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From the "how did nobody see how this could possibly look bad" department:

https://www.yahoo.com/travel/outrage-after-auschwitz-installs-mist-showers-128113331497.html

The proprietors of the Auschwitz concentration camp have found themselves in hot water after installing showers in the former Nazi extermination camp in a bid to “cool down” visitors to the onetime slaughterhouse, which is now a museum commemorating the Holocaust.

Mist showers have reportedly been installed at the death camp’s entrance to help tourists battle the high summer temperatures in Poland, where Auschwitz is located.

However, for some Jewish visitors to the museum, the showers have evoked harsh memories of the execution of more than 1.1 million at the death camp, many of whom were murdered by being marched into showers filled with poison gas.

“Israel visitors to the museum could not ignore the connotation of showers being put in place at a site where more than a million Jews were murdered by the Nazis in gas chambers during the Holocaust,” Israel Hayom reported on Monday.

I daresay most of those visitors don't have memories of the event... but I am also kind of thinking that maybe it's a bit like an "interactive exhibit".

I laughed way harder than I should have. Next they'll decide that tourists need a dedicated train to get to Auschwitz. You know, for the tourists who are selected to go.

fething People

 BobtheInquisitor wrote:
I laughed way harder than I should have. Next they'll decide that tourists need a dedicated train to get to Auschwitz. You know, for the tourists who are selected to go.

They'll probably just give up on tickets and write a queue number on your arm.

Did nobody consider air conditioning?

First time I've ever heard of anywhere installing "mist showers" to cool down tourists, and it's at Auschwitz.

Most places offer air conditioning and/or shaded areas with drinking fountains.

How hot does it get in Poland?

Air conditioning is usually only of use in confined spaces. Mist showers are common at hot outside events, though normally it's sporting events.
On Monday it was 35° at its hottest. Average for August is 24°.

 Alex C wrote:
First time I've ever heard of anywhere installing "mist showers" to cool down tourists, and it's at Auschwitz.

Most places offer air conditioning.

How hot does it get in Poland?

They are having a pretty unusual heat wave right now.

The mist showers are fairly common in parks around here (Oklahoma).

They do have AC inside the buildings, but they have long lines outside without any shade and had people collapse from heat exhaustion which was the reason for installing the musters according to the report on the radio.

It is a solution that makes perfect sense anywhere else, but someone had to think of the optics there.

The misters are temporary though, so they won't be the final solution to the heat wave.

Mist showers are fairly common in a number of places. I know I've seen them in use at outdoor music events and the like.

 d-usa wrote:


The misters are temporary though, so they won't be the final solution to the heat wave.

I wonder if the tourists would rather wish the total war on heat.

 d-usa wrote:
... so they won't be the final solution ...

Next thing you know they'll be putting in ovens to make fresh baked goods for the visitors.

 Psienesis wrote:
Mist showers are fairly common in a number of places. I know I've seen them in use at outdoor music events and the like.

Fair enough.

We don't have much use for such a thing in northern MI so they're new to me...

 d-usa wrote:
It is a solution that makes perfect sense anywhere else, but someone had to think of the optics there.

Maybe it was just a laps in concentration?

 Alex C wrote:

 Psienesis wrote:
Mist showers are fairly common in a number of places. I know I've seen them in use at outdoor music events and the like.

Fair enough.

We don't have much use for such a thing in northern MI so they're new to me...

Yeah, they're pretty standard at any outdoor event where its get hot.

Mist showers are quite common in Vegas - especially along the strip.
In summer, you won't notice them (it evaporates before it gets to ground level - sucking heat off the strip).

I think it's a case of "Transferred" memories as I don't think many of the "visitors" were ever there. If you were, WHY would you want to go back?

When good intentions meet bad visuals.

So long as nobody is being herded into special shower rooms, I think I can let this slide. The article says they're mainly fitted at the entrance, and casually walking through a slightly misted archway is a hell of a difference to being stripped of your possessions and forced into a crowded chamber full of terrified people where you would suffer an agonising death.

Personally, I think the main issue here is that these mist showers are so named because that's exactly what they are. It's unfortunate, sure, but I don't think the person who invented them did so with the express purpose of one day having them fitted at Auschwitz so that they might cause grief and outrage.

