DARK TOURISM SITES IN LITHUANIA.

WHAT IS ADAPTED AND WHAT IS FORGOTTEN?

Laurencija Budrytė-Ausiejienė

Klaipeda State College http://www.kvk.lt/index.php/klaipeda-state-college

Theoretical background

DARK TOURISM

Dark tourism - “the attraction of visitors to tourism sites associated with recent and historic incidences of death and disaster”. These sites have been classified into: • “primary sites”, such as holocaust camps, sites of celebrity deaths, • “secondary sites” sites commemorating tragedy and death. (Lennon & Foley, 2000; Smith, 1998)

Dark tourism is an act of travel to tourist sites associated with death, suffering or the seemingly macabre (Stone, 2006).

Dark tourism provides an opportunity to contemplate death of the Self through gazing upon the Significant Other Dead. (Stone, 2011)

Definitions that are

used:

morbid tourism

black spot tourism

grief tourism

“milking the

macabre’’

‘‘dicing with

death’’

horror tourism

hardship tourism

tragedy tourism

warfare tourism

genocide tourism

extreme thanatourism

Examples of early times dark tourism

attractions:

► trips to the Roman gladiatorial games,

► medieval pilgrimages

► medieval public executions,

► visits to graveyards and cemeteries,

► slavery-heritage attractions,

► atrocities and prisons,

► Morgues.

According to Seaton (1996), there are just five possible categories of dark travel activity:

1. to witness public enactments of death; 2. to sites of individual or mass deaths; 3. to memorials or internment sites; 4. to see symbolic representations of death; 5. to witness re-enactments of death.

Sites of atrocities and death may be

perceived as a place:

► for remembrance,

► for mourning,

► for a spiritual experience,

► as a demonstration of national identity,

► as educational experiences,

► for a random visit.

Motives for dark tourism

curiosity

empathy

horror

interest in violence

and suffering

nostalgia

Interest in heritage

interest in mortality

the search for novelty

a sense of social

responsibility

quest for knowledge

search for identity

pilgrimage

self-understan

ding

The motivations for battlefield tourism include:

►special interest, ► thrill/risk seeking, ► validation, ► authenticity, ► self-discovery, ► iconic sites, ► convenience, ► morbid curiosity, ► pilgrimage, ► remembrance and empathy and contemplation, ► legitimisation, ► economic resurgence, ► discovery of heritage, ► acts of remembrance and personal aspirations. These mentioned motives represent a mix of elements, some are emotions, some others are site characteristics, while others are actions and attributes.

According to Biran, Poria & Oren (2011) dark tourism

motivations could be grouped into four factors, namely:

1. “see it to believe it” (participants interest in seeing

the site out of a need to believe that such atrocities

really happened);

2. “learning and understanding” (participants

interest in being educated about Second World War and

the atrocities that took place in Auschwitz);

3. “famous death tourist attractions” (general

interest in sites of death, willingness to see the real site,

and feel empathy with the victims);

4. “emotional heritage experience” (the desire to

connect to his/her heritage and have an emotional

experience)

Visitors motivation is important, but also visitors experience is measured in order to define whether a site is “dark”. More recently, dark tourism has been categorised into different levels or “shades” of macabre or dark: dark, darker, and darkest; (black, grey, or pale; or lightest and darkest).

In Lithuania there is no concrete definition for dark

tourism and just few researches have been done

in few last years. The importance of dark tourism

can be measured only by the number of visitors

to dark tourism sites in recent years.

For example, in 2011, 2.7 million visitors visited

Lithuanian museums. Two internationally known

dark tourism museums in Lithuania:

• Museum of Genocide Victims received 56 485

visitors,

• Grutas Park received 45 496 visitors.

History is never an objective recall of the past, but is rather a selective interpretation, based on the way in which we view ourselves in the present.

Successful interpretation consists of much more than just higher visitor numbers (Rowehl, 2003) but also a degree of satisfaction and enlightenment that can accompany the museum learning experience. This is what distinguishes effective from quality interpretation.

