Israel – ADL: ‘Fun Holocaust Video Game’ Horrific And Inappropriate

    11

    Israel – A video game that depicts an uprising in a Nazi death camp has drawn harsh criticism from the Anti-Defamation League, which told Kotaku that the Holocaust should be off-limits for video games.

    Join our WhatsApp group

    Subscribe to our Daily Roundup Email


    Sonderkommando Revolt, a video game set amidst a violent prisoner uprising at the Auschwitz death camp, came to light. The Israeli game maker told Kotaku that the game has no agenda for the game which he and a team have been working on since 2007 and is due out next month. Instead, the developer, who believes that in a past life he was imprisoned as a Jew by Nazis, calls the game “blast the Nazis fun.”

    But the advocacy group, founded to “stop the defamation of the Jewish people and to secure justice and fair treatment to all,” says the game shouldn’t be released, not even if it is meant to be played as violent revenge fantasy.

    “Perhaps well intentioned in its creation, its execution and imagery are horrific and inappropriate,” an Anti-Defamation League spokesperson told Kotaku. “The Holocaust should be off-limits for video games. We hope the developers will reconsider and abandon the game.”

    Sonderkommando Revolt is based on the real-world uprising at Auschwitz in October 1944 and built on the foundation of classic shooter Wolfenstein 3D. The actual event in Auschwitz resulted in the deaths of just three German Schutzstaffel soldiers and the murder of 451 Sonderkommandos, a “special unit” of primarily Jewish concentration camp workers who aided in the killing process during the Holocaust.

    In the video game version of the uprising, the tables are clearly turned, with protagonist and actual Auschwitz prisoner Zalmen Gradowski tearing through Nazi soldiers with a wide selection of weapons.

    “Graphically it’ll feature many themes,” write its creators, “including Crematoriums, Block 11, Gas Chambers, execution, interrogation and torture areas…most of which are ripped/based off real pic from the real site.”

    The Anti-Defamation League sees the game as neither harmless fun nor cathartic video game violence.

    “This rudimentary video game is an offensive portrayal of the Holocaust,” the spokesperson told Kotaku. “With its unnecessarily gruesome and gratuitous graphics, it is a crude effort to depict Jewish resistance during this painful period which should never be trivialized.”


    Listen to the VINnews podcast on:

    iTunes | Spotify | Google Podcasts | Stitcher | Podbean | Amazon

    Follow VINnews for Breaking News Updates


    Connect with VINnews

    Join our WhatsApp group


    11 Comments
    Most Voted
    Newest Oldest
    Inline Feedbacks
    View all comments
    Tzvi_Hersh
    Tzvi_Hersh
    13 years ago

    This article is not really clear, but it should be noted that this game is really an amateur developer’s add-on to the 1992 game Wolfenstein 3D. This is really not a big deal.

    DRSLZ
    DRSLZ
    13 years ago

    How many of our youth–or even adults–ever heard about this revolt? How many of us have read even one non-fictiion book about the Holocaust?

    The sad answer is very few, and the sad implication is that this disturbed video game may be the only exposure some of these gaming afficionados ever get to the Holocaust.

    13 years ago

    “Offensive” is not the word. Some people will stop at nothing when it comes to $ signs flashing before their eyes. Shame on you, Kotaku. You may be an Israeli game maker but there’s certainly no Jewish blood coursing through your veins.

    Kanaim
    Kanaim
    13 years ago

    So this is ok, but a game about the KKK wouldn’t be I bet. The ACLU and the NAACP would shut it down in a second.

    Buchwalter
    Buchwalter
    13 years ago

    Hitler was the goose who laid the golden egg i.e. the survivors and then thru guilt and negotations between Adenauer and Goldman gave birth to the reperations. Those funds have been flowing like a stream which never stops and enriched the pockets of a few and led to a fraud of 42.5 million dollars while others bearing the Auschwitz number on their left forearm died with a denial due to a banal administrative fiat

    VeyIzMir
    VeyIzMir
    13 years ago

    The saddest part is that he is an Israeli game maker. I just wonder how any other anti semetic game makers would take note of this. I could just see a whole new breed of new games on the market, such as “Blast The Jews Fun”. They will rationalize, that if an Israeli can invent this garbage, why not take it a step further. Absolutely disgusting.

    Raphael_Kaufman
    Raphael_Kaufman
    13 years ago

    1) Am I mistaken or are the inmates the heros of this game?

    2) The sonderkomando revolt at Auschwitz was the subject of a TV movie, I think on HBO, two years ago.

    13 years ago

    I for one have never heard about the revolt and I read quite a bit about the holocaust. 4 of my grandparents are survivors and they hardly talk about it so I read what I can lay my hands on. I find a game on the holocaust extremely distateful even if the prisoners are the “heros” so to speak its a disgusting idea. No part of the holocaust should be entertainment!!