Tourism and Tragedy
The Memorial at Belzec, Poland
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 5884797 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Barbara Buntman (University of the Witwatersrand, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2008 |
| Volume | 14 |
| Issue | 5 |
| Pages | 422-448 |
| Publication date | 2008-09-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | International Journal of Heritage Studies (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1352-7258 • E-ISSN: 1470-3610 |
| Publisher | Informa UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/13527250802284867 |
| OpenAlex | W2061594559 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 11 |
| References cited | 3 |
In 1942, within in a period of 10 months, 500,000 people were systematically murdered in a specially built death camp at Belzec, Poland. When it had served its purpose the Nazis demolished it, and to hide its existence, grassed the site over, allowing the atrocities performed there to remain virtually hidden from public view for over 60 years. In 2004 an important new Holocaust memorial, covering the whole death camp area, was opened. Visually striking, this conceptual art/architectural artwork affectively elicits strong visitor responses. I explore ways in which the materiality of the reconfigured site makes the invisibility of such horror and collective loss paramount. My interpretation and visual analysis shows how ‘memory work’ can operate through viewer experience. This paper locates Belzec within its historical context and includes a related discussion about Polish–Jewish relationships up to the present. As a significant heritage site, Belzec’s new role in Polish Holocaust tourism is examined
Aesthetics · Archaeology · Art · Collective memory · Dark tourism · Heritage tourism · Historic site · Literature · Memorialization · Nazism · Political science · Sociology · The Holocaust · Tourism · Visitor pattern · Visual arts · History · Law · Memory, Trauma, and Commemoration · Museums and Cultural Heritage · Nostalgia and Consumer Behavior · Philosophy
Dark tourism
Memorialisation and remembrance
Commemoration, curiosity, and cultural change
Crossing Borders
Trajectories in Holocaust tourism
Former border railway stations in Central and Eastern Europe
Experiencing human identity at dark tourism sites of natural disasters
Progress in dark tourism and thanatourism research
Eliciting Mortality Salience in Dark Tourism and its Influence
Navigating an unwanted heritage
Les ruines des jeux olympiques de Grenoble 1968
| Unique citing works | 11 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,69 |
| Citation span | 2010 - 2026 (17) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 9 |