The House of the Wannsee Conference: Tourism and Holocaust education at a perpetrator site

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to profile the role played by the House of the Wannsee Conference, a house used by Nazis which is now an educational centre.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper provides a descriptive analysis supported by relevant literature.

Findings

The paper concludes that one of the biggest challenges for educational work at such a dark tourism site lies in simultaneously revealing and breaking or contextualizing the link between the site and the perspectives and the thinking of the perpetrators.

Originality/value

The paper provides a practitioner perspective on the challenges of linking education on a dark tourism theme with the history and atmosphere of the location itself.

Citation

Jasch, H.-C. (2017), "The House of the Wannsee Conference: Tourism and Holocaust education at a perpetrator site", Worldwide Hospitality and Tourism Themes, Vol. 9 No. 2, pp. 146-157. https://doi.org/10.1108/WHATT-11-2016-0070