An Australian descendant of Holocaust survivors says she was left “disgusted” after stumbling upon a jokey reference to the dictator who murdered her ancestors in a Melbourne games store.
Mum Natalie Siegel was shopping for a surprise gift for her 11-year-old daughter at Games World in the city’s east when she spotted the “disturbing” game.
The party game, long-titled “I Would Kill Hitler: A Party Game of Hilarious Hypotheticals”, describes itself as “the first game made out of spite!”
“The game is simple! Players answer ‘What Would You Do?’ to original hypotheticals using cards in their hands to complete their story!” its description reads.
Supplied to News.com.au
“The game is inspired by an improv warm-up exercise the creators play before performances, but has been fine-tuned and workshopped to be EXTREMELY approachable.”
Ms. Siegel said she was “amazed” when she first saw the game on the shelf, but the feeling quickly turned to anger.
“When I saw the words ‘Hitler’ and ‘hilarious’ in the same sentence, I was disgusted and shocked,” she told news.com.au.
“It infuriated me that the game was made and displayed, but even more so that it was being sold in a nearby store. Hitler killed six million Jews. He gassed my relatives. It’s really sickening that someone’s making money off this game and that Australian shops are endorsing it.”
Ms. Siegel, who is Jewish, is the direct descendant of Holocaust survivors. Both of her grandmothers were imprisoned, and others in her family were murdered, in Nazi camps.
“I was very close with them and their stories,” she said.
“I felt this responsibility to my grandparents and to those six million Jews not to put up with this. People think the Holocaust happened so long ago, maybe they don’t know anyone who experienced it or it’s not close to home, but we still live in a world that is anti-Semitic, and that starts with games that laugh about Hitler.”
Manager of the Southland Games World store Andrew, who declined to give his last name, told news.com.au “the game itself has no offense” — though admitted he “personally” didn’t like the title.
“It’s a fun party game. I agree the name doesn’t favor many people, I’m with you on that,” he said. “Although the name is controversial, I think it was designed to attract attention, rightly or wrongly.”
In fact, Andrew said his policy was to keep “I Would Kill Hitler” out of public view.
“Usually we don’t keep it in our stores on the shelf. It’s behind the counter at some stores,” he said. “The stock was not supposed to be visible to the public.”
Dvir Abramovich, chair of the Anti-Defamation Commission, said his organization “would not rest” until the card game was removed from stock.
The game, which is marketed to children over the age of 14, is available in at least five Australian retailers.
“Shame on those who created the game and those businesses selling it,” he said.
“A brutal monster, responsible for the extermination of six million Jews and millions of others, should not be the title of a party game. One can only imagine the pain and moral offense a Holocaust survivor would feel walking into a shop and knowing that this evil man is now associated with cheap, accessible entertainment.”
The game – which is printed by AdMagic, the card game manufacturer behind hit games Cards Against Humanity and Exploding Kittens – nabbed more than US$150,000 from almost 5000 backers in a Kickstarter launch.
In another game printed by AdMagic, Secret Hitler, players act as the Nazi dictator and his followers.
Dr. Abramovich said such games threaten to trivialize the horrific legacy of the Nazi party.
“This game provides another popular avenue for Hitler’s name to be normalized and reach a new generation of young people who may think Hitler is actually cool,” he said.
“Worse, it separates him from the horrific and inhuman crimes he and the Nazis committed.”
