My name is Jeremy Branham and I love to travel. Check out my stories, tips, guides, and adventures on travel. If you're a new visitor, check out my 5 of the most haunted places on earth
By Jeremy Branham on Oct 27, 2011 with Comments 37
As Halloween approaches, the ghouls, goblins, and ghosts lurk from haunted houses and on streets carrying bags full of goodies. For most people, Halloween is a fun time of year filled with candy, parties, and a desire to seek out the scary and haunted. From trick or treating to adult Halloween parties to free Halloween events, there is no shortage of fun on Halloween.
While thrills of Halloween are fun for some, evil and terror are part of our world history. Some of the scariest places on earth aren’t haunted houses or sites with paranormal activity. The most terror-filled places on earth involve death, suffering, and tragedy.
In this case, ‘haunted’ doesn’t mean being inhabited by ghosts. These haunted places are a result of mental anguish and torment that still exists today. For people who lived through these tragedies or have had a chance to visit some of these places, these are truly some of the most haunted places on earth.
Auschwitz, Poland - The site of the infamous Nazi concentration camp brought death to an estimated 2 million people, many of those Jews. The suffering, torture, starvation, death, and stench of burning flesh was never lost on the survivors. For those that visit today, the tragedy of this place continues as an eery silence and barren landscape serve as the backdrop to this scene of death, torture, and evil.
This place is haunted by the suffering and pain of those who died many years ago. Seventy years later, it is still one of the most infamous places of torture and death known around the world. May we never forget the tragedies. May Auschwitz never be repeated.
Croatia and Serbia - From the early to mid 90s, Yugoslavia was torn apart by war as neighbor battled neighbor, people left their homes, and communities turned on one another in bloodshed and death. Croatia and Serbia may have been two of the hardest hit countries of the war as Serbs, Croats, and Bosniaks lived peacefully together until war drove them apart. If the fighting and the killing of neighbors wasn’t enough, Slobodan Milosevic’s ethnic cleansing and genocide led to the brutal deaths of many men, women, and children.
During the war, 140,000 people lost their lives. The first shots of the war were fired in Plitvice Lakes National Park in 1991. By the time the war ended in 1995, Yugoslavia no longer existed as these nations declared a bloody independence. Bullet holes and collapsed houses still exist today throughout the countries of Croatia, Serbia, Bosnia, and others as these countries move forward and pick up the pieces of families, neighbors, and countries that were left shattered.
Tuol Sleng Prison, Cambodia - During the reign of the Khmer Rouge, its leader may have well been the second coming of Adolf Hitler. During the bloody civil and reign, 2 million people were killed in forced labor camps under the cruel dictator Pol Pot. Children were taken from their parents. Professionals were murdered. Other people were killed on a whim, for no reason at all. Interrogation, torture, and starvation were an all too common part of daily lives.
Religion was banned and racial ethnic cleansing was carried out. This was a genocide in the most brutal of ways. Today, these killing fields are stained with the blood and the memories of those brutally murdered and tortured. This dark history in Cambodia’s past is a haunting memory the country seeks to overcome but never forget.
Rwanda - Genocide has been a tragic part of recent African history. From Rwanda to Darfur to the Sudan, there is no shortage of death among these African nations. The spotlight on civil war, genocide, and political killings was highlighted in the Hollywood movie Hotel Rwanda. As many learned about the details of what has been happening in Africa for years, this tragedy didn’t have a Hollywood ending.
War and corruption between the Hutu and Tutsi people in Rwanda exploded leading to ethnic violence and death beyond the comprehension of many in the western world. While Rwanda was the focus of a movie, pick any number of areas in Africa and you can find suffering, tragedy, starvation, and death which haunt millions every day.
Recsk, Hungary - While the tragedies of World War II and Nazi concentration camps are well known, the Gulag camps of the former Soviet Union were just as ruthless on their prisoners. Like the concentration camps in Germany, these Gulag camps enslaved political prisoners, dissidents, petty thieves, and government protesters.
Millions of people passed through these camps in the USSR and other communist countries with over a million people dying as a result of harsh conditions and treatment. Prisoners of these camps faced many of the same conditions as their concentration camp counterparts – meager food supplies, harsh winters, little clothing, and long work hours. Recsk, Hungary was the site of one of the toughest political prison camps in the Communist regime.
With so many deaths throughout recent world history, these places serve as a reminder to forgive but never forget. While Halloween may be a time to dress as a ghost and enjoy haunted houses, may we never forget how haunted and terror-filled our human history can really be.
What other places would you add to this list?
Rwanda (Flickr), Tuol Sleng (Flickr)
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Filed Under: Destinations
You’re right. The recent history has, unfortunately, a lot of horrible episodes that should never be forgotten. God help us, may they never be repeated and wonderful places such as Plitvice Lakes National Park always be cherished as natural treasures of the world.
One quick note, if I may: not sure if Hungary was a part of the USSR. Of course, it was (more or less) under the political influence of the USSR just like most of the Eastern European countries at that time, but not a part if it (geographically speaking).
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The sad thing about all of these places is that the horrors have all happened in the last 70 years. Sadly, Auschwitz and Nazi Germany were the first. Yet, seems we didn’t learn enough from those to prevent the others from happening. Some of these places are indeed beautiful – Plitvice is one of the most beautiful places I have visited and Recsk is a beautiful town as well with some great wine tasting and vineyards. However, these places have an ugly side too!
Thanks for the correction on the USSR. I knew that of course – I’ve been to Hungary, know about Imre Nagy and a little of their history. Gulag camps were a Soviet/USSR thing but were established in other Communist countries in Eastern Europe. I corrected that in the post so thanks for pointing it out!
Mummies in Italy are volunteers that don’t compare to the horrors mentioned above, yet they make a perfect Halloween outing.
