New World War II ‘Call Of Duty’ Video Game Will Depict The Holocaust

A promotional image for the video game “Call of Duty: WWII.” Image by Sledgehammer Games/Facebook

By Aiden Pink May 3, 2017

The latest installment of the best-selling video game franchise “Call of Duty” will depict the Holocaust.

“We didn’t want to shy away from history. We wanted to be very respectful of it,” the game’s senior creative director, Bret Robbins, said in an interview with Mashable last week. “Some very, very dark things happened during this conflict and it felt wrong for us to ignore that.”

In “Call of Duty: WWII,” which will be released in November, the player controls an American soldier fighting in the European theater. In addition to shooting Nazi soldiers, players will also be exposed to racism towards Jews and African-Americans within their platoon. Robbins alluded to an episode of the miniseries “Band of Brothers” where American soldiers discovered a concentration camp.

“We absolutely show atrocities,” Robbins said. “It’s an unfortunate part of the history, but…you can’t tell an authentic, truthful story without going there. So we went there.”

Robbins argued that audiences can now handle games with more maturity and nuance: “People are ready for it. They want it,” he said.

“Call of Duty: WWII” will also feature a mode that turns the Nazi soldiers into zombies.

Contact Aiden Pink at pink@forward.com or on Twitter at @aidenpink.

Aiden Pink is the Deputy News Editor for the Forward. Contact him at pink@forward.com or on Twitter, @aidenpink.

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