Encountering Auschwitz: touring the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum
Griffiths, Claire Katherine (2018) Encountering Auschwitz: touring the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum. Holocaust Studies: A Journal of Culture and History. ISSN 1750-4902 (Print); 2048-4887 (Online)
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The Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum, situated on the sites of the former concentration and death camps Auschwitz I and Auschwitz II-Birkenau, has become one of Europe's most popular tourist destinations. Scholarly critiques of the site focus on the ramifications of Holocaust tourism and the motivations of visitors. This article expands the conversation by investigating the types of historical encounters available at the site for those who seek them. It critiques the English-language guided group tours provided by the museum, placing emphasis on representative tropes connected to ethical concerns raised about the 'museumification' of the site by contemporary dark tourism scholarship.
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This work was supported by an Arts and Humanities PhD Scholarship from the University of East Anglia, Norwich.
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