probably from the beginning of 1941. On the other hand, if we have had 2.3 million visitors in 2019, so before Covid, it changes this place into some sort of touristic destination, no matter how wrong it sounds, right? To say Auschwitz – a tourism destination…. unfortunately, it is like that. We wanted to deliver some in depth education, the effect of this place and so forth, but it is not always possible, especially if the visitors come here for 3,5 hours. In 3,5 hours needless to say, we are just not able to demonstrate everything, but we can not create any in depth experience. From the other side, 437 I think; ok, let’s start with the 3,5 hours. If that creates a motivation to 5 – 10percent of our visitors to come here again, read some extra materials, get involved in this theme – I would call it a success. I do not want to brag here by saying “well, 2.3 million visitors, we doing fantastic job”, because I know that for some of those people it is just a place you should visit “because I am around, it is near where I am”. (12:41) AS: So today it will be Auschwitz, tomorrow Wieliczka Salt Mine, day after tomorrow Cracow…? TM: Unfortunately, it looks like that sometimes. However, I say – here we have a level of understanding those circumstances; it doesn’t mean we require a deep reflectivity while visiting here. If someone is being reflective – great, it means that whatever we are doing here is good, if someone comes back here – even better; if someone comes back here with a need for something more; workshops, volunteer programme – fantastic. However, we know that will not appeal to everybody. (13:26) AS: Dark tourism, I would agree could seem a slightly commercialised terminology. However dark tourism has many shades a grey, not everything is commercial attraction. In many publications Auschwitz is being mentioned as darkest form of dark tourism comparable with Cambodia Killing Fields, or New York and Twin Towers. However, there are other examples of dark tourism for instance London Dungeons Tower of London, a former prison, there is a Body Worlds Exhibition in Amsterdam, there is Dracula Experience in England. Most likely Dracula did not leave in England, additionally it was probably a fictional character, and even if nor we never know about his famous blood drinking habits. So, places alike that are treated with some kind of dark humours and less emotional engagement; it is more based on entertainment. In case of Auschwitz Birkenau, how do you present this site to the visitors, a site of death and suffering? Do you base yourself on facts and figures or through the lenses of individual stories of a victim or the whole families who were send here…? 438 TM: I believe it is slightly impossible to present the story of Auschwitz based on facts, dates, and number only. Firstly, it is not an approach which would keep the visitors interested. Secondly. The guides… we need to somehow limit the distance of time, dissociated history; it is almost eighty years gone and I think that using appropriate personal stories is a key. I believe we managed here to work out the balance between facts and personal stories; naturally not all the guides are equally equipped to link and mix it well. Generally, I think we, here in Auschwitz are more focused on (that mix); it is really forced by the expositions, exhibitions; here (in Auschwitz I) we talk more about facts, in Birkenau we have more possibilities to used personal stories. I trust that is how the guiding should be looking like. Although in Auschwitz I there is a space for a personal story; we talk about block ten, block eleven, assembly square; we use personal stories there. And as I say, we should not crown our visitors with huge number of facts, dates and so on, because no one would remember it anyway, but it would create more chaos (in general understanding of Auschwitz) than they had before the visit itself. I personally use two, maybe three specific dates; I still believe it is too many and most people would not remember even those few mentioned. So, for a guide, especially a newly recruited guide who is full of detailed specific knowledge… (it is difficult to refrain himself from overwhelming visitors). We do check their knowledge during the entry exams, we also check the skills of how they demonstrate that knowledge. The exam has three parts; written exam, oral exam and those two (parts) present the knowledge the candidate should be having, then later we check their proper guiding skills (“in field”) and this is the time we access the style of showcasing of the knowledge. As I said before; after passing the exam the young guide is buzzing with information and facts; he or she thinks everything should be told to the guest, everything should be mentioned. The reality is however different and after around half a yea; a year of guiding everyone of them starts to understand that and everybody realise that something has to be changed, adapted. I mention that always at the beginning when I train new guides, however not all of them get it right. Also, it is a case of working out your own way of guiding plus let’s not forget that those tours have to be tailored to the visitors; I would not use the same story, 439 as I do not think I should use the same story when I am guiding Italian visitors and when I am guiding French visitors; in every of those cases there are individuals, who are much more recognisable in each country, they relate more to people from a given country. I believe that a story of someone who is recognised and known affect the visitors more than a story of the person totally unknown to them, It is not very obvious in all the cases, but generally this is how I perceive it. (19:18) AS: To what degree the visitors can modify the visit? Are there any particular places that you know of when the visitors like to stop for longer, ask more, are there any places which are especially difficult and emotional for your guests? TM: We try to show the same places to everyone here who bought a standard tour. It is block four, block five, block six or seven, block eleven, the ruins of gas chambers and crematorium; this is a base. (19:58) AS: So, without block ten? TM: We walk next to block ten and we stop there as well, but we do not come inside, but sure; we do explain the story of block ten during the standard tour. Normally the process is as such; there is a group of around thirty individuals, we organize them here in a something called “tour”. It is only obvious than we cannot modify the route of the visit; if everyone of those thirty people would have an additional request; then it would be very difficult. If it is a private group tour, then it is with a guide and a group of four, five people when often there is a family history in the background; then the guide can modify, there is no problem. I work mostly with the Israelis, so it happens very often; we go in a place connected to the story of grandma, grandfather and so on, as long as this place still exist, as long as this place is available to see. With standard tour such requests are rather impossible. 440 (21:33) AS: Who comes to Auschwitz? Who is a typical visitor? TM: Again, we cannot describe a typical visitor, it is more complex. We have people who are emotionally involved with this site, and we have people who are not engaged with this place, they come because they believe it is a place worth seeing. They are however people from all over the world; I am coming back to figures from 2019 so when we have a real peak of visitors; we had more than 300 hundred thousand Poles, almost as many Brits and America – I am now categorising them due to language spoken. In general, the visitors are European and American, naturally Israeli. More and more often we have visitors from South-East Asia, countries like Korea, Japan, Singapore, Indonesia and so on. We still have generally low percentage visitors coming from African countries and South America. South American numbers are slightly changing – we have slightly more Brazilians and Argentinians, but it is still not enough to count them as a significant group of visitors. A big group of visitors are young people; they have visiting programmes, such as Norwegian programmes. They have slightly different mode of studying; they have a break every few months and often the entire school comes to visit us during that break. We have British model – Holocaust Educational Trust – one day stay, we have French model – few days stay, we have German model – it is about coming to Museum of Auschwitz but also visiting the town of Oswiecim; it is more in-depth visit; they visit the town Oswiecim and think what it could look like before the war, before what had to happen for Auschwitz Concentration Camp to be created. We have obviously also adult visitors and here, as I said before; the motivation is different. So, we cannot say we have one universal model of a visitor, we have to have different approach to this issue, even while talking about individual visitors, standardised tours. From one hand we could have a second generation of Holocaust victims; Israeli or United States, on the other hand we might have visitors from South-East Asia, where the subject of Holocaust or Nazi’s 441 crimes exists but it is being looked at through the lenses of Japanese crimes in Korea or in China. So there are often comparisons arising, they try to compare those two events. (25:20) AS: I am Polish, most of visitors and Polish, you are Polish, however when we talk about the former camp site, we use this German terminology. We say Auschwitz, not Oswiecim, we say Birkenau, not Brzezinka. Is there a particular logic behind it, is it a norm? TM: Yes, it definitely a norm. I mean, that in terms of the camp itself we always use terminology “Auschwitz Birkenau Camp”. It is something that has been worked out in the last twenty or twenty-five years really, as for a long time the names in use were: “camp in Oswiecim”, “camp in Brzezinka”. I believe it was a right thing to do (to use German terminology), to show… you know… all the problems with calling it Polish concentration camp. The name Auschwitz Birkenau helps as well. And of course, in relation to the museum our full name is “National Auschwitz Birkenau Museum”; we relate to the time in history, we do not relate ourselves to the town Oswiecim. We do not use here names Oswiecim or Brzezinka. (26:54) AS: As it was a German concentration camp however located in Poland? TM: Precisely that. (27:05) AS: You have mentioned some more in-depth visits being organised here, where the authenticity of