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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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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:

Pyjamaface · 13/12/2019 11:42

I've been to Auschwitz as a group of 4, 1 person took pictures. No selfies, no people in any of them that I remember, no pictures of people's possessions. When we came back, I showed my parents and DP the pictures and talked about the horror of the place.

DS hasn't seen them yet, when he studies it I will show him and talk to him.

The holocaust was such an horrific thing, it is hard to comprehend today and starts to become some sort of abstract thing in history when it wasn't really that long ago. Pictures from someone that has been (again NOT selfies, group shots, personal belongings etc) help to make it more real and relevant imo. Otherwise places like Auschwitz, WTC etc will be viewed as we would now view a medieval battlefield

caperplips · 13/12/2019 12:07

honeybee85 she was only 11 at the time and we felt it was too young. We have travelled a lot around Europe and have visited the Jewish Ghettos / Quarters of many cities and she is very aware of the history but will wait till she's older to visit the camps.

Honeybee85 · 13/12/2019 12:10

Yes that’s a wise decision @caperplips.
Those places can really cause nightmares if children are too young.

RoombaSavedMySanity · 13/12/2019 12:27

I felt the same about the World Trade Centre memorial when I saw people taking selfies

I agree, but the reality is that almost all the locations of terrible wrongs and deaths will slowly lose their meaning and become just another place.

Afterall, plenty of people visit Battle as tourists but that too is the scene of the death of thousands of people.

Whenever we tell ourselves we will 'never forget', the reality is that someone, at some point, WILL forget.

(I still wish people wouldn't take selfies at these more modern sites of tragedy, though).

Selfsettling3 · 13/12/2019 14:53

Honeybee85 the Auschwitz survivor I spoke to said it was worse in summer with lack of sanitation, drinking water, shade and lots of people with dsytentry that in cold winter.

It’s complicated if people should make tourist visits along side the question of should building be maintained. There is never an easy answer.

As an adult I had nightmares following my visit to Auschwitz. The first night after my visit I did not sleep at all.

SexIsAProtectedCharacteristic · 13/12/2019 15:22

I visited Auschwitz with my bf when I was 19. Nearly 20 years ago and even then I thought it was crass behaviour for people to pose for photos at the gates, on the train line and take pics of all the belongings taken from people. People have been shit forever, it's not a recent social media thing.

Halestorm · 13/12/2019 15:39

When I visited social media was the furthest thing from my mind. It would be akin to taking selfies at a tragic funeral. Just...no.

There was a twat who used his ipad to take photos and videos, jostling other people to get to the front with his stupid tablet in the way so we couldn't see the guide, making loud asides to his companions. Five minutes in he got a right telling off from the guide for being such a dick and many of us felt it was well deserved.

Interestedwoman · 13/12/2019 16:23

I don't think people are enjoying it as such like a normal holiday sightseeing destination. Posting on SM is good IMHO because it serves as a reminder of what we should Never Forget.

Iamclearlyamug · 13/12/2019 17:00

How sad - I visited Auschwitz in September and the guide was very firm that posting photos to social media was not allowed, and some artefacts were not to be photographed at all.

Why are people so disrespectful as to not heed these instructions?

Pfefferkuchen · 13/12/2019 18:57

What do you have against social media? It's a modern way to communicate and share for many people.

People confuse social media with "fun selfies".

It's not. If no one talks about Auschwitz anymore, how long before it gets forgotten? The recent antisemitism public comments are more frightening than anything else. We areforgetting.

What's the issue? You don't want reminders to circulate and be shown?

Would you be outraged to see a painting made about the camp?

I also disagree that 14 is too young. Yes, it's shocking, yes some people have nightmares. Good. How young were the kids in there. You do realise that there are death camps and horrors happening right now, but you don't lose sleep on those? The scale of Auschwitz is mind numbing, but it still doesn't make current events acceptable.

A photo in itself is not disrespectful.