You could simply call them 'misters' or something, but at the end of the day they shower people with mist, and it's rather difficult to not call something that does that a 'mist shower'...

 chromedog wrote:
Mist showers are quite common in Vegas - especially along the strip.
In summer, you won't notice them (it evaporates before it gets to ground level - sucking heat off the strip).

I think it's a case of "Transferred" memories as I don't think many of the "visitors" were ever there. If you were, WHY would you want to go back?

I had them at my elementary school.

 Avatar 720 wrote:
So long as nobody is being herded into special shower rooms, I think I can let this slide. The article says they're mainly fitted at the entrance, and casually walking through a slightly misted archway is a hell of a difference to being stripped of your possessions and forced into a crowded chamber full of terrified people where you would suffer an agonising death.

I can see the problem as far as "bad optics" goes, but I know it wouldn't really bother me. I can understand if people who are visiting and who had relatives that died there may be a tad more sensitive about this though.

Personally, I think the main issue here is that these mist showers are so named because that's exactly what they are. It's unfortunate, sure, but I don't think the person who invented them did so with the express purpose of one day having them fitted at Auschwitz so that they might cause grief and outrage.

You could simply call them 'misters' or something, but at the end of the day they shower people with mist, and it's rather difficult to not call something that does that a 'mist shower'...

I wonder just what they look like. At the Zoo and other areas around town they do have little towers that have what looks like a little shower head on them and I can see the "shower" association there. But I do know that there are other options on how to present them. I think going the "sunflowers spraying mist on people" may be a little to "fun" for the location that we are talking about, but I wonder if they could go with something that sprays from the ground (more in line with a water sprinkler) or maybe at the height of a hand rail. Something to make it less "shower" like.

 Psienesis wrote:
...but I am also kind of thinking that maybe it's a bit like an "interactive exhibit".

No. If misters are necessary because of the weather it might have unfortunate associations, but everyone should just be an adult about it. Integrating them into an exhibit like this is some kind of fething theme park, that would be obscene.

 AlexHolker wrote:
No. If misters are necessary because of the weather it might have unfortunate associations, but everyone should just be an adult about it. Integrating them into an exhibit like this is some kind of fething theme park, that would be obscene.

When I went Auschwitz wasn't like a theme park, or exploitative in any way. I doubt that's changed in a few years. Before you imply that it's being turned in to a theme park, maybe go there.


EDIT
Whoops, total misread on my part. Ignore.

I don't think that's what Alex meant. The opposite, actually.

I like the gallows humour of this thread.

 Ouze wrote:
I don't think that's what Alex meant. The opposite, actually.

Right. I was only arguing against the idea Psienesis brought up of it being part of an interactive exhibit, which is not what they are actually doing.

my great-great ganddad would probably laughed his bum off...even tho he came out alive there...(and he wasn´t one of the guards mind you...just to clarify the flag of mine)

 AlexHolker wrote:
Right. I was only arguing against the idea Psienesis brought up of it being part of an interactive exhibit, which is not what they are actually doing.

Cool. Sorry, I misread.


Incidentally, when I was there part way through the tour they usher you in to watch a movie. The doors close, the lights go out, and then every other kid thinks its genius to make hissing noises.

 Ouze wrote:
When good intentions meet bad visuals.

Pretty much this. However, the guy who thought up this idea obviously did it before his morning coffee. That little voice saying "this might not be my best idea ever" quite clearly had not kicked in yet.
Has anybody alerted Magneto? I don't think he'd approve.

Have you been there? The entire camp is more of a tourist trap than anything. That shower idea is just stupid.

 timetowaste85 wrote:

 Ouze wrote:
When good intentions meet bad visuals.

Pretty much this. However, the guy who thought up this idea obviously did it before his morning coffee. That little voice saying "this might not be my best idea ever" quite clearly had not kicked in yet.
Has anybody alerted Magneto? I don't think he'd approve.

A better idea, and maybe a workable one is similar, but its fans with water attachments. They're basically just big fans that are slightly cause of a very light mist. You see them on the sidelines of a lot of sports games, especially football. They look like fans, not showers (because er they are).

Here's a portable one:
http://www.uline.ca/Product/Detail/H-4023/Warehouse-Fans-Heaters-and-AC/Misting-Fan?pricode=YA432&gadtype=pla&id=H-4023&gclid=CN2J3P_J2McCFQqQaQodRpoKfg&gclsrc=aw.ds