this place could be verified in a wider scope. Could you tell me some more about it? 442 TM: Sure. Actually, a department I am working for, which is one person department (laugh), is a part of The International Center for Education about Auschwitz and the Holocaust (ICEAH). We have new headquarters, open in 2020 and we offer that in-depth, focused visit. The core is always a tour, walking the grounds of the camp, however we enhance the groups to build on it. It could mean a pre-visit workshops, we also have a summary, conclusive workshops offered post-visit. If the visit is longer than one day, we can also offer some lectures, seminars run by the employees of Research Centre. We also have field workshops, workshops in buildings, they might not be the original buildings, however we still try to engage the imagination and open a discussion. Those are mostly for younger people, youth groups. There are also very interesting workshops focusing on Nazi propaganda from before the Second World War, and so on, so on. So, I believe that our offer is quite broad, if you are interested that on our website there is a tab called education and it includes the whole list of workshops being offered. We can see interest coming our way. We can really see that this year for instance, when the covid restrictions are lighter than last year there is an increased interest in coming here and also the interest of attending the intensive in-depth visit is really vast. What is great is that the teachers, educators see the need to book a visit. We also try to reassure some grants, with that we can facilitate longer stay here for Polish youth, we can pay for their workshops, visit, guides and so on. So, the only cost their school is having to cover is transport here and back. Also, when it comes to the in-depth tours, the numbers of visitors are not as gigantic as numbers of individuals coming for a standard tour. Saying that, I think we might reach over 25 thousand of visitors coming for in-depth education this year, which is really good result I believe. (30:09) AS: I have heard you also run workshops for the penitentiary officers… TM: Yes, we have… Well, actually they are not solely for the officers and prison guards, we also have programmes.. before the covid we were visiting penitentiaries, we demonstrated remote exhibitions 443 to the inmates, we were running workshops for them and so on. I was told it was a big success as well, I mean here, talking about success; in many cases we could see a visible interest in what we were traying to portray; what could result from racism, homophobia, hate towards religions or nationalities. We have also programmes for the Police, for Fire Brigades, for the forestry guardians… Those public service institutions are very much interested, the theme of Auschwitz. Sure, it is slightly diverted towards different angle; they talk about overusing their status power and the uniform. It is about whether the privileges coming with the status, with the uniform reflecting in holding certain power; how this power could be used. We also used to run workshops for Senior Police Officers, it was years ago, however I think they are very valuable themes to mention. (31:43) AS: I absolutely agree. Knudsen in 2011 said, “Tourists receive mostly emotions and feelings from the process of visiting”. Would you agree with that statement with Auschwitz Birkenau Museum in mind? TM: As I said before, it is not the case of giving a visitor a massive shock displaying the pictures, because they might not be able to take it (process it). We also know that people come here with different attitude, it is not like this place stays neutral or indifferent to the visitor. I often observe what is happening here; we cannot hear it now on the recording but there is a hum coming from outside (the window is giving at the central starting point for tours). People are talking, they are still excited. Very often after coming in (the camp) we have a moment of calm, muting down. I believe that this is a key here; this place works like that, it frees all kinds of emotions, all kinds of reactions as well. We do not expect from a visitor a given reaction or emotion, it is not like some people have said “I did not cry in Auschwitz, so something must be wrong with me”. Not at all. But the place and this history frees many different emotions, definitely. I think that for many people it is just quite strong, emotional experience. If we top it up with the fact that actually many visitors have had their relatives being 444 imprisoned here; survived this place or died in this place it could be then even comparable with…. Not even comparable; it IS visiting a cemetery, a graveyard when my relatives have been murdered. Definitely; it is very emotional. Hence the reactions and the variety of reactions. (33:55) AS: If I could ask you to look; this is the emotional theory by Plutchik (The A4 size picture of Wheel of Emotions by Plutchik is being presented). Would you be able to name some of the emotions you are observing. It is a general collection of emotions; varying from joy to range or grief. What kind of emotions displayed by the visitors are you observing? TM: I believe something I have already mentioned; it would be pensiveness, definitely it would be also sadness as an emotion which can be seen. But also, I think the emotions would be amazement, surprise, they are here as well. I am not sure whether the emotions mentioned here on outside of the wheel are…? (35:22) AS: It is the intensity of emotions; let’s say apprehension can escalate to fear and then to terror. It stems from the same emotion, it is just getting stronger. For instance, we can feel a kind of acceptance for the history that happened here, but I very doubt some people would feel trust or admiration for that place. TM: I understand. I would consider here as well the emotion of interest, because it does happen as well… I would then stop on those emotions I have mentioned now. 445 (36:14) AS: Many thanks. Many places, however, please do not treat that question at any point as a criticism; in many places connected with death, crime there are elements… when shock mixes up with the commercial elements. There is functioning restaurant and café on Auschwitz grounds. DO it influence the authenticity of this place? TM: My answer will be based on what my very good friend, Israeli had said, he is very much connected with this place, and he said once that the fact there is a restaurant here, or a café is something completely normal. I mean; every place visited by so many people needs to have a certain infrastructure. We do not question that; on the other hand; if we didn’t offer this infrastructure people would be automatically asking “Why this is not here…?”. As I said; we do not want here influence emotions of visitors in a way that “you have to do so…, you mustn’t drink, you can’t do that or that”. Obviously when we are on the ground of the former concentration camp (while visiting) there is “no eating” rule, so I believe that somewhere it must be that place, that infrastructure. I would not investigate more sinister reasons for that. (38:04) AS: And please do not treat this question like that (looking for something that should not have a place). I have read many papers discussing the elements of “kichifikation” of places connected with death, for instance in New York; Twin Tower Memorial sells many souvenirs; mugs, teddy bear as a firefighter and so on, which are probably slightly not in tune with the events which happened there in 2001. So that is my way to ask for comparison. I already could see that in case of Museum Auschwitz Birkenau everything is very subdued and adjusted to the basic needs of visitors, definitely there are no signs to overwhelming with commercial products, no sighs of selling cheap attraction. How do you react to the new trends in Auschwitz happening during the tour; taking selfies with more infantile meaning, such as “Happy Day” attached to the picture of main gate with “Arbeit Macht Frei”. 446 Again, I am not disapproving process of taking documental pictures, which I hope I will have opportunity to take some myself, however posed and infantile selfies in a place like this is something totally different… TM: I am a massive supporter of NOT taking pictures like that (selfies). We try to forewarn our visitors, rather asking them not to take that kind of pictures here, however it stays just as our kind request and the reaction to this request can be very different. We know exactly what is happening here; as you mentioned, we can find many pictures on social media which are simply inappropriate to being here. However, I also think that the sensitivity of people working here is different to sensitivity of people coming here to visit because this place was “recommended”. We have examples; there is a Memorial of Murdered Jews in Europe, it is in Berlin; it is not a in situ place, but still some inappropriate things are happening there. City of Berlin tries to intervene, educate. We also try to do the same, but we are in in a place to forbid it totally, we are not able to eliminate all behaviours as such; we may forewarn, remind, suggest the inappropriateness and tastelessness of those kind of pictures. Sure, documental pictures are something totally different, However I feel quite content, when I hear from my group “you know, I didn’t take a single picture here, I preferred to focus on being here, rather than documenting, taking pictures, which I can find on Internet anyway”. But I also understand that mobile phone, camera can be a kind of a bridge – possibly it is easier to go through the camp taking pictures. It becomes emotionally easier. That’s fine too. As I said I am glad every time I hear “I did not take pictures because I wanted to feel this place on a deeper level”. That is all right. (41:50) AS: What role in showcasing the authenticity of Auschwitz Birkenau for visitors have former inmates of the camp? I do realise that we are in possibly last moment in time when those people are still “just” available because in terms of age they are not able to attend the meetings. Possibly when they arrived at the camp, they were still children who do not remember much. Do you however have 447 now, in 2022 the help of former inmates who come here and identify themselves with the visiting groups? TM: I would say, in the past – of course. Even twenty, twenty-five years ago this role was gigantic, as many of the former inmates were working in our Museum. Possibly when you talked to Dr Lachendro about this – they