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AIBU?

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Original poster

Not for tourist pics

97 replies

teagivesmejoy · 12/12/2019 17:02

AIBU to think that Auschwitz should not be viewed as a typical tourist destination?
2 of my friends have separately in the last week visited and posted photos on SM.
I have never visited myself, and know it must be incredibly harrowing.
Can't see why people feel the need to post pics like they're enjoying an actual holiday?
Of course each to their own etc, surely it's not just me who finds it disrespectful?

OP posts:
crispysausagerolls · 12/12/2019 18:32

YANBU

When I went to Dachau I was infuriated by the groups of students laughing and joking around. So fucking disrespectful and inappropriate!

TattiePants · 12/12/2019 19:37

I completely agree. I visited Dachau last year on my own while DH took the DCs to a local park. I took a small number of photos (def not selfies) when there was no one else around to show DH and DS. I don’t think I’ve looked at them since and haven’t shown them to anyone else.

GCAcademic · 12/12/2019 19:42

How inappropriate. Taking photographs is banned at the Anne Frank house. Rightly so.

TooMuchSun12 · 12/12/2019 19:42

I felt the same about the World Trade Centre memorial when I saw people taking selfies. I wanted to say ‘a relative of the deceased could be stood next to you as you take your grinning selfie you f*cking insensitive twat’ more than once.

ForalltheSaints · 12/12/2019 19:57

I have yet to go. I know I will, as a great uncle, great aunt and their youngest daughter died there. I am thinking of going there on the 100th anniversary of their marriage.

I will not take any photos when I am there.

JeffreeStar · 12/12/2019 20:12

I agree. A relative of mine went in the summer and kept going on about how excited she was to visit and how it’s been her dream to go. So over the top!!

JeffreeStar · 12/12/2019 20:17

I do however think it’s important we have photos of these places. We can’t allow them to be forgotten. But not selfies or posed photos.

I had a similar dilemma in Budapest, the the shoes of the Jews who were pushed into the water and drowned. I choose not to take photos but my friend did.

LetsGoFlyAKiteee · 12/12/2019 20:25

You cant take photos at Anne Frank's house so I'd thought it would be similar. It's when you people taking selfies there to...why

andpancakesforbreakfast · 12/12/2019 20:33

What do you think is so disrespectful about taking photos?

What do you think is so disrespectful about sharing images with people who might never get the possibility of visiting?

Do you think a book is unacceptable too?

Is it because we are now flooded with selfies and filters that photos are seen as a "fun" activity?

Auschwitz is a tragically know place, but there are many others around the world that are much less known. Why would you think taking photos and sharing them with the history behind them is in any way disrespectful? It happened, we shouldn't be ashamed or scared to let others know and to remember.

Kazziek · 12/12/2019 20:41

I took photos at Auschwitz, but not of people. I took photos to record for myself little scenes that I may not otherwise remember in amongst the horror. I took photos of where a family member is buried at a commonwealth war grave, again for my own memory and no pictures of people.
I did get very angry with a coach group smiling and giving a thumbs up for a pic on top of the 'their name liveth for ever more' stone in the cemetery!
I have no problem with pictures for personal records, or even on SM if it raises awareness. No bloody need to be in the pic tho!

LetsGoFlyAKiteee · 12/12/2019 20:47

It's sad the museum had to post this in relation to selfies/photos of people being taken on the railway track.

“There are better places to learn how to walk on a balance beam than the site which symbolizes deportation of hundreds of thousands to their deaths,”

Original poster
teagivesmejoy · 12/12/2019 20:57

@andpancakesforbreakfast a smiling selfie is the height of disrespect at a place like this.
I've never been, think it's a hugely interesting, sad, historical poignant place that the world should know about.
There are enough dignified references to places such as this online, or in any library.
In my opinion, it shouldn't be viewed as a tourist attraction.

OP posts:
Span1elsRock · 12/12/2019 21:01

I found people taking selfies at the WTC site in NY to be really upsetting.

It felt so utterly crass - it's a memorial.

But you can't fix stupid. And a lot of people are sadly.

andpancakesforbreakfast · 12/12/2019 21:05

a smiling selfie is the height of disrespect at a place like this.

I never said or implied it wasn't.
I am disagreeing about "photos" in general. Taking photos has nothing to do with being in a tourist attraction.

