Google Game Let Users ‘Live Like a Real Jew in Auschwitz’
Graphic by Angelie Zaslavsky
Google Play has withdrawn from its store a mobile game that lets players “experience Auschwitz as a Jew” that has sparked anger in the Jewish community.
The app, which was created by a vocational school in Spain, was meant as a parody according to the game’s description. However, the developers also wrote that they support violent games.
The Auschwitz mobile game is the latest in anti-Semitic products approved for distribution on Google platforms. Earlier this month, a Google Chrome extension that modified webpages so the user could identify Jewish people and organizations was pulled after backlash in the media.
“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,” said Colette Avital, head of the Center of Holocaust Survivor Organizations and a member of the Executive of the World Jewish Congress–Israel.
Many users posted anti-Semitic comments on the game’s page, including one user who said the only problem with the game was “that every 20 minutes I find the full oven and I have come to remove ash,” according to the World Jewish Congress.
The app was removed Monday by its developers after it had been downloaded between 1,000 and 5,000 times. The game, which was rated “Teen” by Google Play for violence and blood, had a 3 star review, including 100 users who rated the game 5 stars.
Google could not be immediately reached for comment.
Contact Drew Gerber at [email protected] or on Twitter, @dagerber.
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