were employees, they were guides, their role in keeping the information and stories in most authentic form was gigantic. Nowadays, it just like you say – most of the former inmates were either teenagers or children really (when they have been in Auschwitz Birkenau). Another issue is that most of them does not leave in this area; then we have less opportunity to use their voices. Nevertheless, we are trying to organise meeting with the survivors, with former inmates. When we know that someone is feeling well enough, is able to commute here, then our Centre of Education is organising meetings like that. However their role now is… I mean we always listen to them when they are here, but when a group of visitors come from a city XYZ and say: “we would like to meet the survivors” it just does not work like that. We cannot organize and match it every time. It is not like in Holocaust Museum in Washington where still many Holocaust survivors work there. You could meet those people there. We do not have such an opportunity as many spared, mostly Jews left Poland, did not stay here after The Second World War, on the other hand those “Children of Warsaw” (who survived Warsaw Resurrection) live in Warsaw, so it is always a case of a commute and so on. However, we do try; we have contact with few former inmates and they come to visit us often. Maybe you have heard – Mrs Helena Dunicz Niwinska died at 99; she was a political prisoner, she was part of the camp’s orchestra; her story is truly unbelievable, but this is one of the last moments (to meet those people). (45:01) AS: How did she survived the camp? 448 TM: She was sent to other camps and in 1945 she was formally freed. She has written many books which I would definitely recommend. Her books are very, very good. Strong. Written from the perspective of the concentration camp’s inmate and from the perspective of a woman… (45:42) AS: Tomasz, we are coming to the end of the interview. I would like to, once again thank you for your time and the information you shared with me. TM: Thank you. 449 Appendix 9 The results on netnographic studies – State Museum at Majdanek Source: TripAdvisor https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Attraction_Review-g274818-d284159-Reviews-Majdanek_State_Museum-Lublin_Lublin_Province_Eastern_Poland.html 2023: Male: A very moving experience. A chilling site. Female, UK: Unbelievable and unforgettable. Absolutely breath-taking to see the size of it. 2022: Male, UK: One is left feeling utterly bereft and a deep emotional connection to the sight. Male, UK: Very thought-provoking place and a must see in Lublin. Female: Emotional and thought provoking. 2021: Male, USA: This is an excellent and moving experience that everyone visiting Lublin should experience. Male, Poland: An overwhelming feeling of sadness and anger at the perpetrators' perfidy. This place is overwhelming and gives food for thought. 2020: Male: Fundamental experience. 450 Male, Poland: Really good experience! I recommend it, everyone who has get to this place would probably always remember it. Male, Germany: Haunting! 2019: Male, Poland: Absolutely horrific and overwhelming place, which definitely should be visited. Female, Romania: Very powerful experience. It's not a light visit, but one that needs to be made. Female: Though provoking Male, UK: The whole experience I have to say was sobering, saddening and mind boggling. The fact that this idea of extermination of people on such grand scale was done by other people was disgustingly shocking. The exhibitions were fascinating and thought provoking. Everything was sad. Everything. And you definitely leave with a heavy heart. Yes, it is worth going to for everyone. Male, USA: A sobering but educational experience. In summary, Majdanek is not a place to be visited by just anyone. It is not for a casual, curious visitor. It is chilling, powerful, and teaches an important lesson. Male, Australia: It was a sobering experience, but worth making the effort to visit. Female, Canada: Sobering and insightful. Male, Barbados: Shocking display of the wicked mined of the Nazi regime. Male, UK: A Harrowing Reminder. Male, UK: A place next to which you cannot pass by indifferently. Let us think a little and think about the essence of human life. A very good place to explore and ask yourself many questions. A visit here can be very unpleasant but instructive. 2018: Female, UK: This place is absolutely haunting and confronts you with the things human beings can inflict on others. Male, USA: Disturbing 451 Male, USA: Horrific but Important Male, Canada: A moving and enlightening place to visit. Male, Canada: This is not a fun place to visit. It is a place of horror death and destruction. I come here to give my respect and get a feel of what happened and that these camps existed. This Memorial/Museum is well worth the visit. Female, USA: Sobering, chilling, thought-provoking. Male, UK: Equally as thought-provoking as any of the death camps and a great educational museum/memorial. Go! Female, UK: The whole experience was very moving and educational. Some of the things I read, and saw will stay with me for life. Male, UK: Sobering, haunting, but a necessary and forceful reminder. Male, Israel: Shocking but unavoidable. Male: Solemn education in the past. I found the barracks containing music, a recorded voice speaking prayers and a visual memorial to be extremely moving and literally spine-tingling. Male, UK: Very moving and emotional thinking of what those poor people suffered and went through. Writing this review has left me feeling so emotional thinking why and how these atrocities were carried out. This experience will stay with me for the rest of my life. Male, Denmark: Heart breaking experience. Male, Israel: hair-raising Male, USA: This was a somber tour but important to keep the history of the holocaust alive. Male, UK: Shocking. It needs to be seen, don’t skip the displays, read and understand. Amazing this all happened next to the main road into Lublin. Female, USA: A very moving, important place to visit. Female, UK: Very emotional, sad part of our history... Male, UK: What an amazing place. Steeped in history. This is an absolute must if you find yourself in the area. Male: But the most shocking is to see mausoleum where inside is mixed excavated soil with.... 452 Male, Israel: It is imperative to visit not only the Jews, but every civilized person who arrives will not be able to ignore the quiet and space of the extermination camp. The chilling experience begins to get a special feeling that you see the guard towers and barbed wire fences. It is simply a duty to visit and complete an important part of human history. Female, Australia: Whilst very sobering, our visit to Majdanek was very informative and interesting. Male, UK: Unsettling but important to see. Female, Ukraine: A place which is must visit and which shows us the Tragedy we must do everything never to repeat. Male, Canada: A chilling but beautiful memorial. Female, Israel: Very sad. A must visit when visiting Lublin. ?/USA: There is no pleasure to be derived from a visit but it's a perfect place to contemplate and think. 2017: Male, UK: A haunting spectacle packed full of information about some truly harrowing events. Male, UK: A very sobering place to meditate on the atrocities of war, without masses of tourists. Female, UK: Unimaginable !! Female, UK: A haunting reminder to be thankful for the lives we have. Male, Israel: Must see experience. Male, UK: A must visit. First visit of this kind for me and I’m a historian. It was a harrowing experience made more emotional by the many coaches of Israelis and European Jews who were visiting at the same time. I felt their grief too. Male, USA: My visit to Majdanek was very interesting. Male, UK: Moving visit. You truly get a feeling of mixed emotions when you’re walking from different chambers. Female, UK: It’s fascinating and very moving. 453 Male, UK: also moved me to tears especially after being confronted with a hut full of thousands of shoes. Male, Germany: The memorial site obviously is historically very valuable, but as well as the memorial site in Auschwitz I don‘t think that childs and sensory people should visit it. Male: A visit in the Majdanek National Museum is a must, a nice and sad in once feelings, cold feelings. Female, Martinique: The testimonies and exhibition are amazing and really interesting. It was a truly educational visit, it makes you think about your differently at list for a few hours. Male, USA: More shocking than Auschwitz. This gave us the opportunity of exploring the camp on our own, which was definitely depressing. You get a sense of the horrors that took place in this site. This was an unforgettable experience that still months after my visit I cant forget. Male, Italy: No words. It's an hard experience, but necessary. Male, USA: Stunning contemplation of the monstrosity that was the holocaust. Male: Chilling, fascinating, exacting. Cannot commend this brilliant memorial enough. Couple: Difficult but essential place to visit. Male, USA: A Most Sobering and Emotional Walk through Suffering. You walk away shaking your head, with tears in your eyes and brokenness in your soul. Female, UK: Incredibly sad but reflective place. A place to see but without children. Nothing can prepare you to see the cruel history Polish people experienced. Very sad but eye opening place. Male: Very sobering experience. Not the kind of place for a "happy" day trip but well worth it to get a taste of the horrors of the holocaust. Male, Europe: There is a feeling that cannot really be described when you visit and walk around the site - seeing the gas chambers and the cans of Zyklon B. Male, Poland: Painful day. A very memorable day that will fill you with various emotions. A hard day but should be mandatory for all to not forget what men can do to each other. Do not miss this camp. ?: Very moving. Clearly signed what and where everything is highly emotional. Male, UK: The museum is set up extremely well and they handle the horrific subject matter tastefully and comprehensively and I am very glad I went. 454 ?, USA: A must visit.. Horrifying. There are no words to describe visting this place, In some ways its more horrifying than Auschwitz. It was not destroyed by the Nazi's so its more complete. Male, USA: You will come face-to-face with a tangible demonstration of the depths of evil that man can sink to. How do you even begin to understand the massive pile of human ash of many tens of thousands of people? Female, USA: Horrific place everyone should see. ?