Butchyrestingface · 13/12/2019 19:03

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

As you said, each to their own. Presumably not everyone does find the experience “incredibly harrowing” and may indeed view it as a holiday.
I’d also hazard a guess that they don’t view their actions as disrespectful.*

*NOT saying I agree with that perspective.

pelirocco123 · 13/12/2019 19:04

By posting these pictures they are keeping it current

fairynick · 13/12/2019 19:07

I visited Sachsenhausen camp when I went to Berlin as my friend was keen to go. I was nervous to go on the tour as I imagined it wouldn’t be tasteful “the gift shop is on the left” kind of place.
Wow was I wrong. The whole place is a memorial site and my guide was so passionate and knowledgable about everything. I thought I was clued up about ww2 and what happened but I learned so much on that trip. If I happened to be in Poland in the future I would not go to Auchwitz now. I have been to the memorial sire of a concentration camp and I have taken everything that I need to out of it and I will never forget. And I’ll make sure my children won’t either. To share images and posts on social media, I believe, is fine as long as done tastefully as it a modern day form of documentation.

1Morewineplease · 13/12/2019 19:07

I find it disrespectful. Like saying “ look at me, I’m in Auschwitz!”
There’s no need to announce it on SM. It should be thought of as a private visit, much like a funeral.
If you need a memory then print a photo and keep it somewhere or just keep it on your Cloud, or whatever.
I speak as someone whose mum was in a similar camp but survived.

DameXanaduBramble · 13/12/2019 19:13

Completely wrong to post on SM, as per a pp had done.

Blueemeraldagain · 13/12/2019 19:14

I went about two years ago and i took a few, select, personless (?) photos.

Back in London I showed them to my year 10 and 11 classes during a brief talk about my experience there. The fact that they were my photos, taken by me and I could remember exactly what I was thinking and feeling at that moment made it more real for these students (most of whom will never leave the country, let alone visit Auschwitz). Using stock photos makes it seem more distant and “film set like” to them.

Pfefferkuchen · 13/12/2019 19:15

Can't see why people feel the need to post pics like they're enjoying an actual holiday?

because that's not why many people post pics.

Also YOU might know about Auschwitz, and to be fair many people have - but it doesn't stop the need to remind us of that place - especially in days where low-life steal and damage what is left
but many people haven't heard of other camps and sharing information and photos is a duty. Not talking about it is disrespectful.

mrsglowglow · 13/12/2019 19:55

I agree it seems disrespectful to take photos and I can't understand why someone would want to.

Pfefferkuchen · 13/12/2019 19:58

Do you find photos of the poppies on the Tower of London disrespectful too?

Memorials are not made to be kept secrets or hushed.

Selfsettling3 · 13/12/2019 20:09

Concentration camps are not just memorials to some thing that places some where else, they are places where millions of were murdered in horrific circumstances.

Original poster

teagivesmejoy · 13/12/2019 20:09

@Pfefferkuchen the poppies are hardly the same as a huge pile of glasses that once sat on a persons face, or wedding rings?
My point is not to want history hushed up, anyone with half a brain is educated of the holocaust and the atrocities that occurred in these places.
My point was that I find it distasteful, and disrespectful that some people visit these poignant sites and treat them as typical tourist destinations.
Makes me shake my head that certain types of people find it impossible to behave with dignity.
Basic manners and common sense really.... but each to their own 🙄

OP posts:

Pfefferkuchen · 13/12/2019 20:33

I don't disagree that grinning selfies, climbing memorials and fun photos are totally unacceptable. Of course they are.

My point is that a photo, in itself, is not disrespectful. It's our duty to remember and to share what happened to make sure it is never forgotten. Some people fought to survive as long as they possibly could to bear witness. We owe it to all of them to carry on - and how easy it is for us!

That huge pile of glasses gives an inkling of the sheer number of people murdered. These wedding rings are needed for people to understand that the victims were just like you, me, your neighbour, your baker. They were us. Not a different species.

There's no need to soften the pictures, to hide the truth, to put it into our history box and feel as it was as remote as the viking wars.

Of course putting these photos on a tshirt or a coaster is not acceptable. But taking them and circulating them is I believe the right thing to do.

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