Law Text Culture Volume 13 Crime Scenes Article 10 January 2009 Encountering Auschwitz: A Personal Rumination on the Possibilities and Limitations of Witnessing/Remembering Trauma in Memorial Space D. Dalton Flinders University Follow this and additional works at: https://ro.uow.edu.au/ltc Recommended Citation Dalton, D., Encountering Auschwitz: A Personal Rumination on the Possibilities and Limitations of Witnessing/Remembering Trauma in Memorial Space, Law Text Culture, 13, 2009. Available at:https://ro.uow.edu.au/ltc/vol13/iss1/10 Research Online is the open access institutional repository for the University of Wollongong. For further information contact the UOW Library:
[email protected] Encountering Auschwitz: A Personal Rumination on the Possibilities and Limitations of Witnessing/Remembering Trauma in Memorial Space Abstract Drawing on the personal experience of a three-day tour of the concentration camp complex of Auschwitz- Birkenau and grounded in themes of dark tourism (thanatourism), this article questions the role that the remnants of Auschwitz play in animating our imagination and comprehension of the crimes committed there. Auschwitz-Birkenau confronts the visitor with a disquieting mix of original, restored and replicated physical elements. The museum prescribes some exhibits with the formal classification material‘ evidence of crime’ (formalised displays in cabinets), but as this article explores, this notion belies the fact that the entire camp complex constitutes ‘evidence’ of crime. This article situates the materiality of Auschwitz-Birkenau as something tangible that interacts with ones’ knowledge of the crimes committed here to produce a powerful affective response in the visitor. Additionally, the article pauses to consider the vital role that film plays in both shaping and delimiting expectations of precisely what one will see upon encountering Auschwitz-Birkenau.