Introduction: Public Engagement with Holocaust Memory Sites in Poland

The introduction positions this volume in relation to existing literature in the field of Holocaust, tourism, museums, and memory studies, and particularly research dealing directly with visitors at Holocaust memory sites in Poland. Importantly, it will argue for the importance of understanding public engagement with such sites beyond popular scholarship on ‘dark tourism’ and will outline how each individual chapter contributes to deepening understanding of public engagement with former camp sites in Poland and with Polish memorialization of the Holocaust. A particular emphasis will be placed on Jewish and Polish engagement with such sites. The introduction will further argue for the importance of developing audience research studies not only to better understand immediate individual, or group responses elicited by the sites, but to gauge the extent to which engagement is shaped by the visitor’s sense of belonging to a nation, a community, or a generation.