/ UK: Moving, difficult to visit. Not everyone's choice, for me a kind of pilgrimage. Female, Italy: It is only a very small relief the fact that these days we can see Majdanek, and similar other places scattered around the country, as a museum that in an accurate and somber way reminds us the terrifying things happened there. Majdanek by all points of view is an alternative to Auschwitz-Birkenau, minus the crowds. Female, UK: Emotional... Leaves you speechless....an important museum to help us remember the pain and suffering of the European Jewish community and Polish communities during WW2 and after the Soviet liberation of the camp. A reminder of the evil that humankind are capable of... Female. ?: To walk the pathway into the gas chambers was very eerie and very emotional. ?/USA: A somber remembrance... One of the best preserved concentration camps we have visited. A very moving, emotional experience. It's hard to imagine all the horrific things that happened here. Male, Ireland: Lost, let's not forget. The world should never forget the evils of time, particularly what happened in Poland and indeed elsewhere. To enter some of the blocks and see what human beings can do, is absolutely heart breaking, overcrowded prison blocks, where ashes were kept, the crematorium, etc. Unlike Auschwitz, Majdanek is almost complete in the way it was back then. What I noticed was a lack of wild life, saw one bird. I visited Auschwitz some years back but haven't been to Bergen Belsen, yet. I pray for the souls of those who lost their lives so horrendously here. May they rest in peace. Female, UK: Harrowing but important. By visiting here you can get a sense of the terrible events which took place here, and which should never be forgotten. Male, Australia: Emotionally challenging. This is an amazing tribute to those who were murdered - because it is real and visible and much of it original it wrenches at the heart - not enjoyable but something everyone should visit. 455 Female, Norway: A depressing but important experience. Spare some time to visit this humbling place! Male, Israel: Go only if you are willing to give evil a straight look in the eyes. Female, UK: Not a pleasant experience but a "must do" so we do not forget or allow future generations to forget. Male, UK: Depressing but a must see. It was a worthwhile visit and highly recommended from a historical perspective and as a reminder not only of man's inhumanity to man but also of the resilience of the human spirit. ?/Belgium: A historical and educational must do and must see. Male, UK: If I had to make one criticism I would say that it is presented too sanitised. Male, Poland: A Must Visit. We commented on how that really gave perspective as to the occupants of the camp. I have driven past several times but never visited. You must see for yourself. Male, UK: It's really tough experience so I do not recommend it for kids however it can bring knowledge and understanding. 2016: Male,?: Eye opening. Male, Spain: Summarizing, a place to not forget the horrible events in 20th century, to remember people, who suffered a lot until his martyrdom, to learn the history, to shed tears and especially to understand these facts can not repeat nevermore. It is a very hard visit, but Essential! Female Poland: The Mausoleum, with the ashes of the murdered prisoners, the ditches where people were buried and the crematorium - I could not contain tears. Female, UK: We always feel very humble and feel the need to pay our respects even though we don't have Jewish backgrounds. ?/Israel: Nothing says mass murder quite as effectively as a giant pile of human ash. Majdanek is a memorial that everyone should see, even though it will leave you utterly drained. Female, Poland: Worth to see, even if it might be hard experience. Sometimes they are horrifying, but unfortunately it was true. After visiting this place you will appreciate your life and times you live 456 in. In my opinion this place shouldn't be visiting by children and teenagers, min age of visitors at least 16+. Female, Portugal: One of the best concentration camps. You'll learn a lot and, in my opinion, with a better perspective of reality than you get in Auschwitz. They have many barracks where prisioners slept that are still standing, and also the crematorium, where you can see the gas chambers and cremation ovens. A raw terrific image of the cruel reality of the world at that time. There are also some monuments and memorials to the victims that have been erected on site. Definitely a place I recommend to anyone who is interested in history and wants to learn a little more. Female, UK: ...it was difficult. At the very end there is a mausoleum of the victims' ashes where you can leave candles, flowers and say a prayer...words cannot describe how I felt that day. If you are in Lublin, you must go see it. " Male, Netherlands: Majdanek is a must see when in the area. You could go to other similar places but this camp will sure make an impression on you for life! You can learn about its activities in the second world war. It is exactly as it was and there is a museum where there is lots to read and learn. Female, Italy: Touching experience. ?: Was very impressed by this place. It is recommendable to prepare yourself by reading the literature about nazi death camps before the visit.it is the Must for everybody, who visits Lublin. Female, UK: It is important to keep these monuments open for all who wish to visit, learn more about man's inhumanity to man and pay our respects. Female, UK: Educationing. Male, Israel: Some of the facilities remained authentic and with the testimonies of the survivors the experience is extremely emotional. For the commemoration of the innocent people, mostly jews, kids, elderly people, women and men, brutally murdered by the Nazis and their assistants. Female, USA: It was a deeply moving experience. Majdanek is preserved as a tasteful memorial to the people who suffered here. Female/?: Thought provoking! Much of the camp is intact. So much to see. Great for history buffs and those who are interested in the Holocaust. Seeing the cremains was heart- wrenching. Male, UK: It's the sort of place where you feel duty-bound to look at every exhibit and read every board - and there's a lot. It's huge and very impressive and leaves no stone unturned in telling the story of the camp. 457 Male: Interesting and disturbing at the same time. Male, UK: A 'must see' if visiting Lublin, which now has its own relatively new airport. ??UK: Harrowing. The gas chamber, crematoria, Pantheon, and execution trenches are especially harrowing and moving. This is not a place to enjoy visiting, but it is one that will leave a profound and lasting impression. Female, Australia: Sombre, important site but a little visitor-unfriendly. A visit here is very worthwhile. Female, Netherlands: impressive and informative. The stories and numbers are dumbfounding and sorrowful, and this museum serves its purpose well - never forget. Male, USA: Solemn reminder of Nazi atrocities. Female, USA: A very emotional visit for our group. Never forget. It is a camp that was not destroyed by the Nazis. Couple, Israel: Hard to say a concentration camp is very good!!! but its vast place is impressive and touching. Male, UK: An eye opener. Please take the time to go here. It will bring a tear to your eye! It is free to enter and we'll worth visiting..... ?/Poland: A terrible reminder of the past. Male, United Arab Emirates: A place of reflection as well as tragedy. Female: There are no words to describe the camp and all things which you can see there. Absolutely must see if one's in Lublin. Female: Very sad and eye opening. Met lot of lovely Jewish people there praying. Felt unreal. Male, Poland: Walk round at your pace and feel the emotion in each exhibit. Well worth a visit. ?/Poland: It will have an impact on you. May leave you angry, speechless, afraid... you will not leave Majdanek and remain indifferent. Male, Israel: A chilling visit to an important historical site. And most chilling, the huge mound of ashes of the murdered Jews. This is a somber place. Male, India: Please maintain silence while visiting this place. It will make one realize how the situation was during the Nazism. PS: People who are too sentimental, please visit at your own risk. 458 Male: Just walk in peace and remember them....should this never happen again..... Female, UK: there is no point missing out on this unbelievable place-probably one of the saddest on the planet! See the huts and the gas showers, you will never get over this! The ashes at the end will stay with you for ever-totally mind blowing! ?/Israel: Harrowing but important to visit. ?/Poland: Not for the faint hearted. My assessments below as to who I think should visit the camp is based upon my experience with friends. Some find the visit quite disturbing, others as an educational experience. Parents in particular should think this visit through very carefully. As I indicated earlier, this camp visit is not for the faint-hearted Female, USA: Very moving and emotional. Male, UK: Emotional and thought provoking. This should be compulsory viewing for all school children and all adults who should be reminded of the worst that humans can do to each other. Male, UK: In summary, put it on your 'to do' list but be prepared to be shocked and saddened by what happened there, both past and present. ?/Poland: Deeply moving. It's just amazing. The museum has been recently refurbished so it's even more informative and moving now. Male, UK: Humbling and hard hitting, how the could have ever have happened is the question, humans cannot treat others in this way. Everyone should see this to realise what privileged lives we live today. Male, Switzerland: Words Cannot Describe. This is a place that must be visited. Everyone should see what happened here so that maybe we can try not to repeat these horrible acts. 2015: Male: A very moving experience. Female: Sobering and important. This was well worth visiting. ?/Australia: Never to be forgotten or repeated Male, Australia: Sometimes you must visit places where atrocities occur so we never let it happen again to any race. 459 Male, Spain: Sobering but not boring. Male, UK: Stunning. A must see. Male, Germany: Sad to see, sad to reminisce but a reminder of the history of the world and its errors. Female, Israel: Sad Cruel place, strong experience. Do not miss!! Female, UK: Sobering. ?/South Africa: Visiting this place should be on everybody's agenda. I personally think that it is much more 'disturbing' than Oswiecim / Auschwitz. Male, Canada: Interesting and deeply moving. ?