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10 June 2012 Last updated at 23:06 GMT
The rise of genocide memorialsBy Clare Spencer BBC News
[image: Entrance to Auschwitz]
Members of England's European Championship squad have visited the former
Auschwitz-Birkenau death camps in Poland. This comes as memorials and
museums marking the sites of mass killings around the world witnessed an
increase in visitors.
A delegation lead by Wayne Rooney and England manager Roy Hodgson took time
out from training on Friday to visit the notorious death camp Nazi Germany
operated on Polish soil after invading its neighbour during World War II.
Another group headed by captain Steven Gerrard travelled to Oskar
Schindler's factory in Krakow.
England's players join the millions of tourists who have walked through the
iron gates at Auschwitz bearing the legend Arbeit Macht Frei (work makes
you free) to pay their respects.
Last year, a record 1.4m people visited the site, while Holocaust memorials
all over the world are also seeing numbers soar.
At the same time, other sites of massacres or genocide and cemeteries are
becoming increasingly popular with tourists.
Bosnia, Cambodia and Rwanda, are among the destinations on what has become
known as the "genocide tourism" map.
Ben and Nicole Lusher made it their mission to visit memorials when they
took an unusual five-month trip around the world, starting at Yad Vashem in
Jerusalem, Israel's official Holocaust memorial.
Ben says that while the couple learnt a lot on their travels, it was
Rwanda's main genocide memorial, overlooking Kigali, that stood out.
"It was a new experience for us to be in a place where the genocide was
still fresh and almost everyone we saw around the country had been
affected," he says.
The couple were both only 10 years old in 1994 when between 800,000 and one
million Tutsis and moderate Hutus were killed, so they were also learning
about it for the first time.
More typical visitors to Kigali's memorial are tourists who have travelled
to Rwanda to see the wildlife and the mountains. Aegis Trust attendance
figures state that more than 40,000 foreigners visited Kigali's memorial in
2011.
Memorials
around the world
- Srebrenica-PotoÄ=8Dari Memorial
- Kigali Memorial Centre
- Cambodia's killing fields
- Auschwitz concentration camp
Canadian Laura Maclean, who went to Rwanda to go trekking, says she made
the decision to visit the memorial during the her holiday because she
thought it "it showed respect".
Tour guide George Mavroudis, who charters planes to fly Americans around
Rwanda to see the gorillas, says most of his clients ask to visit the
memorial.
According to Mavroudis, who has been to the Kigali memorial more than 20
times, tourists believe it is important to understand the country they are
in.
The memorial is not the only tourist spot that marks this dark chapter in
Rwanda's history.
The Hollywood film Hotel Rwanda is based on the true story of the general
manager of the five-star hotel, Des Milles Collines, who sheltered Tutsis
and moderate Hutus that were in danger of being slaughtered.
The current manager, Marcel Brekelmans, says tourists turn up every day to
get their pictures taken by the entrance sign, and there is no escaping the
country's past.
"It's not only about gorillas and beautiful lakes. Something happened here
and everything you encounter here on a daily basis has a history," he says.
Brekelmans, who grew up near one of the largest World War II burial grounds
in the Netherlands, says from his perspective, it is necessary to "stop and
reflect from time to time".
But how memorials choose to mark such events is a contentious issue.
The main memorial in Kigali has cabinets full of skulls, carefully lined up
one after another. Other cabinets display pile upon pile of bones.
Similarly, some of Cambodia's memorials to those killed by the Khmer Rouge
regime, display skulls in a clear pyramid called a stupa.
But exhibiting human remains in this manner is controversial, and a topic
that has been debated at length by the very people who oversee such
museums.
[image: Skulls in a display cabinet in Kigali's Genocide Memorial Centre,
Rwanda] Some say displaying body parts disrespects the deceased
Dr James Smith is the founder of the Rwandan memorial centre and the UK's
Holocaust memorial.
He says when he set up the memorial he worried that displaying skulls
recently dug up from mass graves may threaten the dignity of the deceased.
But he says he decided that it was important to create something where
there could be no denying what happened.
As a compromise, Smith uses low lighting to make the display cabinets look
like burial chambers.
"In terms of the bones we said, 'instead of stacking them on shelves,
[let's] put them in a darkened room, underneath cabinets so it's like a
grave that people can look into'," he says.
There have been times when foreign visitors have been insensitive,
according to Smith.
He says he had to put up a sign outside the memorial asking people not to
stand on the mass graves.
[image: Rwandan school children looking at a display about genocides around
the world] Children and victims' families also visit genocide memorials
So why are tourists increasingly visiting such memorials?
Psychologist Sheila Keegan, an expert in cultural trends, says what people
want to get out of a holiday has widened.
While they still want the relaxation they get from sitting on a beach, they
also want to broaden their horizons.
"People want to be challenged. It may be voyeuristic and macabre but people
want to feel those big emotions which they don't often come across. They
want to ask that very basic question about being human - 'how could we do
this?'," she says.
Keegan says holidays are also used as a talking point so people want to see
something they can discuss when they go home.
"It's about creating your own history, reminding yourself how lucky you
are."
But Keegan has a word of caution. She says she didn't give much thought to
her own decision to visit Cambodia's killing fields and took her daughter
there when she was just eight years old because they "happened to be in the
country".
She says it is now an experience she regrets.
"I hadn't thought it through. We were in the country so we just went
because it was a feature of the country. But I hadn't expected it to be so
graphic.
"It was the mid-90s, not long after the civil war. There was still blood on
the floor and shackles on the bed."
