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A gift shop at Auschwitz? New films and a graphic memoir explore the contradictions of ‘dark tourism’

JL;DR SUMMARY In a time when interest in Holocaust remembrance is surging, a range of new cultural works have emerged exploring the complex emotions tied to visiting Holocaust sites, a trend known as dark tourism. A way out west there was a fella, fella I want to tell you about, fella by the name of Jeff Lebowski. At least, that was the handle his lovin' parents gave him, but he never had much use for it himself. This Lebowski, he called himself the Dude. Now, Dude, that's a name no one would self-apply where I come from. But then, there was a lot about the Dude that didn't make a whole lot of sense to me. And a lot about where he lived, likewise. But then again, maybe that's why I found the place s'durned innarestin'.

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Tags

Jewish HistoryAuschwitzHolocaustFilmJewish IdentityMemoirsGenerational TraumaPilgrimageGraphic NovelsDark Tourism

Places mentioned

Poland
"who go on a roots tour of Poland"
Lesser Poland, Poland
"essentially telling his cousin, played by Jesse Eisenberg, Screw it. Were owed this. I love that scene, said Ari Richter, the author and illustrator of Never Again Will I Visit Auschwitz"
Bavaria, Germany
"describes those emotions on a visit to the Dachau camp memorial."
Tampa, Florida, United States
"America (including Tampa, Florida, where Richter grew up); and what Richter calls the safe, white American identity he inherited."
Germany
"stops at Auschwitz, Dachau, Jewish cemeteries and his grandparents hometowns in present-day Poland and Germany."
Ukraine
"is about the Jewish authors journey to Ukraine in search of the woman who saved his grandfathers life during the Nazi liquidation of the family"
Lublin, Poland
"of a buddy dramedy than a real confrontation with the horrors of the Holocaust. But the films scenes set in the Majdanek concentration camp are somber and emotionally draining, as is a montage juxtaposing current sites in Lublin with descriptions of the"

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Retrieved 2025-01-26 18:00:18 UTC
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