ABSTRACT
Dark tourism to former concentration camps in Poland has become increasingly popular in Israel in the past few decades. Criticism of these tours began in the 1990s and intensified with time, alongside their success. Black humor and satire were and remain key elements fueling this debate. The chapter analyzes the satirical critique of organized and individual educational trips to the former concentration camps by focusing on examples from TV satire and poetry. Although Holocaust humor and satire are considered, in general, to cheapen the trauma and dismiss the pain of the survivors, the chapter claims that Holocaust satire in Hebrew in a post-traumatic society that acts out the trauma on a daily basis has other functions. Dark tourism satire does not ridicule the victims and their pain, but criticizes the phenomenon, the collective memory agents, and points to the faults of Holocaust commemoration in contemporary Israel. It functions as a social–political wedge that addresses the problematic features of these tours, and challenges their organization, narrative, goals, effects, and necessity. It reflects earnest issues that continue to be discussed in serious debates concerning these trips.
