Offensive description?

topic posted Sat, November 7, 2009 - 5:25 AM by  JM
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I'm composing a travel guide with short, ironic descriptions of museums.
Would be below be offensive, or in any way considered anti-semitic?


The Nazi Death Camp
Auschwitz is not an afternoon outing traditionally recommended to young lovers, but offers a distraction to consider, nonetheless. You will never master its pronunciation in Polish, and hand gestures tend to be inapt for a description of your destination, so stand outside the train station asking bus drivers in German if they go to the Nazi camp of death. Some of them will. German tourists stand at the gates having their pictures taken. Inside the barracks are rooms of shoes and artificial limbs, renderings of executions, photos of piles of bodies, faces, arms, parts. One is never a great fan of Auschwitz. Emotional tourism here recoils on itself.
posted by:
JM
offline JM
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  • Re: Offensive description?

    Sun, November 8, 2009 - 6:10 AM
    The first thing that struck me is that it's flippant. The whole subject of the holocaust is far to sensitive to treat flippantly. I've found that, no matter how iconoclastic and irreverent I tend to be amongst friends, it's best to set that aside when setting things to paper in some cases. Even stand up comedians each have some subjects about which they will not joke.
    • Re: Offensive description?

      Mon, November 9, 2009 - 11:43 AM
      Yes, flippant. That describes it exactly. It reads like the author is uncomfortable with the feelings a visit is likely to produce and reacts with emotional distance.

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