The Nazi concentration and death camps known simply as Auschwitz-Birkenau are a top tourist destination for visitors of Kraków, Poland. Before I visited Auschwitz-Birkenau, I didn’t imagine the small Polish town of Oświęcim where it is located to receive the amount of visitors it does each year. I was shocked to see advertisements throughout Kraków saying “Auschwitz day tour” and “cheap shuttles to Auschwitz,” as I was not expecting it to be a tourist attraction. When we got to Auschwitz-Birkenau my preconceived ideas were wrong.
Birkenau
The ticketing area of Auschwitz-Birkenau was full of large groups of people – including ourselves – speaking different languages and waiting for their turn with their guide to tour the grounds. Although most of the people seemed to be schoolchildren, I did notice some Jews who were wearing shirts with the name of the organization that brought them on a pilgrimage to Auschwitz-Birkenau. Around the main entrance there was a gift shop that sold books and posters (yes, posters) about the Holocaust, a snack bar, and a post office to send your Auschwitz-Birkenau postcards home right away.
When we were on the tour, there were many people taking photographs of everything as if it were just a normal tourist destination. As for myself I limited my photographs to the outside of the camps rather than the artifacts on the interior to be able to take in their significance and out of respect for the victims. When we were walking through the old camp barracks that were renovated into museum buildings there were specific rooms that held artifacts where visitors were not allowed to take photographs. These buildings were packed full of people, and we had to walk in lines on the left and right through the building to be able to see everything and yet not cause chaos. On our tour other visitors continued to take pictures of these artifacts as our tour guide yelled at them to turn off their cameras several times. Maybe these visitors didn’t speak Polish or English and didn’t understand our guide’s orders to turn off their cameras. When we went inside of the Crematorium I located at the original Auschwitz camp, I noticed a teenage girl taking a video for her Snapchat. It made me think about how society has become that we have to live-feed everything on social media, rather than experiencing the moment.
In my opinion, part of the problem is that many people are visiting Auschwitz-Birkenau as tourists with limited knowledge on the Holocaust and therefore not in the right mindset to be at such a place. Indeed, some disrespectful people etched graffiti inside one of the prisoner barracks at Birkenau. This barrack was used to hold prisoners before they were to be sent to the gas chambers. In this barrack people wrote their different words and phrases, as well as hearts with couples’ names in the middle, on the walls which was shocking to me. I am fortunate enough to have visited Auschwitz-Birkenau after a semester of studying the history of World War II and the Holocaust, which enhanced my experience and appreciation for the things I saw.
Graffiti Inside the Prisoners’ Barrack
The main problem I see is that there is a difference between visitors coming to educate themselves and pay their respects and tourists wanting to site-see. Auschwitz-Birkenau has had problems with tourists in the past, most notably the girl who took the infamous Auschwitz Selfie that caused outrage as it went viral on social media. The most logical solution to me to solve this problem is to not allow visitors to bring cameras onto the grounds, and hope people come with an understanding of the camps’ historical and cultural significance to the world. I don’t think they should close Auschwitz-Birkenau to visitors, but rather find a way to monitor visitors’ actions better to create a more respectful atmosphere.
It is also the decision of the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum which image of themselves they want to project to the public, whether that be a memorial site or tourist attraction. After my visit I would argue they seem a lot like a tourist attraction from the way they advertise and sell souvenirs. Most memorials don’t have an entrance fee or gift shop. In addition, I believe that they want to be a tourist attraction due to the fact that at the end of our tour our guide asked us to like/follow Auschwitz-Birkenau on Facebook and Twitter. Auschwitz-Birkenau is a great example of how we can turn anything into a money making venture, even the most solemn of places.