The concept of "dark tourism" (also called "black", "gloomy", "mournful") came into use relatively recently, although the phenomenon itself dates back many centuries. It's just that in recent decades it has gained strength, multiplied its adherents, and its organizers began to make big money. So what is dark tourism and why is it bothering us?
FOR A LONG AND TRUE
To begin with, a joyful positive phenomenon is not called "dark," "mournful," or "dark". And where does the joy come from if such tourism means visiting places where tragic death-related events once took place: major natural and technological disasters, great battles, executions (especially massive ones), etc.?
It all started long ago. Probably from a visit by pilgrims and simply curious Via Dolorosa (a street in Old Jerusalem, along which, as it is believed, the mournful path of Christ ran to the place of his execution at Calvary). And maybe even earlier - from the gladiatorial battles in Ancient Rome, when masses of people rushed to the amphitheaters to see with their own eyes how others suffer and die.
Let's take examples from the not so distant past. British entrepreneur Thomas Cook, who became famous as the inventor of organized tourism as such, was the first in North America to figure out how to extract hard currency from the craving of people to visit places of mass death of their kind. And he organized excursions to the places of the most significant and bloody battles of the Civil War in the United States, on which he made good money.
And here is how Mark Twain described his visit as part of a tourist (!) Group, destroyed during the Crimean War of Sevastopol: "Quaker City" (the ship on which the Americans arrived, author's note) was filled with heaps of relics. They were dragged from the Malakhov Kurgan, from Redan, from Inkerman, from Balaklava - from everywhere. They were dragging cannonballs, broken ramrods, shrapnel fragments - there would be enough iron scrap for a whole sloop. Some even brought bones, dragged them from afar, with difficulty - and were upset when the doctor announced that these were the bones of a mule or an ox. " Impressive, isn't it?
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CENTURY WOLKODAV
The twentieth century turned out to be fruitful for the mass death of Homo sapiens. Accordingly, there has been an increase in the number of points on the globe, which enterprising tour operators have deemed worthy to satisfy the human passion for "dark tourism" and have included in their advertising brochures. And the USA again acted as pioneers here. It was there, in 1937, that super popular tours were organized to the site of the tragic death of the Hindenburg airship near the Lakehurst naval base in New Jersey. Then the Second World War broke out, during which a record number of people died in the entire history of mankind (according to the latest UN data, 71 million 170 thousand people). And not all, not all, lost their lives on the battlefield.
Dachau, Majdanek, Auschwitz, Buchenwald … The names of these and other concentration camps of the Third Reich have long been known to the whole world as places where death, horror, pain, nightmare and suffering of hundreds of thousands and millions of human beings reached a previously unknown concentration (tautology is appropriate here). And, of course, after the end of the war, many of these camps were turned into tourist sites, the flow of visitors to which does not dry out over the years and even increases. Of course. Who would refuse to look at the gas chambers and ovens in which hundreds of thousands of people were killed, whose fault most often was that they did not have the honor of being of the same nationality with the “great Aryan race”! And they go and watch. They take children, drinks and food with them. Are photographed in the background. A selfie, then a photo - on the social network, a bunch of likes and comments. Beauty. No wonder they went. By the way, immediately after the end of the war, some of those who survived in the Dachau concentration camp called to wipe this place off the face of the earth. But the authorities acted differently, and in 1965 a memorial was erected here, which is now visited by many tourists.
If you think that "dark tourism" is peculiar only to "snickering" inhabitants of the West, then you are mistaken. Proof of this is the consistently successful tourist trips to the Chernobyl disaster zone or offers on some Russian travel sites for tours to the GULAG camps. And after all there are amateurs, pay money and go.
