We Should Not Have to Tell You This: Tourists to Auschwitz MUST Be Respectful

[sinkingfeeling]

https://www.fodors.com/world/europe/poland/malopolska-and-the-tatras/experiences/news/we-should-not-have-to-tell-you-this-tourists-to-auschwitz-must-be-respectful

A Texas man (who has not been identified) was charged with trying to steal a metal part of the rail tracks at Auschwitz on Saturday. Malgorzata Jurecka, a police spokeswoman, told ABC News that though the crime can carry a prison sentence of up to 10 years, because the 37-year-old American admitted his guilt he will probably receive the much lighter sentence of two years probation.

This is, unfortunately, far from the first time a tourist has tried to steal items from Auschwitz. And this particular occurrence happened just a week after the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum issued a tweet asking that people not treat the railway like a balance beam.

But there’s another, more common ways that visitors behave disrespectfully at Auschwitz. Over the last few years, tourists taking inappropriate selfies have drawn a lot of (much necessary) ire.

What makes selfies and photographs shockingly inappropriate at a place like Auschwitz is the fact that they are inherently not about the people being memorialized. And not in the cliché sense of, “Oh, people on Instagram are just so self-obsessed!” Taking a photo of yourself isn’t always a wholly narcissistic impulse, it is often one of self-expression. But what you’re expressing when you take a photo where you are the primary subject at a place like Auschwitz is that your presence—your story—is the dominant one. By putting yourself at the forefront, you diminish the unimaginable cruelty done to the people the very site memorializes. And that is disrespectful.

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Couldn't have said it better. I was stunned by the disrespect I observed when I visited Auschwitz and Birkenau last October. The selfie takers were the worst. These places are so solemn and yet there were groups of loud, rowdy people yelling to each other and using selfie sticks in front of ovens where millions died.

Like I've said before, I'm old school.

[hlthe2b]

1. I was stunned at disrespect visitors (mostly but not all younger) had at the DC Holocaust Museum

I and several other visitors tried to convey polite requests to those loudly talking, laughing, running around, complaining about being bored, taking "selfies"... and generally just being obnoxious. Of course, it was met with eyerolls, sarcasm and "group mockery and derision" toward those who deigned to complain. I was really aghast.

Honestly, since they are not getting the education that would convey the grave nature of what this museum or location conveys, I think there needs to be a mandatory orientation for visitors. It can be short; it can be nonconfrontational, but it needs to convey some ground rules.

[Igel]

2. I've visited that kind of site.

But also catacombs and monasteries, churches and battlegrounds.

Every tour guide has said "be respectful" before we arrived there or started the tour or as we entered whatever space was considered in some sense special. Most of the time somebody from the place has had to remind members of the group about this. Sometimes more than once. And some "guests" were ejected.

How important the behavior was perceived to be by visitors tended, I think, to depend on any connection they had with the place. If you were Jewish in a Jewish-connected site, you were offended at the disrespect not to the site (it's inanimate) but to you. If it was a Xian site, then those who were more devout Xian were offended at how the others--Jews, Muslims, non-observant Xians--acted. If it was a site commemorating a lot of dead in the Civil War, it really depended on whether the obnoxious considered the South traitors, the North triumphalists, or just didn't think that they deserved the long-dead any special respect. The sacredness of the space depends mostly on how offended believers get if you're loud and "irreverent." After all, otherwise it's just a space--unless you believe in spirits, the appropriate deity or deities, or whatever. The spirits/deities seldom express much indignation, so it's up to their adherents and human defenders.

In a few cases the "disrespect" was completely understandable. At a memorial to a battle that left a lot dead there were some kids who were loud and irreverent. They lived across the street, and to expect them to be all mournful and pious whenever they were on the only green space for many blocks around was a bit much.

[hlthe2b]

3. Nonsense. That kind of behavior is not tolerated in libraries, so why should it be elsewhere.

It is not just the "created artificial reverence" for some inanimate place, as you describe. It is behavioral norms that ensure an experience amenable to visitors to learn, to reflect, and to experience what it is they came (and typically paid money) to achieve. You don't have to have a spiritual tie to the place to BEHAVE.
It is common civility and decency. That still matters to most of us.

[sinkingfeeling]

4. Wow. Couldn't disagree more. I've been deeply moved at

memorials around the world that had nothing to do with my religion, culture, or ancestory. I have cried at memorials in Ukraine, Hawaii, Jordan, Cuba, and even Russia.

There is a thing called respect but I guess it can now be selectively taught.

[hlthe2b]

5. Exactly. this isn't whether one shares religious beliefs, it is compassion/respect for other people

[sinkingfeeling]

6. It's whether or not a person can connect with the humanity of the 'other'.

[BigDemVoter]

12. I am generally not big on decorum. . .

But this is one place one would hope to find some.

[mopinko]

7. seems to me young people are doing what we programmed them to do when

we started making all museums more like theme parks to engage the little buggers.
i watched this happened as my kids were growing up. i am a believer in active learning, and fearless engagement w the world. but making everything a dang game was maybe not a good idea after all.
or maybe when it became about the selfies was the turning point.

or at least, letting parents just sit back on the park bench like they would do at the park is maybe where it went sour. i remember these kids bouncing off the walls while the adults cowered.
the guards that used to stop you from banging on the glass cases should have stuck around and poked those parents into getting in on the learning, or at least keep junior in your sight.


it's a new world. hard to say where it is going, but it wont all be good. or bad.

[FakeNoose]

9. Yes - children need to be taught boundaries

If children are never taught how to behave, how can we blame them when they misbehave? OTOH these people visiting the Auschwitz and other memorials, are not children. They should have known better and they need to answer for the consequences.

[Karadeniz]

8. Americans have interpreted freedom to mean freedom to do whatever I want, whenever, wherever.

It's all about "me." That's license and people need to grow up.

[Totally Tunsie]

10. During a visit to Stutthof Concentration Camp in Poland, I found the opposite

to be the case. Upon passing through the main gate, the silence was overwhelming, and that continued throughout the day. It was quite amazing. Visitors instinctively spoke in whispers, if at all, and all were quite solemn. It was oddly peaceful, as though no one wished to wake the souls who had been imprisoned and tortured there. Quite memorable, to be sure.

[Dulcinea]

13. I also found the opposite...

...at the 9/11 Memorial & Museum. People were quiet and respectful. It's beyond me how anyone wouldn't or couldn't behave themselves at such sad and sobering places.

[Behind the Aegis]

11. There were some assholes when I was there two years ago.

They were Italians and Poles (I am basing this on the languages I heard them speak). They were pointing at the gallows and laughing. A few grabbed "electric fences" and feigned being electrocuted. I even heard on Italian ask if the numbers were real or if it was a fantasy. I speak some Italian. It was disgusting. I thought my father was going to punch one person who just kept making gestures on the fence. These were adults!