Dark tourism

Dark tourism is considered to be tourism to the sites where death or disaster have struck, or at least where something macabre has happened. Some of these sites include battlefields, concentration camps, museums where they hold torture devices or articles from serial killers, and prison sites (or if you’ve ever done a ghost tour or really ANY tour in New Orleans, it’s probably dark tourism lol). Chernobyl has also seen quite an uptick in popularity in recent years, especially after the HBO show.

True Crime and dark history have become more mainstream in recent years, and with it a rise in tourism to “dark” places. It is hotly debated whether this is considered disrespectful and unethical, or if it is okay if you go with respect and a basic understanding. Granted, some locations like Auschwitz, and other concentration camps, have encouraged visitors to come through their gates and walk their grounds so history doesn’t repeat itself. Other locations, like the Museum of Torture in Tallinn, are just grim and interesting.

PSA: Don’t take inappropriate pictures at Auschwitz or other sites where people have died. You might be thinking, “who would take inappropriate pictures at Auschwitz?” Too many. There are entire Instagram accounts dedicated to this (@auschwitzfitpics). Don’t be that person.

Here are some dark tourist locations I’ve visited:

• El-De Haus - Cologne, Germany

  • This was a Nazi Documentation and Interrogation Center in Cologne. It is in a very nondescript building, but is MASSIVE once you walk in. They have the entire history of World War II at the beginning to grasp what you are about to see. Then you move to the back of the building and see the prison cells. They are tiny and they would fill them with dozens of “prisoners.” At the end, you walk to the shooting yard, which is now an art installation. The yard is surrounded by mirrors, which is jarring. You can feel the heaviness here. You could easily spend hours here. I believe we spent 3-4 hours here.

• Concentration camps - I am fascinated by The Holocaust, how quickly your world can change, and how evil humans can be. Whenever I have a chance to visit a concentration camp or anything to do with the Nazis, I make it a point to go.

  • Auschwitz - Krakow, Poland

    • This was #1 on my bucket list since my very first trip to Europe. My dad took me to Germany in seventh grade and I begged him to let us visit Auschwitz. It was too far away from us on that trip, but he did take me to Bergen-Belsen outside of Bremen. Auschwitz is about an hour outside of Krakow and is a must see for every single person. You know the story. You know what happened there. But seeing it in person is completely different. I told everyone it feels like you’re on a separate plane of the universe. Seeing Auschwitz in real life is life-changing. I went on a private, guided tour and it was about 4.5-5 hours including the drive.

  • Bergen-Belsen - Bergen, Germany

    • This was the first concentration camp I visited. It is also the camp that Anne Frank died at. The have a walkway, which makes it seem small but it’s the size of a residential street, with mounds on either side that say “Here lies 2500 people who died April 1944.” Anne Frank’s body was never found, so they have a small headstone with her and her sister’s name on it. This was the first time I ever saw my dad cry. We spent about 3 hours here.

• Museum of Death - New Orleans, Louisiana and Los Angeles, California

  • If you are into true crime, these places are for you. The one in Los Angeles is better, but both are great! The one in LA has different rooms for different topics: serial killers (John Wayne Gacy’s clown shoes, for example), execution (guillotines, electric chairs, etc.), Hollywood murders, death rituals across cultures, cannibals, cults, and death masks. It is VERY heavy, and they make sure to play soothing music because your heart will naturally race when you encounter some of the graphic photos and videos. I spent about 45 minutes-hour there.

• Kilmainham Gaol

  • If you’re in Dublin, be sure to visit Kilmainham Gaol (pronounced “kill-main-em jail”). This jail was home to the Irish rebels, especially those of the 1916 Easter Rising. The tour takes about an hour.

• KGB Prison Cells and KGB Museum - Tallinn, Estonia

  • Tallinn has a deep and tough history with the USSR and the KGB. They have done a great job preserving the spyware and prison cells the KGB used when they terrorized Estonia. the KGB Prison Cells and the KGB Museum are two separate museums, but both are great and worth visiting. Neal and I visited the KGB Museum, which is on the top floor of the Hotell Viru. They show you the spyware, tell you stories of the spying, and the phone that connected only to Moscow that had a single bullet hole in it. The KGB Prison Cells looked very similar to the El-De Haus in Cologne. The KGB Museum is about an hour long tour, and the KGB Prison Cells takes about 30 minutes to walk through.

• National Civil Rights Museum - Memphis, Tennessee

  • The site where civil rights leader, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated continues to draw visitors from around the world. Being a native Memphian, I should’ve gone way sooner than I did. When I finally visited, I spent 4 hours there and still felt like I didn’t see everything. If you are a Memphian, GO. NOW.

If you are interested in dark tourism, there are plenty of sources out there for you to find somewhere near you or where you are traveling. My favorite is Atlas Obscura. They don’t only focus on dark tourism, they also focus on curious and unusual spots in different locations. Think of it as TripAdvisor for weird and macabre sites and museums.