Hardback : £73.63
The uneasy link between tourism and collective memory at Holocaust museums and memorials
Each year, millions of people visit Holocaust memorials and museums, with the number of tourists steadily on the rise. What lies behind the phenomenon of "Holocaust tourism" and what role do its participants play in shaping how we remember and think about the Holocaust?
In Postcards from Auschwitz, Daniel P. Reynolds argues that tourism to former concentration camps, ghettos, and other places associated with the Nazi genocide of European Jewry has become an increasingly vital component in the evolving collective remembrance of the Holocaust. Responding to the tendency to dismiss tourism as commercial, superficial, or voyeuristic, Reynolds insists that we take a closer look at a phenomenon that has global reach, takes many forms, and serves many interests.
The book focuses on some of the most prominent sites of mass murder in Europe, and then expands outward to more recent memorial museums. Reynolds provides a historically-informed account of the different forces that have shaped Holocaust tourism since 1945, including Cold War politics, the sudden emergence of the "memory boom" beginning in the 1980s, and the awareness that eyewitnesses to the Holocaust are passing away. Based on his on-site explorations, the contributions from researchers in Holocaust studies and tourism studies, and the observations of tourists themselves, this book reveals how tourism is an important part of efforts to understand and remember the Holocaust, an event that continues to challenge ideals about humanity and our capacity to learn from the past.
The uneasy link between tourism and collective memory at Holocaust museums and memorials
Each year, millions of people visit Holocaust memorials and museums, with the number of tourists steadily on the rise. What lies behind the phenomenon of "Holocaust tourism" and what role do its participants play in shaping how we remember and think about the Holocaust?
In Postcards from Auschwitz, Daniel P. Reynolds argues that tourism to former concentration camps, ghettos, and other places associated with the Nazi genocide of European Jewry has become an increasingly vital component in the evolving collective remembrance of the Holocaust. Responding to the tendency to dismiss tourism as commercial, superficial, or voyeuristic, Reynolds insists that we take a closer look at a phenomenon that has global reach, takes many forms, and serves many interests.
The book focuses on some of the most prominent sites of mass murder in Europe, and then expands outward to more recent memorial museums. Reynolds provides a historically-informed account of the different forces that have shaped Holocaust tourism since 1945, including Cold War politics, the sudden emergence of the "memory boom" beginning in the 1980s, and the awareness that eyewitnesses to the Holocaust are passing away. Based on his on-site explorations, the contributions from researchers in Holocaust studies and tourism studies, and the observations of tourists themselves, this book reveals how tourism is an important part of efforts to understand and remember the Holocaust, an event that continues to challenge ideals about humanity and our capacity to learn from the past.
Daniel P. Reynolds is Seth Richards Professor in Modern Languages in the German Department at Grinnell College, Iowa.
Agraphic journey of discovery that reveals . . . many troubling
questions: Do Holocaust tourists come as casual sightseers or as
pilgrims? Where is evidence, in those dedicated places, of
redemption? Soon there will be no survivors of the Holocaust; what
will the places, monuments, and museums tell future
generations?
*Kirkus Reviews*
Incisively scrutinizes the intersection of tourism and Holocaust
remembrance . . . raises important questions about history,
tourism, and genocide.
*STARRED Publishers Weekly*
This should be required reading for anyone contemplating a trip to
places of remembrance, such as the United States Holocaust Memorial
Museum or the Auschwitz and Dachau death camps in Europe. Reynolds
effectively tells how history and tourism intersect.
*Library Journal*
Postcards from Auschwitz is an important intervention into the
vexed topic of Holocaust 'tourism.' Reynolds deftly challenges the
various criticisms of the 'Shoah business'its presumed
commercialization of suffering, conversion of horror into kitsch,
and its putative role in evacuating Holocaust memory of substance.
He addresses such received wisdom not by denying its power, but by
way of a compelling exploration of the experience of Holocaust
memorialization in Warsaw, Berlin, Jerusalem, and Washington, D.C
that does not only analyze various national narratives of the
event, but also defines the tourist's experience in surprisingly
textured and nuanced terms. The book is a real eye-opener and
should be read by anyone with an interest in contemporary Holocaust
memory.
*Carolyn J. Dean,Charles J. Stille Professor of History and French,
Yale University*
Reynolds lays bare the faulty assumptions about tourism and
tourists that undergird the criticisms leveled at sites of
Holocaust commemoration. His own scholarship, by contrast, takes
seriously the abilities of tourists to reflect just as critically
as any of the scholars who write about the topic, and shows how
their presence (including their own discomfort with the idea of
tourism) helps Holocaust tourism remain an open-ended process of
meaning-making. This is tourism studies at its finest. Reynolds'
authorial voice is pitch perfect - sophisticated without being
pedantic, readable without being simplistic.
*Shaul Kelner,author of Tours That Bind: Diaspora, Pilgrimage and
Israeli Birthright Tourism*
Postcards stand for the superficiality of tourism, but also have a
flip side in which the viewer can express agency, sometimes
undercutting the message of the glossy picture. Reynolds is one of
the few scholars to take both Holocaust memory and tourism
seriously. Among the questions the book explores are: How does one
portray the victims suffering without turning it into a spectacle?
How do memorial sites negotiate between historical verities and
traumatic experience? What agency do tourist publics have in
reading and interpreting Holocaust sites and what are the
responsibilities of site managers in responding to them? Where does
one draw the line between knowledge-seeking and voyeurism? The
result is a thought-provoking, multi-disciplinary account of the
ethics of memory and responsibility in an age of snapshots and
selfie shares.
*Jackie Feldman,author of Above the Death-Pits, beneath the
Flag*
Reynolds’ theoretically informed selection of cases allows for both
breadth and depth in analyzing the promises and pitfalls of
Holocaust tourism. Postcards from Auschwitz does not lay to rest
ethical questions, but rather raises new ones for future
scholarship. This book will appeal to scholars within the
interdisciplinary realms of tourism studies, museum studies, public
history, and Holocaust studies, as well as the staples of history,
anthropology, philosophy, and literary studies. Reynolds’ courage
in broaching a controversial and understudied subject will no doubt
inspire continued scholarship on Holocaust tourism’s complexity and
transformative potential.
*The Polish Review*
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