Narratives about death are transmitted at dark tourism

sites through formal interpretation.

Tourism information is a kind of a filter for dark tourism

places. Death and suffering must be presented and

interpreted in order to be consumed as a tourist

experience. By providing particular narratives, the

death can be used for educational purposes.

Some times death and tourism may appear as an

anomalous conjunction, but on the other hand, dark tourism

provides a safe socially sanctioned space to consume an

otherwise taboo topic.

Remembrance, memorialisation and historical

representation, everything can be implemented

through dark tourism. At the same dark tourist site, all

may be present, for different visitors.

Interpretation could be simply defined as

"the art to explain the significance of the

place to its visitors, highlighting the need

for its conservation."

Heritage interpretation is worthy of much

attention, because with it’s help heritage

resources are transformed into products.

It should be noted that the heritage product

is not the resource, but in particular its

interpretation.

I

Interpretations addressees - visitors or users of the heritage sites

Interpretation tools - guides

The product of interpretation – message

Sources of interpretation (mythology, folklore, historical memory, research)

Interpretations addresser (heritage site managers)

Heritage Interpretation Process

There are two main methods of interpretations:

1) the so-called "living" interpretation (the guide

or historical stagings of events);

2) technological interpretation (computers,

maps, leaflets, etc.).

According to D. Lowenthal (1985), "no historical

narrative can cover the totality of all past events,

the content of these events is potentially endless.”

According to Tilden (1994), "the main goal of

interpretation is not the interpretation of the

information, but a provocation."

Baltic States, a region rich in dissonant heritage.

Dissonant heritage

The term 'dissonance' is often used in music theory,

describing that two tones do no blend into one

another harmonically, but create a certain tension.

The interpretation of heritage is considered

dissonant when different groups attribute different

stories to a certain object or landscape. As these

different interpretation are considered to be true,

sometimes even in the most dogmatic way

imaginable, it is not particularly unlikely that little

space remains for relativation and/or plurality of

interpretation.

"Dissonant heritage" is the heritage "that hurts" or

that recall past events not easy to be reconciled

with visitors’ values and everyday experience.

THE GREEN BRIDGE

A bridge in the same place where the Green Bridge is now located for the first was marked on a map in 1386.

The “Green” name was given to this structure in 1739 when it was painted in green color.

The current 103-metre metal construction dates from 1952 and was originally named after a Red Army general.

The four groups of extraordinary sculptures at each corner represent agriculture, industry and construction, peace and youth.

GRUTAS PARK

So far, no other museum or cultural institution has

attempted to collect or properly exhibited Soviet

relics. Here, monumental sculptures are positioned

in a 2 km-long exposition, where guard towers,

fragments of concentration camps and other

details resemble Siberia.

This park is situated on a 20 ha area, exhibiting

86 works by 46 authors.

Such a large concentration of monuments and

sculptures of ideological content in a single out-

door exposition is a rare and maybe even unique

phenomenon in the world.

This exposition discloses the negative content of the

Soviet ideology and its impact on the value system.

The aim of this exposition is to provide an

opportunity for Lithuanian people and other

visitors to see the naked Soviet ideology which

suppressed and hurt varies nations for many

decades.

Taking the “idols” off the pedestal, changing the

location and status of the exhibiting of the

monuments, and using a special exhibition technique

and additional aids have substantially altered the

ideological content of the monumental sculptures.

Video “Stalin world”: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5RJMod6iKoI

Macikai - Stalag Luft VI

and NKVD Gulag-3

During WWII Nazis established in Macikai the most

northern POW camp in the Reich. Camp was called

Stalag Luft VI .

The camp has been evacuated in autumn of 1944

but the history of the camp wasn't finished and the

camp existed till 1955.

In Stalag Luft VI were imprisoned more then 10 000

prisoners. 1948-1955 in this camp were killed 365

prisoners of which 312 Lithuanian.

Later this camp was forgotten and was again

remembered only in 1990s.

Untill now just few elements of the former camp

remained.

It is unique WWII period monument in Lithuania.