MEMORY AND SECURITY
Still, in fairness, it should be noted that in our country there are not so many fans of "dark tourism" as in the West. The memory of the suffering, pain and blood that befell Russia in the 20th century is probably too fresh. No other country in the world has lost as many people as we do. None. And in every family there is something to tell about this to both children and grandchildren. So memory is passed from generation to generation, and it is good that it is passed on. In this regard, it would be absolutely stupid to say that memorials installed at the places of mass death of people are not needed. Needed, of course. We are erecting monuments in cemeteries! This is memory, this is how we are made. But there is a subtlety here. It is one thing to remember the suffering and death of millions so that this never happens again. And it is quite another to speculate on all this suffering and sacrifice. No, this does not only mean earning money directly by organizing tours to places of mass death and suffering. After all, everyone makes the best they can, and there is much more morally questionable business than dark tourism. It's about something else. In one place they forgot to mention a significant fact, in another, on the contrary, they emphasized an insignificant one. In the third, they invented something that did not exist. Then a book, a documentary and a feature film, a booklet, a TV program, a guide's memorized story. As a result, in the same West, the majority have long forgotten who and at what cost saved the world from fascism. Little of. For many Europeans, Russia is no less to blame for the outbreak of World War II than Germany. I mean not only making money directly by organizing tours to places of mass death and suffering. After all, everyone makes the best they can, and there is much more morally questionable business than dark tourism. It's about something else. In one place they forgot to mention a significant fact, in another, on the contrary, they emphasized an insignificant one. In the third, they invented something that did not exist. Then a book, a documentary and a feature film, a booklet, a TV program, a guide's memorized story. As a result, in the same West, the majority have long forgotten who and at what cost saved the world from fascism. Little of. For many Europeans, Russia is no less to blame for the outbreak of World War II than Germany. I mean not only making money directly by organizing tours to places of mass death and suffering. After all, everyone makes the best they can, and there is much more morally questionable business than dark tourism. It's about something else. In one place they forgot to mention a significant fact, in another, on the contrary, they emphasized an insignificant one. In the third, they invented something that did not exist. Then a book, a documentary and a feature film, a booklet, a TV program, a guide's memorized story. As a result, in the same West, the majority have long forgotten who and at what cost saved the world from fascism. Little of. For many Europeans, Russia is no less to blame for the outbreak of World War II than Germany.and there is much more morally questionable business than "dark tourism." It's about something else. In one place they forgot to mention a significant fact, in another, on the contrary, they emphasized an insignificant one. In the third, they invented something that did not exist. Then a book, a documentary and a feature film, a booklet, a TV program, a guide's memorized story. As a result, in the same West, the majority have long forgotten who and at what cost saved the world from fascism. Little of. For many Europeans, Russia is no less to blame for the outbreak of World War II than Germany.and there is much more morally questionable business than "dark tourism." It's about something else. In one place they forgot to mention a significant fact, in another, on the contrary, they emphasized an insignificant one. In the third, they invented something that did not exist. Then a book, a documentary and a feature film, a booklet, a TV program, a guide's memorized story. As a result, in the same West, the majority have long forgotten who and at what cost saved the world from fascism. Little of. For many Europeans, Russia is no less to blame for the outbreak of World War II than Germany. TV program, learned story of the guide. As a result, in the same West, the majority have long forgotten who and at what cost saved the world from fascism. Little of. For many Europeans, Russia is no less to blame for the outbreak of World War II than Germany. TV program, learned story of the guide. As a result, in the same West, the majority have long forgotten who and at what cost saved the world from fascism. Little of. For many Europeans, Russia is no less to blame for the outbreak of World War II than Germany.
WHO AND WHY NEEDS IT
It's clear with the organizers. They, as already mentioned, are just making money. After all, it is demand that creates supply, and not vice versa. If people themselves did not seek to visit such places, the "dark tourism" industry would not have arisen. So why are some of us so drawn to cemeteries, battlefields, disaster and execution sites, and famous prisons that have become museums?
For the first time the term "dark tourism" was used in 1996 in the International Journal of Heritage Studies, published in the UK. And it came into widespread use after the publication in 2000 of the book by professors of the Caledonian University (Scotland, Glasgow) John Lennon (no, no, not the same) and Malcolm Foley "Dark Tourism". Among other things, Lennon and Foley write that it is very difficult for guides to work in such places, because on the one hand, they must honor the memory of the victims, and on the other hand, they must maintain the interest of clients, not let them get bored. And at the same time tell the truth without slipping into propaganda.
Scientists are considering several psychological factors pushing people towards "dark tourism". For example, the latent joy that you are standing alive and well where thousands have died and suffered. Or, on the contrary, the fear and even horror experienced by some in such places serves as a pathogen and a kind of "medicine", vaccination, from a safe, boring, measured and prosperous life.
Still, "dark tourism" is necessary. It can act as a factor uniting society after a war or catastrophe, preserves the historical memory of the people. The main thing is not to turn it exclusively into a means of profit and not to play on people's base feelings. That also applies to many other areas and areas of human activity.
Akim Bukhtatov