Travel by Theme

Dark Tourism

Difficult places, difficult histories, and why they matter.

I hold an M.A. in Holocaust and Genocide Studies from West Chester University (2014), and that background shapes how I approach visiting sites of atrocity. Bearing witness is not tourism in the conventional sense—it’s a different kind of obligation, one that requires preparation, presence, and a willingness to sit with what is uncomfortable rather than move through it quickly. There is a meaningful difference between dark tourism done as an act of remembrance and dark tourism done as a form of consumption; the difference usually shows in how much time you spend reading versus photographing. These posts reflect my own visits to Holocaust and genocide memorial sites across Europe and Africa, and try to say something honest about what it is to be in those places.

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