I disagree with that also
There are enough dignified references to places such as this online, or in any library. well someone took photos in the first place. Is your issue that Auschwitz is a very famous name, but you would be ok with smaller death camp that are not so well know to the public?

I think photos and sharing information is even more important today than it ever was. People used to know "someone" who died there, who had survived, whose relative was there. As time goes, it becomes less relatable for some.

Photos can only show you the image, not the feeling of these places, but I completely disagree that they are in any way disrespectful as such. Nothing to do with grinning selfies.

TrainsandDiggers · 12/12/2019 21:06

I don’t think it’s at all right to take selfies, but not everyone will have the means, opportunity or inclination to visit a concentration camp in person, so I wonder if they may find it humbling/valuable to see (sensitive) photos that others may post on sm?

fargo123 · 12/12/2019 21:12

I have been, I took photos, but not with people in. I didn’t post on social media, I just wanted to have something to mark that I had been there. I only took a couple though, I didn’t go round snapping all day

Same here. I visited at what appeared to be a very quiet time, and I took a handful of photos of the outside of some of the buildings. It never occurred to me to include my family or myself in them.

There was one man going around taking lots of photos of all the exhibits such as of the prisoners' hair, glasses etc, as though he was at some sort of "normal" tourist attraction, which made me feel a bit sick actually.

Ilikeanimalsmorethanpeople · 12/12/2019 21:16

I got really annoyed at Pearl Harbour with the amount of people taking selfies! It was almost like they thought it had been set up for entertainment and not like people had died and to have some respect for them.

JaceLancs · 12/12/2019 21:19

I wouldn’t call them selfies but I have lots of photographs from cemeteries on the Somme and memorials spanning the last 60 years
It’s a place that is very meaningful to my family
There are pictures of my parents as newly weds then me and my brother from tots to teens
Then my own DC from pram age to adulthood
We were always respectful but it also measures us growing up
I’ve requested my ashes be scattered there one day by my DC at either Thiepval or on a battlefield or cemetery - Lancashire Dump would be most appropriate

RobinHumphries · 12/12/2019 21:53

Just been. Our tour guide told us not to take selfies and not to take photos inside some of the buildings. I think I took two photos (neither of which has been posted anywhere).

DrPimplePopper · 12/12/2019 21:54

I think now there is such a feeling of 'pictures or it didn't happen' that maybe it's ingrained in people. Like an automatic reflex? I would prefer to think it's that rather than people having zero respect.

I've visited Auschwitz around 7 years ago and took photos only outside of the endless rows of barracks. That was for a project my GCSE group were doing, as it was hard for them to grasp the sheer numbers involved. That felt uncomfortable, but no way would I think of taking a selfie or posed picture of people. I don't think selfies were really a thing then as much.

I noticed a man taking a photo of a memorial at the end of a shower block path (where you walk the same route the victims took.) I found it weird and distasteful at the time as it was inside, to me that was too much, but outside shots felt more ok. Now I think about it perhaps he wanted to show a family member who couldn't attend themselves, a survivor, a young person needing perspective on history, and maybe it was important to somebody in some way rather than just for the sake of a snap.

andpancakesforbreakfast · 12/12/2019 22:36

Now I think about it perhaps he wanted to show a family member who couldn't attend themselves, a survivor, a young person needing perspective on history, and maybe it was important to somebody in some way rather than just for the sake of a snap.

well yes, exactly.

Somewhere that needs real "privacy" allows no visitor.

Sharing information in areas opened to the public cannot be wrong, can it? Unless it's about state security, not allowing photos is .. odd.

I mean pictures are VERY restricted in North Korea and other dictatorships.

ActualHornist · 12/12/2019 23:20

I really don't understand why you would want to take a photo let alone share it to SM. Why do you want or need that? The only reason I can think of is as part of a history trip or something.

It is totally different to take photos of graves or loved ones. They are not the site of an atrocity Confused.

I can understand wanting to visit. I can understand looking at the official photos. But why you need a photographic reminder of your trip I do not know.

Branleuse · 12/12/2019 23:23

I didnt take photos when I went. It didnt seem right to.
I think probably if you do, it should be discreet and private

morriseysquif · 12/12/2019 23:24

If it educates and informs then that is a good thing? Shockingly, so many younger people don't know about WW2 and the Holocaust. Keep it in people's heads, lest it happen again.

Cherrysoup · 12/12/2019 23:27

Amazon were recently bollocked for selling Auschwitz ornaments. Unbelievable.