Dark Tourism – a sensation of greed or hunger for Education?

It's called the tour of places associated with death and destruction, known as "Dark Tourism" – so, dark tourism, or horror tourism. Classic goals battle fields, especially those of the First and Second world war, Nazi extermination camps such as Auschwitz and Birkenau, from atomic bombs or nuclear disasters, places like Hiroshima, Chernobyl or Fukushima or the Ground Zero in New York, where 3000 people were killed in a terrorist attack destroyed.

This type of travel is controversial: critics talk of sensationalism and the search for the adrenaline kick. Others on the other hand, the extension of the horizon or a better awareness of the story.

Professor Urs Wagenseil of the University of Lucerne represents as compared to the industry portal travel news the second attitude: "it's like an accident on the highway, where you injured, perhaps even Dead. These tours are designed in such a way that the story can be experienced, with the aim to learn from it, so that it is not repeated."

"Each of the participants is with himself and the tragedy."Urs Wagenseil, tourism lecturer

dare rope may not travel agencies, which "are marketing such Trips, which are more likely to be providers, the local tours". He has visited several such places, and he noticed that a shocked silence rule: "Each participant is with himself and the tragedy has and goes in. Then you have to process what they have Experienced."

The tourism lecturer speaks, therefore, rather of forming tourism and the memorials of the "Dark Tourism". Who does not wool the Tunnel in Paris where Princess Diana to fatalities, "the accident and see for yourself, but especially the Person's memory," says Wagenseil.

among the most popular destinations of "Dark Tourism"-Fans

battle fields of Verdun, France
The small town is in the North-East of France, on the banks of the Meuse as a Synonym for the immeasurable atrocities of the first world war, when on both sides of the Front, hundreds of thousands of young men in the trenches verreckten, gassed protect from flame throwers burned or from bullets and grenades were ripped to shreds.: The battlefields of Verdun are marked by military cemeteries, museums and memorials. The Douaumont ossuary, for example, the Remains of more than 130'000 unidentified soldiers. Especially in the special commemorative years, such as 2018, one hundred years after the end of the war, Verdun and other battlefields of the First world war, visited still by countless tourists.

Auschwitz-Birkenau, Krakow, Poland
In the largest concentration camp (Auschwitz) and an extermination camp (Birkenau) that the Nazis, 1.5 million people were murdered. Auschwitz was the Central place for Hitler's "final solution of the Jewish question". About a Million of those Killed were Jews, but also poles, Roma, Soviet prisoners of war, as well as the Czechs and Belarusians were among the Victims. Today, you can visit the places of horror and sees, for example, the railway ramp, where to Birkenau transported people got in, as well as the Remains of the gas chambers, prisoners ' barracks and barbed wire fences.

peace monument in Hiroshima, Japan
The Japanese city of Hiroshima was on 6. August 1945 destroyed at a quarter after eight o'clock by a nuclear bomb, dropped from the US Bomber Enola Gay,. 90'000 people died immediately, a further 90'000 to 160'000 of the long-term consequences. Today, a peace memorial, atomic bomb dome, the first use of the bomb. The building, which was gutted by fire completely, the walls remained partially standing, and the dome is emerging as a steel skeleton from the sky, is the, completed in 1915, the exhibition hall of the Prefecture of Hiroshima. It is surrounded by the peace Park, the peace Museum is located. In 1996, the memorial of the Unesco against the will of the United States and the people's Republic of China was included into the list of world cultural heritage.

Killing Fields, Cambodia
Under the four-year rule of the Khmer Rouge terror was murdered between 1975 and 1979, about a fifth (1.7 to 2.2 million) of the Cambodian population in a brutal. The Maoist stone age Communists under Pol Pot wanted to destroy the "Bourgeoisie" and "Bourgeois" is not only applied scientists, teachers, Doctors, and intellectuals; often, it was enough to wear glasses to read or to speak a foreign language. Real and alleged opposition members, their spouses and children, were killed by the tens of thousands. Many of the Hing came out of the prison of Tuol-Sleng (S-21) in Phnom Penh, which served as a torture and interrogation centre.

The former Gymnasium is now a Museum. The Killing Fields consist of over 300 sites. Different providers arrange tours, provide insight into this dark Chapter of Cambodia.

nuclear power plant in Chernobyl, Ukraine
26. April 1986 led to the Explosion of the reactor number 4 in Chernobyl nuclear power plant, 100 km from the Ukrainian capital of Kiev. Thousands of employees of the power plant were killed. The 43'000 inhabitants of the town of Pripyat, next to the NUCLEAR power plant did not have a clue of the disaster. 27. April, you went about your everyday life – in the case of a 600'000 times higher radiation exposure than usual. In the afternoon they were informed that they would have to leave the city within two hours.

of Pripyat is now a Ghost town and is still uninhabitable for centuries. Various operators offer tours to the restricted area. With a Geiger counter, measure radio activity.

Ground Zero, New York, USA
In the language of the military's Ground Zero ("ground zero" refers to) the point on the earth's surface that is directly under the Explosion of a bomb. Since the terrorist attacks of September 11. In September 2001, with around 3000 dead, the term also stands for the destroyed World Trade Center in New York.

The attacks were four coordinated hijackings of aircraft, should be directed then in important buildings. They were planned by the Islamic terrorist network, al-Qaeda Osama Bin Laden , and out of 19 members committed, among them 15 Saudis. The terrorists kidnapped in four - and five groups of four Airliners, turned two of them into the towers of the World Trade Center and one into the Pentagon in Arlington at Washington. The fourth plane, probably, should meet a government building in Washington, but after Struggling with pass in Pennsylvania to crash.

the U.S. prison camp in Guantánamo, Cuba
After the terrorist attacks of 11. September 2001 and the subsequent U.S. Invasion of Afghanistan was extended from January 2002, the US base in the Cuban Bay of Guantanamo to a detention camp for "illegal combatants". Thus, the government of President George W. Bush wanted to protect the USA from terrorists, and intelligence insights. The legal situation of the prisoners, the conditions of detention, interrogation and torture methods were met with strong criticism.

President Barack Obama announced that during his term of office, the closure of the Camps, but there are of the once-almost 800 are still a few dozen prisoners there. Cuba-tourists can see the place Caimanera visit, adjacent to the US base. There is a small Museum. But why do the Americans have a base on the Communist island? In 1903, the constitutional Assembly of Cuba, signed a 99-year lease with the United States. Later this was extended to an indefinite period of time.

nuclear power plant in Fukushima, Japan
11. March 2011 shook a major earthquake in the North-East coast of Japan and triggered a Tsunami. 18'000 people were killed, entire cities were wiped out. In the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant (Fukushima I) power. It came to a core meltdown, a Super-GAU. About 170'000 people had to be evacuated. Around 20 kilometres of the nuclear power plant is a restricted area until today. For tourists tours in the town of Namie are offered, eight kilometres from the stricken reactor. Boat tours can be booked, where you can get up to 1.5 kilometres of the nuclear power plant.

(Artur K. Vogel/travel content)

Created: 13.03.2019, 21:23 PM