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I’ve never heard of Mummies in Italy. What is that?
sobering post jeremy. unfortunately, there is probably a lot more places you could add to the list. for example, i watched a documentary the other day about the civil war in sri lanka. the doco claimed 40,000 civilian tamils were massacred by government forces over the last few weeks of the war in 2009.
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Thanks Jamie. Without a doubt, there are places like this all over the world – many of which we have yet to find out about. It’s a shame that these things still happen today. It seems we haven’t learned anything from the tragedies of Nazi Germany.
Ever since I decided to focus on “dark” tourism as “my topic” in grad school, it seems to be cropping up everywhere! These are all perfect examples of “dark” tourist sites, where it’s actually the dark history associated with the site that motivates people to want to visit.
And, yes, sadly, it seems the amount of “dark” sites around the world will only continue to increase. We humans can be horrible to one another. But, that being said, there are very few places in the world that haven’t experienced at least SOME amount of violence and suffering in their history. We’re just more aware of it today thanks to the media.
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Amanda, that’s a good point about the media. Maybe the dark places are no more prevalent than they were 100 or 1000 years ago. We just know about them now. The tragic part if places and events like this still happen.
Yes, many people visit them for this reason. Hopefully they come away changed as well.
A list of places where terrible atrocoties have happened, I can’t think of more haunting places than Auschwitz and Tuol Sleng Prison but I’m sure there are more, unfortunately:(
The saddest thing about all of these places listed? They all occurred in the 20th century with 4 out of 5 happening in the last 35 years!
These places seem more dark and more depressing than haunted.
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Yes but note the definition of haunted that I used – something that torments and causing mental anguish and suffering. By this definition, haunted fits perfectly!
What a list of terrible places. I once used to take tours through the Verdun battlefields (WW1)of eastern France. But I used to get so upset that I now choose to remember “the fallen” in other ways – and no longer take tours there. In Verdun nearly one million people were killed over a matter of months over a space of a couple of kilometres. Senseless.
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John, how you feel about Verdun is how I felt about Auschwitz. It’s horrible to think of all the stuff that has happened in the 20th century. Of all those things on the list, the other 4 all happened AFTER Auschwitz. Seems we don’t remember history very well or don’t care enough to keep it from repeating itself in places all over the world.
“Croatia and Serbia may have been two of the hardest hit countries”
I’m sorry but these is just not true. Serbia has attacking other countries (Croatia) but there wasn’t any fighting on it’s territory.
Thanks for the comment Zugi. I was referring to the casualties rather than the actual places where battles occurred. Sorry I didn’t make that clearer. In terms of fighting, Bosnia was hit pretty bad much like Croatia. This entire region suffered and death took its toll throughout Yugoslavia. However, Serbs and Croats had the most people killed of any in the Yugoslavia war.
I appreciate the fact that you’re using this season/holiday to bring attention to some of the most horrendous genocides that have happened in modern history.
I’d also have to add the Congo to that list – the terror happening there RIGHT NOW is devastating.
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There is scary fun and there is scary in real life. I just played off of Halloween to focus on places around the world that know what scary is.
The Congo is another good one – you could pick a number of places in Africa for this!
Any battle field from the Civil War, World War I, or World War II has to be pretty haunted due to the gradual technological advances we made during those years in killing each other on a large scale. Don’t think I would want to camp at Appomatax or Omaha Beach at night by myself.
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Good points about battlefields. Another good place to include on this list would be Hiroshima.
I’ve been to the concentration camp at Dachau several times. There’s always a cold wind blowing. Every person I take there notices it.
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Christopher, I’ve been to Dachau as well. Any visit to a concentration camp has an impact. However, Auschwitz had a little more of an impact on me than Dachau but both were memorable and unforgettable experiences.
Not places we usually think about on Halloween but definitely very haunted.
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This is so sad and horrifying…. May these souls rest in peace.
There are many forts in India which have stories associated with them and people dont dare visit them in the dark…
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I am sure there are many places like this all over the world that have tragic stories like these. Just wish there weren’t so many.
this post just makes me sad – the thought of modern society committing these horrific and savage acts just stuns me.
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Yikes! I was expecting some standard haunted houses not Auschwitz. Agreed- these places are certainly chilling to visit given the atrocities committed there. This puts Halloween “terror” into perspective!
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I wanted to write something that was a spin off of Halloween. However, real life tragedies and horrors is what I was looking for. As much fun as Halloween is, it’s good to shed light on what is going on in the world around us – even to this day!
What about Pearl Harbor?
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Pearl Harbor is a good one to add to this list!
This is a really unique take Jeremy. What’s scary about all of these is that it really happened and could possibly happen again. *shiver*
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Seems that places like this happen almost every day. Some of it we still don’t hear about while some we know very well. Sadly, I think this list will only grow.
Yes I think the saddest thing about this list is how easily it can be added to. As Jamie says, a sobering post.
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That is what is so bad. The thing I hate the most about this list is how it continues to grow in the 20th and 21st century.
i’ve been to the toul sleng genocide museum in phnom penh, cambodia. it was one of my most chilling tour ever. i could not imagine that anyone was capable of such violence. my heart goes out to the children whose photos are displayed in the rooms.
i also wanna go to Auschwitz, Poland.
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Very interested “haunted” list. I would add a place I just recently visited, Andersonville, Georgia. It was one of the worst prisoner of war camps during the Civil War. I believe some 45,000 were imprisoned here and 13,000 died. It was haunting to say the least, even though all that really remains is an open field.
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That’s a place that is close to home for me. The first shots of the Civil War were fired in my home state. The US has been involved in many wars overseas. However, the Civil War would have to be one of our most haunted events as a country.