| Submit your comments on this article |
| -Short Attention Span Theater- |
| New Acme of Bad Taste |
| 2010-03-14 |
| IT may be a stag party too far. After a night of binge drinking and strippers, young Britons are being invited to work off their hangovers on a tour of the Auschwitz concentration camp. The trips are being offered for as little as £149 per person, plus flights, by two British companies, Last Night of Freedom and Chillisauce. Holocaust groups are appalled, while one tour organiser admitted last week that it conjured up “a horrible impression of lap dancers' at the Nazi death camp. The stag packages include a crawl of the 300 bars and restaurants around the main square of Krakow in Poland, once overrun by Mongol hordes, followed by a visit to a strip club. Other activities can include paintballing, white-water rafting and firing a Kalashnikov on a shooting range. Auschwitz and its sister camp of Birkenau are a 45-minute coach ride away. The authorities in Krakow have already banned stag parties in kilts because men were frequently exposing themselves. Now groups are turning up at the camps with T-shirts emblazoned with the names of their tours, such as “Warsaw, Krakow, Auschwitz — 2009'. Paul Luke, content manager at Last Night of Freedom, which claims to be the world's biggest travel agency for stag and hen weekends, told a journalist posing as a customer: “It is bizarre when you drop a visit to the most depressing place on Earth into a massively fun weekend, but it is life-affirming. People have told us they have had the best night out ever after they have been there, because it almost makes you think, ‘To hell with that, we have seen the worst humanity had to show and then gone out on a major night on the tiles with strippers and booze'. “Although it makes some people cringe at the notion of these two things colliding, it is something that is very moving and extremely sobering. Then again, it does fuel a fabulous night out.' David Stacey, a happy customer, said: “A lady called Kate was our tour guide and she was excellent. She came out with us on the first and second night and organised white-water rafting and a trip to Auschwitz, which were both very good for different reasons.' The invite to Auschwitz on the Chillisauce website says: “Why not take a break from your stag weekend mayhem and immerse yourself in a little world-defining history before the 20-odd pints later in the evening.' Some stag groups have posted photos of their visit on the firm's website. Snaps of them under the famous “Arbeit Macht Frei' sign are livened up by the addition of Denzil, a cartoon stag mascot. Karen Pollock, head of the Holocaust Educational Trust, said: “Over 1m people were systematically murdered at Auschwitz-Birkenau. It seems entirely inappropriate to advertise a visit to the site for stag groups in this way, alongside nights of drinking and clubbing.' James Baddiley, the managing director of Chillisauce, said: “We have had no complaints. We get a lot of customers who think if they are in Krakow they would like to go along to Auschwitz to pay their respects. Obviously, they don't go along dressed up as if they are on a stag do.' Izania Downie, the chief executive of Eventia, the trade body for event organisers, said: “It appears that Chillisauce offer the Auschwitz tour as one of many cultural options available, but we have discussed this issue with them and they have reviewed the way in which they present this option to the public.' Matt Mavir, who set up Last Night of Freedom in 1999, was unavailable for comment. |
| Posted by: Anonymoose |
| #3 'To hell with that, we have seen the worst humanity had to show and then gone out on a major night on the tiles with strippers and booze'. “Although it makes some people cringe at the notion of these two things colliding, it is something that is very moving and extremely sobering. Then again, it does fuel a fabulous night out.” One might contend (and with apologies to any Holocaust survivors out there) that people like this might be worse. |
| Posted by: CrazyFool 2010-03-14 14:39 |
| #2 Wouldn't want to be working the phones at Last Night of Freedom and Chillisauce today... |
| Posted by: tu3031 2010-03-14 14:11 |
| #1 In a non-decadent society there wouldn't be a need to discuss the issue with them. I'm with Alfonzo Rachel's comments at the Dallas tea party. Ultimately the problem isn't our politicians, it's our culture. Europe's farther along the downward path than we are, but arguably not all that much. We might be able to pull back, with some strenuous and time urgent effort but I'm not sure the UK and the continent can. |
| Posted by: lotp 2010-03-14 14:08 |