Auschwitz game available on Google service causes outrage

Colette Avital, the head of the Center of Holocaust Survivor Organizations in Israel and a member of the Executive of the World Jewish Congress-Israel, expressed indignation and outrage over a program available on Google Play which invited users to "live like a real Jew in Auschwitz."

"We cannot understand how the top management of Google approved such a cynical game, turning the martyrdom of six million Jews into an object for amusement and enjoyment," Avital said in a statement.

On Monday, the app was removed by its developers, a school for vocational training based in Zaragoza, Spain.

The Italian newspaper 'La Repubblica' first reported about the app, which had thousands of downloads before being removed. 

Many users had left anti-Semitic messages in the comment fields underneath the app. One user expressed his enjoyment at playing the game and said the only problem was "that every 20 minutes I find the full oven and I have come to remove ash."

In recent weeks, Google was repeatedly criticized for its sluggish reaction to content posted on its sites in which the Holocaust is glorified or belittled. The World Jewish Congress called on the internet giant to remove repulsive neo-Nazi songs from its video platform YouTube.

Google Play is the official app store for the Android operating system, the most widely used smartphone operating system world-wide.