Seflie shaming: What problems tourists face in Auschwitz

Selfies have become the modern equivalent of postcards, a way to share travel experiences with family and friends on social media. It's one thing to strike a silly pose and take an Instagram photo on the beach or in a city square, but what if you're visiting a Holocaust memorial?

In 2017, Israeli-German artist Shahak Shapira launched a project aimed at shaming visitors who take selfies at the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe in Germany. The project was called "Yolocaust," a reference to the Internet slang terms "YOLO" (you only live once) and "Holocaust." He juxtaposed historical photographs of Nazi murder victims with photos of visitors juggling and jumping, posing and playing at the Berlin Memorial. This was reported by news.yahoo.com.

Since then, online activists have gained the right to shame those who take selfies from Holocaust sites on social media. Many used "yolocaust" in their comments as a shorthand for condemnation and moral panic.

Experts analyzed hundreds of these posts, captions, and comments to see how people taking selfies are perceived and punished by others online. They checked posts tagged with locations at the Auschwitz Memorial Museum in Poland and the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe in Berlin.

The analysis suggests that it may be better for young people to engage with Holocaust sites in their own way. It also suggests that some commentators may be as guilty as those who take selfies, using their comments to show themselves in a positive light. Paradoxically, this is precisely what they shame the selfie-takers for: focusing on themselves, using the Holocaust as a support.

It turned out that not every photo caused shaming on the Internet. Some people were more likely to receive negative comments than others, depending on their age, gender, cultural identity, pose, facial expression, and photo captions.

Younger, traditionally attractive people - especially women and people posting in English or German - drew a lot of negative comments. In contrast, older and less traditionally "sexy" selfies, men, and those who posted in Italian or Russian, for example, tended to be ignored.

Location was also important. While there were many instances of tourist behaviour at the Berlin Memorial that commentators considered "disrespectful," selfies were rarely seen at Auschwitz. Perhaps this is because Auschwitz is a paid tourist centre that offers structured tours.

In contrast, the Berlin Memorial is an art installation that is always open and part of the streetscape. Its purpose and meaning may not be immediately obvious. This leaves room for the possibility that some Holocaust site selfies are an innocent, accidental part of tourism in Berlin.

Although the Auschwitz Memorial Museum urges visitors not to take selfies, and playful selfies seem disrespectful, experts do not believe they should be banned. Instead, they argue that it is more important to preserve the memory of the more than six million Jews and millions of others murdered by the Nazis, although ineptly and imperfectly. Perhaps this is best done when people live their ordinary, complex, messy, and often joyful lives, just as the victims of the Nazis could not.