Educational dark tourism at an in populo site: The Holocaust Museum in Jerusalem

Abstract

Based on a study at Yad Vashem, the Shoah (Holocaust) memorial museum in Jerusalem, a new term— in populo—is proposed to describe dark tourism sites at a population and spiritual center of the people to whom a tragedy befell. Learning about the Shoah in Jerusalem offers a different but equally authentic encounter with the subject as visits to sites in Europe. It is argued that a dichotomy between ‘authentic’ sites at the location of a tragedy and ‘created’ sites elsewhere is insufficient. Participants’ evaluations of seminars for European teachers at Yad Vashem indicate that the location is an important aspect of a meaningful encounter with the subject. Implications for other cases of dark tourism at in populo locations are discussed.