Netflix hit Stranger Things has been criticized for using a Nazi prison and brutal asylum in the new series
Netflix has come under fire for using past atrocity sites as locations or inspiration for its nostalgic hit series Stranger Things, including a plan to allow fans to reserve a themed room in a former Holocaust prison through Airbnb.
The duo’s fourth season, which aired its final episodes last week, has dark roots in the real world.
The Russian prison scenes were filmed in a former Lithuanian prison used by the Nazis during the Holocaust, and the show’s fictional psychiatric hospital was inspired by the infamous US asylum of a similar name.
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Mental health and Jewish advocates have criticized the streaming giant for what they see as an exploitation of the brutal story. Both places are now also used as tourist attractions.
But with the growing demand for “dark tourism” — historical curiosities involving death or tragedy — the line between education and entertainment has blurred.
Forensic anthropologist and criminologist Xanthe Mallett says it is important to remember the horrors of the past without exploiting its victims.
“We don’t want to forget those lessons, we don’t want to.” [want to] Make the same mistakes again and we shouldn’t erase those places from history… but I think it’s also important that these places don’t become tourist traps,” she says.
Holocaust symbol
Closed in 2019, the Lukiškii prison, located in the center of the Lithuanian capital Vilina, has since become a cultural center for live music and events, but for many, the prison remains a symbol of Nazi brutality.
in 1941 During the Nazi occupation of Lithuania, the Lukiški prison was used as a detention center for Jews. About 350 Jews imprisoned in Lukiškės later perished in the Ponari massacre, which killed 100,000 people, many of whom were Jews and Roma.
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Netflix has partnered with Go Vilnius tourism to create a Stranger Things themed camera in the Lukiški complex that can be rented out on Airbnb.
A petition against the proposal gathered more than 53,000 signatures, so Go Vilnius suspended the project indefinitely.
Eleven, played by Millie Bobby Brown, has an ID number tattooed on the inside of her wrist, reminiscent of the tattoos given to Jewish prisoners during World War II. Fans of the show have imitated the numbers themselves with tattoos, which Netflix shared on its social media accounts.
Peter Werthweim of the Australian Jewish Executive Council called the use of Nazi-style motifs and locations “obscene”.
“Netflix should apologize and take responsibility for this use of Lukiškės prison.” The producers showed a callous disregard for the suffering of Jews and Roma in that terrible place,” says Wertheim.
“Whether they realize it or not, their work downplayed the scale of the Holocaust, desensitized the public to the horrors of genocide, and thus laid the groundwork for future acts of brutality and carnage.”
ABC reached out to Netflix for comment, but the company did not respond before publication.
The reality of the “asylum” has been exhausted
Another controversial location in Stranger Things is Pennhurst Mental Hospital – a fictional facility inspired by the very real Pennhurst Public School and Hospital in Pennsylvania – which Nancy and Robin infiltrate to interrogate a “crazy” killer.
The real asylum closed in 1987, just a year after Stranger Things was set, after decades of legal action over abuse and alleged neglect.
It was a place of segregation, power, abuse, neglect and torture, fueled by the public perception at the time that people with intellectual disabilities posed a dangerous threat to the social order.
Today, however, it is better known as one of the world’s most visited dark tourism destinations and a destination for ghost hunters.
In the 1990s, Dr. Joanne Watson worked as a speech-language pathologist in institutions for people with intellectual disabilities in several countries.
Watson has worked with some of the hospital’s former patients and says their stories cannot be dismissed.
“I worked in Pennsylvania for the next year after Pennhurst closed, and I got to know the rich and important life stories of many of the people who called Pennhurst home,” she says.
“These people weren’t ‘criminally insane’; they were intellectually disabled. Most people with intellectual disabilities in the 20th century were seen as part of humanity, that is, if they were accepted as human at all.”
Australia’s dark past
Australia has its own dark tourism, inspired by prisons and asylums, and a long history of colonialism, abuse and murder.
Aradale Lunatic Asylum was a psychiatric hospital known for its poor conditions and Victorian approach to mental health. Electroconvulsive therapy and transorbital lobotomy were common practices in Ararat, western Victoria, including children.
Today, visitors are given historical tours, although some prefer ghost stories. Tours boast tales of governors whose spirits still lurk, prisoners buried in the ground, and countless souls trapped within the walls.
Many of the people who used to live in Aradale now live in group homes in the shadow of the tourist attraction.
“Now they live … in smaller facilities that we call ‘group homes’ or ‘supported housing.’ What do they have to make of these tourist attractions? Watson says.
Dr Mallett believes that a line needs to be drawn between tourism and respect for history, because “people’s suffering is being celebrated and that’s really unpleasant”.
“[It] He lacks a sense of humanity and recognition of those suffering people,” said Dr.
Other trauma sites have been given new life by tourism, honoring their dark history by turning them into learning sites where the public can reflect on the past.
One of the country’s longest-running prisons, Maitland Gaol once housed some of Australia’s most notorious criminals, including backpacker killer Ivan Milat and the five men convicted of murdering Anita Cobby.
Today, it operates as a museum where visitors can take guided tours of the complex, night tours led by former prison guards, ghosts and psychics, play laser tag or escape to an escape room. It was also used as a film location.
Like Maitland’s site, Parramatta Prison advertised its space for similar activities. The prison regularly hosts paranormal exhibitions, overnight stays and guided inmate tours – Australian singer Texas Perkins even recreated a 1968 performance. Johnny Cash’s concert at Folsom Prison in 2015.
Perhaps the most recognizable dark tourist spot in the country is Port Arthur,
The heritage-listed town has one of the best-preserved convict settlements.
It also became one of the worst in modern Australian memory in 1996. the site of the massacre, where 35 people were killed and 23 others were injured.
The site of the Port Arthur Massacre is now a place of reflection, with a monument and memorial garden planted to honor the victims.
The dark side of true crime
Mallet says we’re often fascinated by the extremes of what people will do to each other, and that’s part of what drives us to explore dark subjects like true crime.
“There’s just been an explosion of all forms of real crime, and crime tourism is part of that. They feel that horror and that darkness, but there’s still safety because it hasn’t happened to them,” she says.
“We’re kind of teetering on where the real crime is, in entertainment, and that’s not a positive thing in my opinion.”
“I think when it comes to entertainment, it can be problematic … because the stories that people are going to see, they forget that these are people’s lives.
Watson enjoys watching Stranger Things with her son, but she says the creators have twisted Pennhurst’s history, leading many to misunderstand the true stories of those who called it home.
“It’s offensive because recently in the Western world institutions have been closed, and many people who lived in places like Pennhurst live in a community that is now commercially profiting from the dark exploitation of their life stories,” she says.
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