/Poland: it is difficult to believe these things happened just 75 years ago. Female, UK: Everyone should see Majdanek. It's a very touching visit. Gas chambers, ovens, human ashes, shoes collection, clothes, hair, and other terrifying things as a evidence of unimaginable suffering. Male, UK: You have to visit yourself to feel the horror of what happened in the 20th Century ..reading books & watching documentaries will not ever have the visual shock of seeing a Death Camp. ?/UK: Harrowing but you have to go. ?/UK: Thought provoking tour around the former camp. Seeing the shoes and the ashes was heart wrenching but a must see. ?/Poland: It is not the place someone should recommend or not. If you are in Lublin, you have to go there just to not forget or if you don't know, just to get known. Female, Germany: It is hard to visit but You should. This is a place with history, very emotional. ?/UK: A must visit location, if only to honour those who gave up there life. Male, UK: Thought provoking. I felt really numb after the visit. Male, Netherlands: Stunning experience of horrific past. Must see. Female, UK: Harrowing but very worthwhile. Essential. Female, Canada: Intense, emotional, and poignant site. Visiting Majdanek in the heat of late July was not easy, emotionally or physically. This former camp is deeply moving and tragic, and standing next to the mausoleum of ashes is a haunting experience that I will keep with me always. 460 Couple, UK: A must see. Walking around Majdanek leaves you with so many thoughts of the poor people who suffered here. There was so much to see here that will stick in my memory for ever. Everyone who ever doubts that anything like this happened should be made to visit here so that it never happens again. ?/Switzerland: Very powerful is the monument covering the huge mound of crematory ash found on the site. I found this camp more powerful experientially than Auschwitz. Male, Switzerland: impressive, an unique experience. For those who have been to Auschwitz, this is very different. You walk around by yourself, the exhibitions are smaller but more modern. Totally choking but necessary visit when in Lublin. Female, UK: Some places you just have to go to; some things you just have to do, and visiting Majdanek is one of them. Edmund Burke said, "all that is needed for evil to flourish is for good men to do nothing" and I felt I had to bear witness to the history of Majdanek. This concentration camp is intact and you can walk round at your own pace and stop when you need to take stock and read your guide book or just sit and think. How aware it made me of all those 'lives unlived' and how grateful for my own. An life enhancing experience and the staff at the entrance were so helpful and kind. Male, Netherlands: Impressive visit and feeling grateful to Poland about how they take care of the heritage. Very very good museum. ?/USA: Extremely Powerful and Disconcerting! Unlike Auschwitz, which is replete with tourists, this site bears an eerie heaviness and an agonizing atmosphere representative of the horrors and atrocities committed in that camp. But the final exhibit, that of the urn of ashes, is truly the most emotive and shocking part of this museum. It is so very difficult to fathom how essentially an entire society-- the European continent's majority of the population-- could support and/or allow such inhumanity to occur. Man's inhumanity against man is outrageous, vile and despicable. We must make every effort to bring an end to such injustice and cruelty. Male, Netherlands: This won't attract the attention or crowds like i.e. Auschwitz does, but it is every bit a smack in the face. People can be animals. Male, USA: Somber May 2015 • Friends If you ever had any doubts of mans' inhumanity, you won't after a visit to this site. It is not pretty. Well presented and well curated. Not nearly as crowded as Auschwitz or some of the other similar concentration/death camps so you have the time to absorb the presentations. 461 Male, UK: Harrowing. Female, Poland: State Museum at Majdanek. Exhibition is really shocking. I couldn't fall asleep that night after visiting museum. It's also good background to visit Auschwitz. Male, Canada: I heard so much about Auschwitz, but choose to also visit Majdanek while I was in Poland, as my grandfather was put in this camp during WWII. I was the only visitor when I went, which was probably partially due to the time of year (January), but it seems from other reviews that it's generally the norm there. For me, it was a very personal experience, and it is extremely hard to put into words what it is like. For one, it is totally different than Auschwitz. Less touristy, and very much "intact". Male, USA: Much more interesting than Auschwitz. Everyone goes to Auschwitz but if you make some effort you must also do Belzec and Majdanek. Majdanek is still very much lifelike. Male, USA: A much more isolated experience than Auschwitz. Auschwitz is packed with visitors. Majdanek is the total opposite. When we were there, the only other visitors were two nuns. It is a much more personal, individual experience and feels eerie to be in the place all alone. Female, Singapore: Best and most horrifying concentration camps I've visited. Ive read some reviews that if you have been to auschwitz, you dont need to go to the other camps. thats not true in my opinion. each concentration camp tells its own horrifying tale. Auschwitz-Birkenau is undoubtedly a very important site that serves as a reminder of the pure evilness of humanity. Majdanek literally shows you that. you get to see the actual gassing rooms and crematorium. you also get to see the evidence of nazi's mass murder in the mausoleum where a gigantic mound of ashes lay. human ashes. there really are no words to describe this experience. Male: A much smaller/ better preserved trip than to auschwitz. would recommend to anyone, as much as you can recommend a place of such true horror and brutality. ?/UK: Majdanek is one of my favourite places to visit in Lublin. I would never forget the specific smell of the old wooden '' barak's'' where the prisoners were kept. On my way out I spotted one pheasant and herd of 5 young deer, walking close to crematorium. Were they innocent souls of the murdered people? ?/UK: We should never forget. No words can describe the feelings while paying our respects there, I would ever describe Majdanek as an attraction but we should all experience this place and we should never forget... 462 Female, Poland: Majdanek is less on the beaten track, less crowded and therefore more befitting for personal and small group experience. A very hard place. Male, UK: Sobering thoughts. It is a stark reminder of man inhumanity to man. I will not forget this visit! Female, UK: Please visit and pay respect to hundred thousands human lifes stolen by deluded Nazi's. Female, Ireland: I really liked the museum if you can enjoy this sort of experience at all. You must see this and when you do, it gives you chills and you leave with a heavy heart - at least I did. Female, Belgium: Harrowing and emotional. It is a highly recommended if emotional place. ?/Israel: This was hands down one of the most emotional places I have ever been to. There is countless history on these grounds. This place is completely worth visiting and will leave you feeling empty, as people felt back when this was a working concentration camp. ?/Finland: . Everybody should see this so that no-one doesn't need to live through these horrible things again. ?/Hungary: Although it was a very cold and windy day...it totally worthed the price and time. This place is mandatory if you are in Lublin. It touched my hearth so much, you can feel the terrifying times when it happened. Male, Israel: You can see there all the shoes collection, clothes, hair, and crematoriums. As a jew it was a place that explain me more than the books, that really happened there. Female, Ireland: It touch your heart. Very sad place as its nazi- camp from II WORLD WAR. Male, Ireland: Very moving experience. This place will leave a deep impression upon you be it the first of this type of memorial you've been to or one of many. The fact that some of it is intact does give it more of an impact. I have to say that with the limitation of Trip Advisor's headings, I'm very uncomfortable listing this type of place as an 'attraction'. 2014: Male, Italy: please, don't forget: we have no fault, no responsibility for a past even our parent weren't yet born, but we are responsible for the future we will give to our children. Memory is the only way to avoid the same mistake twice... 463 ?/Israel: you have to visit this concentration and death camp while you are in Lublin. it's not a matter of "like" or "dislike", it's a matter to see history of the second world war and not let it happen again! Female, UK: Really brings it home how the holocaust affected peoples lives. Some of the exhibitions make you wonder how any human being could do these things to their fellow man. Really sad but worth visiting to see just how badly the prisoners were treated. Female, Italy: It's a place full of memories and when you have visited it yours mind will be changed for the life. Male: i can't say that is a beautiful place to visit but i recommend too for not forget and learn. ?/UK: A sobering experience but something not to miss. Male, Israel: Important and moving. My visit there was very emotional, it makes you think about the important things in life. Female, UK: Harrowing and heart-breaking, but essential. We felt humbled and horrified, but it will stay with us forever. ?/Poland: I've never really been to a concentration camp, I'm glad this was the first one I'd seen. Very sad place. The barrack that touched me the most us where they house the shoes of all the prisoners. Very eery! If you're in Lublin, you must visit Majdanek. Female, UK: Standing there looking upon this Camp it wasn’t hard to imagine what it must of been like for the prisoners, please don’t confuse this Camp with Auschwitz, they are nothing alike, this Camp was purely for extermination only, the prisoners barracks were waiting ones only, to accommodate the large numbers they killed. We highly recommend here, you cannot visit Poland and not come here. Its a quiet place, sobering knowing how many died here in so short a time. Male, Morocco: I recently visited Auschwitz and came away disappointed. It felt like I had been on a production line and hadn't done it the way I wanted to. This wasn't an issue at Majdanek, where I could wander at my own pace, free to read all the fascinating information. I spent two and a half hours there. My only disappointment is that one of the displays is closed for work, I presume something to do with the upcoming 70th anniversary of the liberation. Other than that, a fascinating museum! Male, USA: Appalling and essential. ?