Jewish groups criticize new Auschwitz video game by Israeli programmer
17 December 2010
A video game in which Jewish concentration camp inmates kill Nazi guards has been criticized by Jewish organizations. The game ‘Sonderkommando Revolt’ is based on a real-life uprising by Jews who were assigned to burning the corpses of the gassed and robbing their bodies of gems and gold teeth (the so-called ‘Sonderkommando’, or Special Command). Over 450 Jewish inmates died when the uprising was crushed by SS guards. However, in the video game, the prisoners win.
Rabbi Abraham Cooper of the Simon Wiesenthal Center said: “This should not be reduced to a game. What happens if this is the only thing a young person gets to know about the Holocaust?” A spokesperson of the Anti-Defamation League called the game "horrific and inappropriate," adding: "The Holocaust should be off-limits for video games. We hope the developers will reconsider and abandon the game.” The game’s designer – Maxim Genis, a Ukrainian-born Jew living in Israel – said his game was “plain blast-the-Nazis fun”.
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