A Tale of Two Camps: Contrasting Approaches to Interpretation and Commemoration in the Sites at Terezin and Lety, Czech Republic

Abstract

Concentration camps have left deep scars on the landscape of Europe. They are the physical testaments to the Nazi ideals of racial superiority, and their approach to annihilating the Jewish Race. Despite the negative connotations associated with the camps, several have become major tourist 'attractions'. Tt is suggested that approximately six million visitors each year visit six of the major museums and former camps connected with the Holocaust. At many of the sites there is, however, little or no interpretation. Tn this respect, this paper discusses and contrasts the developed site at Terezin and the largely ignored site at Lety, both located in the Czech Republic. Terezin's importance is related to its notorious history as a concentration camp which incarcerated Jews, following the Nazi occupation of the Czech lands. Terezin is, however, now a significant tourist and visitor attraction receiving more than 250,000 visitors per year. Tn contrast, the camp at Lety was intended for the internment of 'anti-social' Roma from Bohemia, and around 1,300 prisoners passed through it. Minimal interpretation exists at this site today. Tt is underdeveloped, shows limited investment and its site and buildings have been covered and replaced with a large agricultural plant. This paper will suggest that there are a number of reasons for the varying levels of development at these sites beyond the obvious difference related to whether or not the original buildings are extant.

Tragedy and Heritage: The Case of Cambodia

“…Such selective interpretation of a nation's tragic past is not unique to Cambodia. It is evident in the Czech Republic in that nation's coverage of the Roma and Sinti Genodde (Lennon and Smith 2004) and in the Lithuanian Holocaust (Wight and Lennon 2007) and in the UK' s appraisal of the invasion of the Channel Islands (Lennon and Foley 2000).…”

Death as attraction: the role of travel medicine and psychological travel health care in ‘dark tourism’

“…While time has passed, visitors will still remember parents or grandparents who had been at war, and there is still enough connection to serve as a place of commemoration. Today, such sites are often commercialised and relay political ideologies and propaganda [ 40 ]. Guernica or the ruins of Belchite remind of the atrocities of the Spanish Civil War.…”

“…sites of the Inquisition. Much literature covers the darkest type of attraction, starting with the Holocaust sites of concentration and extermination camps of Auschwitz, Treblinka, Buchenwald and many more [ 40 ], and here especially the emotional aspects of such visits [ 45 – 50 ]. More recently, memorial sites for the 1994 Rwandan genocide attract visitors not only for contemporary atrocities or the displays of bloodstained clothes and actual remains of victims but the opportunity to meet perpetrators in person [ 51 , 52 ].…”

“…sites of the Inquisition. Much literature covers the darkest type of attraction, starting with the Holocaust sites of concentration and extermination camps of Auschwitz, Treblinka, Buchenwald and many more [ 40 ], and here especially the emotional aspects of such visits [ 45 – 50 ].…”

Dark tourism sites: visualization, evidence and visitation

“…In such locations, it is vitally important to allow the public to differentiate between truth and falsity, replication and reality. Interpretation, and how sites can be used to convey themes of dominant ideology or selectivity of record, has been explored elsewhere (Lennon and Foley, 2000; Wight and Lennon, 2007 and Lennon and Smith, 2007). The case analysis of the Russian Federation will provide a contemporary example of how selectivity and non-commemoration of dark sites is still observed in this location.…”