/USA: Harrowing. Sobering reminder of what hate does to people. 464 Female, Ireland: Out of all the camps / remains that I visited in Poland, this place had the most chilling effect on me. It's possible to visit this huge site in perfect silence since there are very few visitors. The exhibits are so honest and brutally down to earth that you can almost feel carried away in time. If one wishes to visit a well-preserved Nazi camp and also wants to avoid the touristy feeling that's present in Auschwitz, then this is the place to go. Male, Australia: I could not sleep after visiting Majdanek. It brought home to me the horrors of what had happened here with mass executions. The camp is very well preserved and seeing the showers, gas chambers and ovens. It made a lasting impression on me. ?/UK: Beautifully preserved humbling thought provoking museum. If your every in the far eastern part of Poland or going to visit Warsaw, then this is a place you can visit to get a full understanding of the tragic persecution experienced by innocent people. 2013: Male, UK: Overwhelming. What i found remarkable is that the nazi, s built this camp so close to Lublin and seemed to make no effort to conceal what was happening from the inhabitants of the city. Another place where everyone should go visit at least once. Male, USA: Majdanek is NOT a museum. It's a Nazi concentration camp where tens of thousands were systematically murdered. It is a solemn, sobering place. Without experiencing a visit, there is no way to understand what a horror it must have been to enter the showers and gas chamber of Majdanek - the crematorium and the ovens where the remains of the murdered were destroyed - or the spot where over 10,000 Polish Jews were shot to death in a single day. The exhibits are masterfully done. The experience will quite likely haunt your dreams. Male, USA: Can there ever be a "review" of a death camp? The entire experience of visiting Majdanek is overwhelming. This is much more than a museum. It is a walk through a place that should never happen again. This is the place where the Nazi government learned the efficiency of the slaughter of millions during the war. To finally wind up at the "saucer" and the ashes of the victims is beyond comprehension until you go. You can make the judgments you see fit -- but with this event less than 75 years ago it is necessary to visit and vow never to have this repeated. For me, it was one overwhelming emotion after another having family roots in Poland. Additionally, there was a group of approximately 200 Israeli youths walking through the camp at the same time carrying several flags of Israel. Our guide was thoughtful and respectful -- it is possible to be here without any guide. Everything 465 is well marked and explained in 3 languages -- Polish, English, and Hebrew. When you finally leave this place carved out of pastureland at the edge of the city you will be a different person. ?/UK: A Daunting place to visit: so green, yet so bleak and on the perimeter of the town. Take your time, try to understand what happened, even if the 'why' is unfathomable. Make up your own mind about what you see, but don't forget, ever. Female, UK: a place everyone should visit, something never to be forgotten, takes about 4 hours to really take it all in, very emotional place. well done to the country for keeping the place open for the people to visit. Female, UK: A sobering and moving place. Majdanek had the most effect on me of all the Camps I visited on my trips to Poland. There were fewer people than at Auschwitz and Birkenau. It almost gave me the stench of death. ?/UK: The museum/memorial site at Majdanek is a sobering and moving place. This is an excellent place to reflect on the terrible events of the Holocaust without the crowds often encountered at the memorial at Auschwitz/Birkenau. Male, Canada: Emotionally draining. A must see. I visited Auschwitz/Birkenau, Belzec and Majdanek during my visit to Poland; all the sites were moving and emotionally draining, but I think Majdanek had the most effect on me, no doubt because many of the buildings and sites are original to the camp. Without the usual bus loads of tourists, it was easy to reflect deeply on the horror of the time and to pause and reflect ... and even catch a glimpse of things from the past out of the corner of your eye. Female, New Zealand: An eyeopener to what happened, very sad. Male, UK: The room of shoes is harrowing, and to see the preserved gas chambers is utterly chilling. It is worth seeing, but be prepared. ?/Singapore: MUST GO! A site of great historic importance and values. Majdanek is very different from Auschwitz, in that it's almost free of busloads of tourists. You can walk through some of the barracks, which has been opened as exhibition sites. Because of the quietness of it all, you can stop and reflect on the monstrosities that's been committed by the Nazis during WWII. It'll make hairs from every pores of your being stand, and yet it's something you must visit, to ensure that nothing like that happens again. ?/Israel: this is a must , to see and understand the horrors of the Nazi time. it is a very emotional visit m con be hard to some people but i consider it a must see!! so it will never happen again! 466 ?/USA: The memory of Majdanek stays with me more than Auschwitz-Birkenau. Possibly that's because there were so few people in the snow of early April 2013 and it became more of a much more personal experience. it is just a visit to hell and the worst of mankind. Male, UK: A glimpse at the devil. Very atmospheric. Male, USA: I said "experience" rather than "visit" as the visit tends to have positive connotations. This will not be a happy "visit" but it will be an important life "experience". The exhibits are remarkable and will not (should not) be forgotten. Take some time to learn a bit about the camp and what transpired here prior to your visit and you will be rewarded by a deeper appreciation and understanding of what is there in front of you. To be able to see and experience Majdanek and choose to avoid it would be a disgrace and dishonour. You owe it to yourself, to those who perished, and to those yet to be born to go, to see, to experience, to remember, to reflect, to reveal. Male, UK: As much as you should never like going to a place like this I found it very interesting, shocking, brutal, informative and was also amazed at the well preserved nature of the camp. Male, Ireland: Possibly even more mind-blowing than Auschwitz/ Birkenau simply because it is virtually untouched since the Red Army pulled out. ?/USA: I won't tell you what it is because I think it is important that you "find" it as I did. If you are in Lublin this is a must see; just prepare yourself to feel "icky" for a little while afterwards. Male, Poland: Sad place if you see what people can if they wants to rule others. 2012: ?/UK: This place should never have been able to be built. It is a heart wrenching visit and unbelievable that it was built by a civilised society only 65 years ago. Everyone must visit to ensure it is never forgotten and never repeated. 2011: Couples, Poland: It's worth to go there. You can only imaging how it was during Second World War. The biggest impression creates the building where people were burn - unforgettable. Male, USA: As other reviewers have said, Majdanek is certainly a sobering and historically important experience. 467 ?/USA: Solemn, heart wrenching, and unforgettable. If you want to visit a concentration camp but want to avoid the crowds, go to Majdanek which is the second largest camp in Poland. You will not regret it, and you will have a better understanding of how awful Nazism was. Female, UK: Sobering Experience. Whilst Auschwitz-Birkenau saw the extermination of more than a million human souls and should remain as a constant reminder of the ability of mankind to sink to back to the lowest levels of its primeval past the former concentration camp has become something of a tourist attraction with hordes of tourist and school parties displaying little respect for those that died there. Majdanek by contrast is seldom visited except by pious locals, coach parties paying their homage and those for would the former extermination camp is a short cut on the way to work. The legend on the dome of the Mausoleum (in Polish) translates into English, "Let our fate be your warning". However even that cannot prepare you for the sight that lies beneath the dome, it would take a cold heart not to be moved by it. ?/USA: Very Powerful ----A Must See !!!!! As you can see this is a pretty powerful place to visit and it really should be visited because it is a place that needs to be seen and even though its name may not be as well known as Auschwitz/Birkenau its story needs to be told and remembered. ?: A horror story that must be told. I had heard of Auschwitz, Belsen and Treblinka but not Majdanek. Attraction clearly isn't the right word. It's the site of one of the most evil camps of the Second World War where a quarter of a million people died at the hands of the Nazis. There is a feeling of relief when you leave Majdanek but anyone who visits Lublin ought to make the short trip to the edge of town to see it. 468 Appendix 10 The results on netnographic studies – Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum Source: TripAdvisor (14,596 reviews started from 30.10.2023 down) https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Attraction_Review-g274754-d275831-Reviews-or20-Panstwowe_Muzeum_Auschwitz_Birkenau-Oswiecim_Lesser_Poland_Province_Southern_.html 2023: Male, UK: Understandably there are a lot of people who want to see the site and that makes it hard to take things in as you are constantly being moved on quickly to keep up with the flow. ?, UK: The site is extremely overcrowded as in my opinion tickets are oversold , there simply are far too many people on the site all trying to squeeze past each other on stairwells and through doorways. Male, UK: My wife and myself went and we were very saddened at what we learned. But we did feel that it was something that should be done, if only to pay respect to those poor souls and pray it will never happen again. Male, UK: very moving experience even though its my 4th visit here. Female, Netherlands: Visiting this museum is a must for everyone. It’s a dark part in history and to see it with your eyes is different than reading about it or seeing it on a screen. 