In the past decade, tourist curiosity about Cambodia's "killing fields" has
grown and so-called "dark tourism" is set to become big business.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-16642344
The rise of genocide memorialsBy Clare Spencer BBC News
[image: Entrance to Auschwitz]
Members of England's European Championship squad have visited the former
Auschwitz-Birkenau death camps in Poland. This comes as memorials and
museums marking the sites of mass killings around the world witnessed an
increase in visitors.
A delegation lead by Wayne Rooney and England manager Roy Hodgson took time
out from training on Friday to visit the notorious death camp Nazi Germany
operated on Polish soil after invading its neighbour during World War II.
Another group headed by captain Steven Gerrard travelled to Oskar
Schindler's factory in Krakow.
England's players join the millions of tourists who have walked through the
iron gates at Auschwitz bearing the legend Arbeit Macht Frei (work makes
you free) to pay their respects.
Last year, a record 1.4m people visited the site, while Holocaust memorials
all over the world are also seeing numbers soar.
At the same time, other sites of massacres or genocide and cemeteries are
becoming increasingly popular with tourists.
Bosnia, Cambodia and Rwanda, are among the destinations on what has become
known as the "genocide tourism" map.
Ben and Nicole Lusher made it their mission to visit memorials when they
took an unusual five-month trip around the world, starting at Yad Vashem in
Jerusalem, Israel's official Holocaust memorial.
Ben says that while the couple learnt a lot on their travels, it was
Rwanda's main genocide memorial, overlooking Kigali, that stood out.
"It was a new experience for us to be in a place where the genocide was
still fresh and almost everyone we saw around the country had been
affected," he says.
The couple were both only 10 years old in 1994 when between 800,000 and one
million Tutsis and moderate Hutus were killed, so they were also learning
about it for the first time.
More typical visitors to Kigali's memorial are tourists who have travelled
to Rwanda to see the wildlife and the mountains. Aegis Trust attendance
figures state that more than 40,000 foreigners visited Kigali's memorial in
2011.
Memorials
around the world
- Srebrenica-PotoÄ=8Dari Memorial
- Kigali Memorial Centre
- Cambodia's killing fields
- Auschwitz concentration camp
Canadian Laura Maclean, who went to Rwanda to go trekking, says she made
the decision to visit the memorial during the her holiday because she
thought it "it showed respect".
Tour guide George Mavroudis, who charters planes to fly Americans around
Rwanda to see the gorillas, says most of his clients ask to visit the
memorial.
According to Mavroudis, who has been to the Kigali memorial more than 20
times, tourists believe it is important to understand the country they are
in.
The memorial is not the only tourist spot that marks this dark chapter in
Rwanda's history.
The Hollywood film Hotel Rwanda is based on the true story of the general
manager of the five-star hotel, Des Milles Collines, who sheltered Tutsis
and moderate Hutus that were in danger of being slaughtered.
The current manager, Marcel Brekelmans, says tourists turn up every day to
get their pictures taken by the entrance sign, and there is no escaping the
country's past.
"It's not only about gorillas and beautiful lakes. Something happened here
and everything you encounter here on a daily basis has a history," he says.
Brekelmans, who grew up near one of the largest World War II burial grounds
in the Netherlands, says from his perspective, it is necessary to "stop and
reflect from time to time".
But how memorials choose to mark such events is a contentious issue.
The main memorial in Kigali has cabinets full of skulls, carefully lined up
one after another. Other cabinets display pile upon pile of bones.
Similarly, some of Cambodia's memorials to those killed by the Khmer Rouge
regime, display skulls in a clear pyramid called a stupa.
But exhibiting human remains in this manner is controversial, and a topic
that has been debated at length by the very people who oversee such
museums.
[image: Skulls in a display cabinet in Kigali's Genocide Memorial Centre,
Rwanda] Some say displaying body parts disrespects the deceased
Dr James Smith is the founder of the Rwandan memorial centre and the UK's
Holocaust memorial.
He says when he set up the memorial he worried that displaying skulls
recently dug up from mass graves may threaten the dignity of the deceased.
But he says he decided that it was important to create something where
there could be no denying what happened.
As a compromise, Smith uses low lighting to make the display cabinets look
like burial chambers.
"In terms of the bones we said, 'instead of stacking them on shelves,
[let's] put them in a darkened room, underneath cabinets so it's like a
grave that people can look into'," he says.
There have been times when foreign visitors have been insensitive,
according to Smith.
He says he had to put up a sign outside the memorial asking people not to
stand on the mass graves.
[image: Rwandan school children looking at a display about genocides around
the world] Children and victims' families also visit genocide memorials
So why are tourists increasingly visiting such memorials?
Psychologist Sheila Keegan, an expert in cultural trends, says what people
want to get out of a holiday has widened.
While they still want the relaxation they get from sitting on a beach, they
also want to broaden their horizons.
"People want to be challenged. It may be voyeuristic and macabre but people
want to feel those big emotions which they don't often come across. They
want to ask that very basic question about being human - 'how could we do
this?'," she says.
Keegan says holidays are also used as a talking point so people want to see
something they can discuss when they go home.
"It's about creating your own history, reminding yourself how lucky you
are."
But Keegan has a word of caution. She says she didn't give much thought to
her own decision to visit Cambodia's killing fields and took her daughter
there when she was just eight years old because they "happened to be in the
country".
She says it is now an experience she regrets.
"I hadn't thought it through. We were in the country so we just went
because it was a feature of the country. But I hadn't expected it to be so
graphic.
"It was the mid-90s, not long after the civil war. There was still blood on
the floor and shackles on the bed."
In the past decade, tourist curiosity about Cambodia's "killing fields" has
grown and so-called "dark tourism" is set to become big business.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-16642344