Nintendo to Release Holocaust Video Game |
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 by Tamar Fox, March 11, 2008 |
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Imagination is No Escape: integrates facts into the gameThink a Nintendo game is a good way to teach kids about the Holocaust? A 21-year-old British video game developer does, and the company producing his latest creation hopes to have it ready for distribution in Europe by the end of the year. Luc Bernard's game, Imagination Is the Only Escape, is based on the ways that the Nazis tortured children, and won’t be distributed in the US.
Reactions have been as condemnatory as you’d expect. However, Bernard maintains that he’s not trying to make light of the suffering of children. He promises that there won’t be any on-screen violence, and though Alten8--the company producing the game--originally asked him to remove all swastikas from the game, it subsequently backed off. Bernard says he’s trying to make a game that will be educational and appropriate for young children, and points out that his mother is Jewish and members of his family took care of Jewish orphans after World War II.
So far, the most interesting response has come from the Anti-Defamation League. Instead of lashing out against Bernard and Alten8, Myrna Shinbaum, a spokeswoman for the ADL, is quoted as saying, “We certainly believe that we have to find new ways of teaching lessons of the Holocaust as new technologies are being developed.”
Related: Holocaust Remembrance Project for French Kids Sparks Ire
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Tamar Fox has an MFA from Vanderbilt University in Nashville, but she still doesn't like sweet tea. Born and raised in Chicago, she's also lived in Iowa City, Dublin, Oxford, and Jerusalem. When she's not rocking out at honky tonks she teaches More... |
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Dan Garwood
Video games have the
Video games have the potential to be very powerful teaching tools. I can tell you that a lot more children go home from religious school and play video games than read Number the Stars. Just like books and movies, however, it's ultimately about how tastefully the game is made and its ultimate goal. I'd condemn a game where the point is to perpetrate anti-Jewish acts without learning some kind of lesson from it, whereas I'd be happy with a game that holds its characters and the player to standards of morality. I think a game about the Holocaust should only be made with educational intent, unlike the scores of senseless "historical" games where the only point is to kill the bad guys.
zbird
I'm with Garwood here
Any media in any format can either be tasteful and educational, or not. I'm not willing to condemn a video game about the Holocaust just because it's a video game. Let's see what it ends up looking like.
--Z
Ulysses L
If the point of the game is
If the point of the game is to accumulate experience points by killing/torturing Jewish children then the game should be condemned. But if it promotes awareness, and highlights how evil it is to mistreat kids, Jewish or not then I'm all for it.
They should work into the storyline the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem (remember that bastard?) and what he did to thousands of Jewish children at Israel's birth.
Rick
Save criticism till the product is seen
It could prove to be a very valuable teaching tool. Other areas of society have learned that teaching through gaming has a very tangible impact (ie, the military, conservationists, social awareness.) The medium is just that, a medium. Wait for the message before you lob any grenades.
Anonymous
Nintendo isn't the one releasing the game
A 3rd party developer is, your title would be like saying Microsoft to Release Holocaust Game if this were a PC game, Nintendo is simply the hardware that its being released on.
Nomad of Norad
Will not be released in the US?
I suppose as people see how the game actually turns out, maybe it will later see release in the USA... particularly if enough people like us raise a stink about how knee-jerk the decision to not release it here actually was.
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