469 Female, ?: Everyone should visit Auschwitz-Birkenau at least once because it is a very important place to remember and to understand all the atrocities that happened during WW2. We have to remember it in order to not let history repeat itself. Female, Taiwan: Today. I visited the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration and extermination camp with sadness and mourning. Male, ?: Somewhere i’ve always wanted to visit, very emotional and thought-provoking. Worth going with a tour guide for the added knowledge. Female, Australia: This is a place we all know about, have learned in history, read books and seen movies. To be inside, the sadness and horror is palpable. Male, UK: Overall an amazing experience of which I imagine nothing else can come close to in making you feel certain emotions. ?, UK: The site is chaotic, badly organised and we were rushed through. We got the impression they are trying to pack as many people in as possible to maximise profits. The guides rush you through the site insensitively. You are forced into gigantic compulsory tour groups. Female, ?: Both sites were full of historical moments, however very sad and thought provoking. Male, ?: For such an important historical site for the world the experience of the tour left me underwhelmed. It is far too busy to be able to take in the full experience ( ie multiple tour groups at the same time trying to pass each other on narrow staircases, very large group size for the english speaking tour meaning that the commentary was virtually meaningless as all you could hear was interference). 470 Male, Netherlands: Overall i think that the guided tour in English was well done, we learned a lot. Male, Croactia: This visit is something that I will remember for whole my life. Female, USA: EVERYONE should take this tour. The Holocaust must NEVER be forgotten. It was just as poignant and disturbing as it should be. ?: Sad and haunting but must be seen! Has to be visited to experience the horror and the scale of this camp!! Female, Canada: What an experience! A must when in Krakow. Very interesting and sad place to visit. Upon our return to Krakow hardly anyone spoke. Female, USA: A sad, but necessary visit. At least once in a lifetime, we all should visit this memorial and museum, preferably with a guide. even though some parts can be especially sad and depressing. ?/UK: As the events of this place slip away from living memory it becomes increasingly important to bear witness to what happened here. Male, UK: An emotional visit but worthwhile. A trip that was very well worth it. Please be very respectful and do not photograph where asked not to - the human remains (hair). There are piles of shoes, cases, hair, prosthetic limbs and prayer shawls which tell a very sad story. You will also see the sleeping quarters and photographs of many of the prisoners. This is not the place for 'selfies' or 'ticking off for a bucket list.' It is far more than that..... You may be upset at what you may see or hear, but it is well worth the visit. Male, UK: Auschwitz-Birkenau - An important lesson in history. My words inevitably fail to provide just how moving the experience is, and such important lessons from history must never be forgotten. 471 Female, UK: We must never be allowed to forget. I was expecting to get more upset than I did but actually nothing was unexpectedly horrific in detail although there are many moving and awful facts and things you see. A place everyone needs to visit because we must never be allowed to let these horrors disappear from our collective consciousness; visiting is a way of remembering all those lives so cruelly taken away. Female, USA: A soulful, must see experience. I found the most heart wrenching, displays of personal belongings and the punishment chambers, even though you could call everything seen is heart wrenching. Male, UK: A must visit experience. Couples /?: A day of reflection and emotion. Female: Profound educational experience and an important journey that encourages reflection on the atrocities of the past. Male, UK: Words don’t do it justice. A very important experience. Male, The Netherlands: A must-see to educate everybody. It feels a bit weird to call this a 5-star attraction as it does not cover the load. This place is not fun to visit but to my opinion it is a must see to educate people what has happened so we can learn from the past. Female, UK: Disappointing for the disabled (wheelchair users). Male: It's good to know history. The tour was nice and everything, but the place itself is very depressing. First, they give you headphones, and you watch a short video. Then you explore. There is 472 sort of an eerie vibe about this place. But let's not live in ignorance. This place shows how evil human beings can be. Female, ?: Bucket list. Female: Very sobering and impactive. Female, Denmark: Forgive but do not forget ... How very difficult - almost impossible - it is to write a review of such a horrifying place. Yet it is also so important that it remains to be visited for us and future generations. Someone told me they thought it should be converted into a green park memorial space and no longer display the buildings where the horrors happened. This is an extremely sensitive discussion - but I will always argue that we need to remember what happened. We need to forgive - but not forget! Horrible things happen still - and some of those memorials may just help to prevent that. So, it is not an easy visit… Female, UK: Shocking, worth a visit, lesson of life. That place should have no rating. It’s NOT a tourist attraction. It’s memorial, cemetery, a symbol of mass murder. Everyone should come here once in their lifetime. There is no need for description, but some practical advise. Male: A hard must see. An extremely somber but must see to fully understand the atrocities but also to pay your respects to those lives lost. Male, Poland: Terrible Place Everyone Should Visit. This place absolutely sucks. On display is the absolute worst that humanity has to offer. That said, everyone should visit here at least once. It's vastly moving in a negative way, but the story needs to be told. One of the darkest chapters in the story of humanity, the innocent lives lost cannot and should not be forgotten. 473 Female, UK: Respects paid. I always wanted to go here to pay my respects and I got that opportunity. Loads of history to take in but I knew some. Heart-breaking words from our tour guide of things I didn’t know or expect to see. Male, Romania: A unique experience, a very special experience, a lifetime experience. I recommend with great confidence, go and visit this open-air museum, a real life experience! Male, UK: Must do. It is a sombre, but necessary experience. However, it was unfortunate that there were so many people visiting that it distracted from the visit. Female, Germany: Fascinating, exhausting, humbling, essential. It is important to see the museum and remember. Male, Greece: Shocking!! You have read about these concentration camps, you have watched documentaries and heard about this but nothing from the above prepared me for what I saw and felt there.. Especially with the museum of the personal belongings of the people of the people: The shoes, the glasses.. the hair … One room was only with children ‘s shoes! The gas chambers and the crematorium. It is unthinkable.. A place which everyone must see. Female, USA: There are no words to describe this experience. Male, UK: Amazing but heart-breaking experience. The Auschwitz- Birkenkau site was so eerie (as we got there just during sunset), vast and excellently / respectfully preserved. The sheer size of the site and the way our guide explained the conveyor belt like nature of the selections was equally as heart-breaking to see. ?/UK: Everybody should visit Auschwitz. 474 Male, UK: It is a sombre, but necessary experience. Female: There's just not really an option to sit and allow the emotions to sink in and having some tell us over and over how many people were killed here didn't do it. Only once, seeing the mounds of hair forcibly removed before execution, did I feel close to tears; and I cry at everything. Still worth visiting but I had higher expectations. Or go to a smaller, lesser known camp. Couple, UK: Heartbreaking � tour & struggled to get through it if I’m honest �…. Hopefully � never repeated!! 2022: ?/Thailand: Unspeakable horrors! Sickening to see and realize the horror that humans are capable of inflicting on other humans. Not a fun place to visit, but everyone should visit at some time to confront this evil face-to-face. Male, UK: Sobering But Worthwhile Experience. The tour of Auschwitz is certainly very heavy and could certainly be quite distressing especially when it hits you that you are at the site of one of the worst atrocities in human history. We learnt a huge amount and I would certainly recommend the visit for people to understand the lessons and paying respect to those who suffered there. Male, USA: Horribly Powerful. As others have said, there literally are no words to describe the horror of this place. However, it doesn't mean that you should not go. Quite the opposite, I feel that every human being should go. Maybe then, the horrors of the world we currently live in, may be subdued. No matter what, go and learn so that these horrors will not be repeated. Female, Australia: You must go here. As school children in Australia, we are taught about World War 2. We learn about Hitler, the Nazi's and the persecution of the Jews. We are given facts, figures and statistics of how many people were murdered in concentration camps. We watch Schindler's List and The Pianist and we think we have a good understanding of what took place. Even with all of this prior 475 knowledge, nothing could have prepared me for the reality of Auschwitz. Nothing prepares you for that. I highly recommend a visit to Auschwitz. Female, UK: Although an upsetting, disturbing and unsettling place, if you’re in Krakow it’s definitely important to visit. Male, UK: Again, there is simply no way to comprehend what in God's name you are looking at when you stand in front of a collapsed gas chamber. There are no words in the English language to describe what it is. Male, Ukraine: A horrible place that everyone must visit. Visiting this place makes feel you terrified and absolutely devastated. ?, Netherlands: Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it. No more words are required. Male, UK: We took an English tour of Auschwitz and Birkenau, and the experience from start to finish was harrowing. Despite it being common knowledge as to what generally happened, It’s a real eye opener actually being there and seeing some of the aftermath first hand. Be prepared for some horrifying sights and stories from the guide. Male/?: A one-off experience, a terrible place one should not forget. ?