In the Šilutė suburban village Macikai in 1939

Nazis established camp to held Polish POWs.

In 1942 they "reformed" this relatively small

camp to significantly bigger one - Stalag Luft VI.

The name suggest that the "purpose" of the

camp was to held pilots of planes that were shot

down.

There were six Stalag Lufts in Germany and this

was the last one and located in the farthest

possible corner of the Reich.

Majority of the people held in Macikai camp

were servicemen of western countries: Macikai is

the single place in Lithuania were so many

British and American military were held and

some of them lost their lives: from about

10000 POWs held here

more than 9000 were British, Canadian

and American airmen;

the second most populous group were

Polish POWs - about 300-500 people).

In the autumn of 1944 the camp and the people

held here were evacuated from Macikai.

In 1945 the camp got the name GULAG-3 under the rule

of NKVD. In 1944-1947 here were held German POWs.

When last Germans were moved from Macikai the camp

still wasn't closed: in 1948 - 1955 it was used to held and

execute the "enemies of the Soviet regime" (most of them

Lithuanian residents). The camp was closed in 1955.

In 1960s or early 1970s most of the camp buildings were

destroyed and the pansionat for older people with mental

disabilities was built.

Only in 1990 this place went back to the remembrance.

Since 1995 it is treated as the state protected historical

monument. In 2000 here various memorials were built and

that also made it very "international" in some sense place.

The single remaining building of the camp is

the former punishment cell (built in 1941-1942)

The cemetery was as much as possible

destroyed by the soviets and restored after 1990.

In the cemetery there aredifferent monuments

showing complicated history of the camp.

The cross built in 1989 by

local people with the note "to

WWII victims from

Lithuanian people“.

In year 2000 various countries began to build memorial

tables to commemorate their fallen servicemen.

Modest American and Canadian memorials

Polish memorial

Russian memorial built in 2010 It says: eternal memory to soviet pilots imprisoned at

the prison of war camp “Stalag Luft VI” 1942-1944

German memorial

Near by is one more German table specifically

mentioning also Lithuanian soldiers from Klaipėda area

And the last part of the memorial - memorial tombs of

Lithuanian victims of this camp. Most of them are private monuments of their family members.

But many of the graves are still nameless

KAUNAS FORTRESS

Constructed between 1882 and 1915 to protect the

Russian Empire's western borders, was kind of a

"first-class" fortress in the whole Russian Empire.

The complex, consisting of 9 forts and 9 batteries

is the most complete remaining example of such

kind of buildings.

At the moment just few parts of the fortress are

used and adapted for visitors.

THE SEVENTH FORT

Fairly well preserved due in part to the fact that it never

saw action, the fort served as a storage space for the

Central State Archive. After the war the fort fell into a

state of serious disrepair before being privatised in 2009

and opened to the public in 2011.

Tours of the site are already available, but there’s still a

lot of work to be done, with restoration work so far

accomplishing a few goals such as the repair of the

barracks and dining room where tsarist-era propaganda

can be seen painted on the walls and where a museum is

starting to take shape. Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6DRK3Fv60cE

DARK TOURISM EXCURSIONS AND TOURS IN LITHUANIA

According to the recent studies in Lithuania there are currently offered 38 tours in dark tourism sites. There are much more expositions, educational programmes and exhibitions on this topic or with some dark tourism objects included, however, In this presentation you’ll see only the tours with the main objective - dark tourism object or site. The below mentioned tours are offered at tourist information centers and travel agencies in Lithuania.

