Items taken from the Kanada section of the Auschwitz-Birkenau site by two British teenagers in 2015. Polish Regional Police Command.

Contemporary visitors to the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum mark their experience of seeing the former concentration and extermination camp in various ways. Many take photographs; others share their impressions on social media; and some purchase books, fridge magnets or posters from the Museum shops. In recent years, however, a small number of visitors have made the headlines for attempting to take other ‘souvenirs’ – namely, items and artefacts from the grounds of the former camp itself.

In 2015, for example, two English schoolboys were arrested, fined and put on trial for attempting to take home small items they had found lying around in the former Kanada complex. Other items pocketed by visitors include bricks, pieces of barbed wire and fragments from the Birkenau railway track. What might the average visitor hope to gain from taking ‘souvenirs’ from the Auschwitz site, and what is the proposed final destination of these items? This talk will examine possible motivations for visitors removing artefacts from the former camp, such as financial gain, iconography, the need for an ‘authentic’ experience and the fulfillment of emotional connections.

About the speaker:

Dr Imogen Dalziel is the part-time Programme Co-ordinator for the Holocaust and Genocide Research Partnership; part-time Administrator for the Holocaust Research Institute at Royal Holloway, University of London; and a freelance Holocaust researcher and educator. She obtained her PhD from Royal Holloway in October 2020 with a thesis that explored the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum’s adaptation to the digital museum. Her first published journal article, ‘“Romantic Auschwitz”: Examples and Perceptions of Contemporary Visitor Photography at the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum’, won Holocaust Studies’ inaugural Best Essay Prize in 2017. Dr Dalziel also received an ‘If Not for Those Ten…’ award for voluntary services to the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum in 2016.

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