/ Switzerland: Emotional. A moving visit. Even though the crimes happened many years ago, the place still conveys the horror very vividly. Male/Israel: Tough and still hard to believe but every visitor to (the area) Poland should definitely spent some hours here just to learn about the past. 476 Female/UK: Interesting but heart wrenching. I have never visited anywhere that had and has left me with such a profound affect. Its truly heart breaking BUT I am so pleased I went… Its quite an experience and we must not forget these places were real and must never ever happen again. Female/UK: Harrowing. Went to both Auschwitz and the Birkenau camps and it is beyond belief. ?/?: The remains of human hair and the gas chamber created one of the most lasting, poignant memories. Female/UK: This place feels somehow unreal. You know what happened here, but you can’t believe that it COULD happen. A somber and sobering day. ?/Sweden: Such sad history that we need to remember in order not to repeat! ?/UK: Heart breaking and eye opening. Female/USA: Sobering experience. This is a tough place to visit but so important to remember the large amount of people who died here. You can feel the darkness of the place at every turn. ?/?: Once in a lifetime experience. It was impressive and humbling to walk inside these grounds and realise just how much horrible things went down there. ?/UK: An experience of a life time. Emotionally it was tough of course. Female/?: An emotional, once in a lifetime experience that we will never forget. Our guide was very knowledgeable and it wouldn't have been the same without her! 477 Female/USA: Very emotional with feelings and information that will stick with you a long time. ?/UK: It is difficult to call this place "nice" (and it is fully justified that recommended minimum age for visitors is 14), yet the visit to Auschwitz-Birkenau is an experience every adult should go through - just to learn what people can do to the people. Male/USA: I visited here with a prove guide, and found it to be an incredibly poignant and moving experience that I will never forget! Male, USA: Odd to write a positive review about such a place, but this was an unforgettable experience and our tour guide was very helpful and knowledgeable. ?/?: Very moving. Still getting to grips with the horrors. Female/?: The most humbling and emotional experiences of my life!... it was truly a life changing and highly emotionally charged day in my life. Female, USA: It's hard to review this site, because although the educator and the presentation were excellent, the subject matter is so awful. Couple, USA: Sad, but a must do. So important we do this to ensure it never happens again. ?/?: Emotional and thought provoking. Great experience, picked up on time in fab air-conditioned mini bus. Alicia our host was amazing who made our day run smoothly and gave local nuggets to enhance our knowledge. ?/?: A sobering experience. 478 Female, Slovakia: Horrible place, but everyone should visit this place and see what brutal things are people capable of. For me it was very emotional especially in some buildings. It was raining so it enhance the atmosphere of the place. Female, New Zealand: Not exactly any part was a "favourite" as all of it was a real shocking experience. But I did want to tick off my bucket list where there are huge piles and piles of reading glasses, shoes, bags and suitcases, shaven hair, and more to get you quite shocked to see all in reality. The gas chambers were really terrible. Male/?: Not at all sure why anyone wouldn't rate this as a 5. Sure its quite harrowing, horrible even, but to step in the same place and see with your own eyes and walk the same roads as millions of people who suffered and died here is both moving and thought provoking. Female/?: So much sadness and horror, but also a place to honour those that died there. Angie, our English speaking guide was very informative. Female/UK: Definitely glad I went, think it’s a good grounder, a reminder of how lucky we are and how precious life is. ?/?: Lifetime experience!!! ?/USA: Very somber place with lots of sad memories there. ?/Finland: Very eye opening experience and also educational. With our extremely good guide lady stories and people got totally new aspect. There was no dry eyes in our small group. 479 ?/Australia: It's very sad and shocking to me that this really happened years ago. I visited both sites as part of a guided tour. Female / Norway: A necessary, educational, devastating experience. Should be mandatory to everyone who can afford it. ?/UK: very emotional place… ?/UK: Emotional but necessary visit. Male/Canada: It was a very sobering and moving experience yet a necessary one. Male/UK: A somber but interesting tour. It's hard to sum up the experience - interesting feels like the wrong word to use given the history of the place and how somber it is, but Artur did a great job of explaining all the aspects of the camp, adding in facts and stories I wasn't previously aware of. ?/?: I agree with everything that’s been said and probably couldn’t say it any better it was the most somber experience. ?/USA: Very humbling sad and angry at what these poor people went through . No human should ever had been treated in this manner. Male/?: Astonishing, moving, sobering. There aren't words in any language to describe the experience of visiting Auschwitz and Birkenau, you just have to visit. I'd like to consider myself reasonably knowledgeable of the Holocaust and what occurred in 1940s Europe, but following our tour this weekend, I feel I knew nothing. 480 Female/UK: It’s really difficult to say you enjoyed the tour knowing what these poor people had to go through and seeing some of the landmarks/property with your own eyes, but it was one of the best tours I have done in a long time, so so insightful and I would recommend it to everyone going to Kraków! Female/Germany: For me surprisingly Auschwitz wasn't as shocking as Birkenau where most of the murders occurred. Auschwitz seemed almost like a ghost town and somehow "peaceful" if you walk through the cobble streets with trees and brick houses. When you go through the houses you see what really happened here. For me Birkenau was more shocking. It's a vast area with not much to see because the Nazis destroyed everything to hide their crimes. But especially because it was so idyllic with the fields all around the last reminders were so shocking. ?/Greece: Learning Lifetime experience… High value learning experience, which I will carry on in my life. I have promised to visit it again one day, along with my kids this time. Female/UK: I feel I cannot comment on our day as it was so emotional but I will never forget today. Just go. I took no photos as it will be forever printed in my brain. 2021 Female/USA: Harrowing but poignant/necessary. Hadn't been to so sad of a site since visiting S21 in Phnom Penh (chronicling the Cambodian genocide), but it was absolutely worth experiencing in person. We learned a tremendous amount from her, and I don't think we would have gotten the same information simply from reading the placards we saw (as I skimmed a number of them, just to see what info they contained). Our guide made it "personal," if that makes sense, as opposed to just giving us stats or info (in the case of the placards). Female/UK: Our time at Auschwitz was incredibly interesting and informative. Female/Spain: EYE OPENING EXPERIENCE. This was a difficult but beautiful experience. 481 Male/Ireland: The site was very somber and educational and the tour guide very good. Female/UK: In regards to the whole experience.. seeing a room full of hair, entering the gas chamber or walking down the way where millions were walking their last metres to get killed - made me feel sick and shocked of how people could did that to other people. Definitely a place worth visiting. Male/UK: What a heart wrenching place. The whole things brings about so many thoughts, emotions and feelings that we had not experienced before. The whole tour was fantastic and our tour guide was amazing. ?/UK: The memory of Auschwitz will forever be imprinted in our minds as we go back on the memory lane, it will never be forgotten. Male/USA: I don't think you can nor should you rate the actual visit to a concentration camp. The five stars is to signify I think every responsible traveler who is near here should take a day to find out what happened in this place and reflect on how we can prevent it from happening again. Male/UK: Informative and moving. 2020: ?/UK: Haunting and poignant, but essential. It's difficult to rate something like Auschwitz as it's not a tourist attraction in the traditional sense, it's a preservation of something terrible and a reminder of one of the darkest times in our recent history. ?/UK: Soul wrenching visit truly depicting the unimaginable horrors of the holocaust. This has to be five stars, and an unmissable trip when you are anywhere near the area. I cannot even try to put into words what my personal experience was and will instead make some practical comments. 482 Male/Chech Republic: In comparison to Madhausen camp which is well managed, lots of information and signs and offers to stay as long as you want. The management of the guided tours and the management of the museum is really terrible. – general complaint The tour really says only the few information on the walls and no more. There are lots of people in tours and you must go quickly without the possibility to rest or properly read and think about anything or even just process the terrors what happened there. 2019: ?/UK: Powerfully Overwhelming. Having visited I maintain that it is something everyone should experience, the emotion and experience is something unlike any other. You'll feel overwhelmed by the sheer inhumanity and criminality that took place against these innocent people. Female/UK: I spent most of the tour choking back tears in despair at the abhorrent and unfathomable horrors that were perpetrated here. |
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