Lithuania still has no dark tourism classification, that’s why dark tourism objects and tours according to the specifics, could be divided in to 8 groups: 1. NATURAL DISASTER PLACES 2. HISTORICAL CEMETERIES 3. MEDIEVAL DARK TOURISM SITES 4. PLACES LINKED TO THE WARS IN XIX-XX CENTURIES 5. PLACES LINKED TO THE GERMAN OCCUPATION 6. HOLOCAUST PLACES 7. PLACES AND OBJECTS LINKED TO THE SOVIET OCCUPATIONS 8. PLACES LINKED TO THE LITHUANIAN RESISTANCE

PLACES OF NATURAL DISASTERS: Visit Silute on foot (during the flood) Journey ‘to the depths of the earth’ (visiting sinkholes)

HISTORICAL CEMETERIES: Cemetery tour Cemetery of Vilnius Ethnographic Cemetery and baptisms in Nida and Pervalka

MEDIEVAL DARK TOURISM SITES: Following the traces of the crusaders "Trakai castles in battles with the crusaders” Mysterious pilgrim routes Mounds - Vilkaviskis area history witnesses Mounds and sacred places, sacred and memorial sites

PLACES LINKED TO THE WARS IN XIX-XX CENTURIES: Military Kaunas Napaleon‘s army route in Kaunas The spirit of Kaunas catacombs ,,Guns speak" 1863. Uprising locations in Kedainiai district Hike to the abandoned military bunkers Kaunas fortress Fort VII

PLACES LINKED TO THE GERMAN OCCUPATION: "History of the battery Memel-Nord"

HOLOCAUST PLACES: Jewish cultural and religious heritage in Joniskis Jews in Kedainiai: ,,Ich - Keidaner" The Jewish route in Panevezys Jewish heritage in Siauliai Jewish heritage in Telsiai Jewish Heritage in Vilnius Tour to Kaunas IX Fort

PLACES AND OBJECTS LINKED TO THE SOVIET OCCUPATION: Militarism in Zemaitija Plokstine educational path Soviet Vilnius Soviet architecture in Kaunas Panevezys. Soviet Life Heroes of the time in “Grutas” Park "Nostalgic" trip to “Grutas” Park “1984” tour of the Soviet bunker with a Soviet Army officer Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GEy82Yo1qTo

PLACES LINKED TO THE LITHUANIAN RESISTANCE: Great Battle District places of remembrance in KAIŠIADORYS district Struggles for freedom in Raseiniai district Tour to remember Lithuanian freedom defenders To the memory of Lekeciu partisans In partisan roads (Telsiai district) Hill of Crosses

Despite the lack of scientific research and studies of dark tourism, in our college in the last two years two final works related to dark tourism, and two works dealing with the Soviet heritage were written. Two works offer a dark tourism tour routes. One route presents only one District dark tourism sites, while the other is a combined Lithuanian and Latvian dark tourism route. The Soviet heritage three days tour is called: “THREE DAYS, TWO COUNTRIES, ONE HISTORY” Vilnius – Nemencine – Grutas – Linksmakalnis – Kaunas – Ploksciai – Klaipeda – Liepaja – Skrunda – Riga – Ligatne - Vilnius

What is visited?

Vilnius: Soviet architecture and monument heritage and Museum of Genocide Victims Nemencine: “1984” tour of the Soviet bunker Grutas: Grutas Park Linksmakalnis: Linksmakalnis military base Kaunas: Soviet architecture and Tour to Kaunas IX Fort Ploksciai: Cold War Museum in Plokstine Missile Base Klaipeda: Soviet architecture and monument heritage Liepaja: Karosta Cietums (War-port Prision) Srunda: Skrunda Radar Station Riga: Soviet architecture and monument heritage, Riga Aviation Museum Ligatne: Soviet Nuclear Bunker Vilnius: End of the tour

It is also interesting to mention, that Lonely Planet Author Piers Pickard in his article about most interesting Dark tourism sites mentions two places in Lithuania: Stalin World (Grutas Park) and Vilnius KGB Prison (Museum of Genocide Victims). The message about Museum of Genocide Victims is really strong and motivting to visit the place: “Guides are always good, but as you look round the former KGB headquarters in Vilnius, Lithuania, you might notice your guide seems to know more than you’d expect. He should – he’s a former inmate.”

THE TASK:

• Put the puzzle, • Read the text, • Choose the most interesting site (or sites), • Identifie the motives that lead to visit these sites, • Try to classifie the sites from the least to the darkest dark.

Thank you for your Attention!

And see you in Lithuania