Dark Tourism, is gaining popularity as per the spokesperson of the Indian Association of Tour Operators in India. Dark Tourism is that form of Tourism, wherein people visit places associated with death and suffering. These landmarks are spread across the world, from Jallianwala Bagh in Punjab and Cellular Jail at Andamans in India to the 9/11 memorial in the United States or the concentration camps of Eastern Europe.
April 12 was Holocaust Memorial Day and this day evokes a sentiment that takes your thoughts to these concentration camps, which today stands as a test of time and as a remembrance of a race that faced a mindless massacre and brutality in the history of humanity. The city of Mumbai too will remember this day with a special ceremony scheduled to be held at the Magen David Synagogue, in Byculla, Mumbai. The Holocaust Memorial Day event was organised by Solomon Sopher, managing trustee of three synagogues in India and the president of the Sir Jacob Sassoon Trust and The American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (AJDC).
Confirming few details to The Indian Express, Solomon Sopher said, “Consul Generals of France, Israel, Hungary, Poland, Germany, and Canada confirmed their attendance at short notice and over 150 Jewish community members from across India attended the event along with our non-Jewish well wishers.”
He further added that, “The day was truly special for us Jews but I believe for humanity and mankind in general as no race should face such attrocities ever in the future and it’s time we all work toward a world that speaks the language of Shalom (Peace). I had visited Terezin Concentration Camp in Prague last year and witnessed brutality through images. Unbelievable sites of Jewish prisoners being placed in inhuman cells and small fortresses where rooms, which would accommodate a hundred men and women, over a thousand were placed.”
Children from the Jewish community of Mumbai who are part of the ‘Gan Katan’ (small Kids) programme at AJDC, sing the famous Hebrew song titled ‘Eli Eli’ a prayer song written by Hannah Senesh after learning of the fate of Europe’s Jews during the Holocaust. April 12 was also that day of the year when a siren goes out across the State of Israel, wherein people stop a pause in silence in memory of the victims of the Holocaust.