A Polish translation of the epilog of Anne Rothe's book Popular Trauma Culture: Selling the Pain of Others in the Mass Media (Rutgers UP, New Brunswick, New Jersey, London 2011). Rothe analyzes how the Holocaust in American popular culture has become a paradigmatic representation of evil. The success of Holocaust survivor testimonies, diaries, and memoirs among the general public has inspired filmmakers, novelists, and fake personal documentary literature. The appeal of these narratives lies in absorbing the reader with an individual tragedy staged in a simple, black-and-white world. By empathizing with another person's pain and indulging in the fantasy of their own witnessing of the Holocaust, the recipients detach themselves from contemporary political, economic, and social conditions, in which they feel helpless and lost. An additional advantage of Holocaust narratives is the seal of authenticity, which intensifies the power of their impact in a reality experienced every day as inauthentic and devoid of deeper meaning. This mechanism paves way to a better understanding why - among the many destinations of so-called dark tourism - the most popular remain the museums-memorial sites established on the grounds of former extermination camps.
