‘What’s next, a board game set in gas chambers?’: Jewish group demands stores stop selling deeply offensive Secret Hitler
- Secret Hitler board game being sold by online retail giants including Ebay group
- Australian Geographic, The Gamesmen and Gameology also selling product
- Anti-Defamation Commission is demanding retailers pull game from its shelves
A Jewish group has condemned Australian retail stores for stocking the Secret Hitler board game.
Online retail giant Ebay and franchise stores Australian Geographic, The Gamesmen and Gameology stock the game, where liberals have to outwit fascists.
Set during the 1920s in Weimar Republic Germany, two teams of five to 10 people compete by voting on a series of legislative proposals in the old Reichstag parliament, with one player acting as Adolf Hitler.
A Jewish group has condemned Australian retail stores for stocking the Secret Hitler board game (pictured)
The Anti-Defamation Commission called on retailers to pull this product, retailing for between $50 and $60, from their shelves immediately.
‘This is beyond normal. What’s next, a board game set in the gas chambers and ovens of Auschwitz?, the Jewish group’s chairman Dvir Abramovich said.
‘There is nothing funny, entertaining, laughable or enjoyable about Hitler.
‘Just ask those who lost children, parents and relatives to his cruel and demonic regime.’
Australian Geographic (Brisbane store pictured), The Gamesmen and Gameology are among a series of franchises that stock the game, where liberals have to outwit fascists
Two teams compete by voting on a series of legislative proposals in the old Reichstag parliament, with one player acting as Adolf Hitler (pictured) in an era before the Holocaust
Secret Hitler was launched by the Chicago-based Goat, Wolf and Cabbage company in 2016, a year after releasing another game called Cards Against Humanity.
On their website, this group acknowledges the board game is controversial.
‘I don’t think there’s anything funny or call about fascism. Who can I complain to?,’ it said in a frequently asked questions section.
Viewers are of website are urged to contact U.S. President Donald Trump to complain.
Dr Abramovich, the director of the University of Melbourne’s Jewish Culture and Society Program, said there was no merit in glorifying the former Nazi chancellor whose fascist regime was responsible for killing six million Jews in the Holocaust.
Anti-Defamation Commission chairman Dvir Abramovich (pictured) said there was no merit in glorifying a dictator whose Nazi regime was responsible for killing six millions Jews
‘A brutal, evil monster, responsible for the extermination of six million Jews and millions of others, should not be the title or the subject of a party board game,’ he said.
‘One can only imagine the pain and moral offense a Holocaust survivor would feel walking into a shop and seeing this game displayed for sale.’
With neo-Nazis last week photographed doing Hitler salutes at St Kilda in Melbourne, Dr Abramovich said it was ‘deeply troubling’ Nazism was being promoted as cool to a younger generation.
‘Worse, it separates him from the horrific and inhuman crimes he and the Nazis committed,’ he said.
‘All businesses need to show moral responsibility when it comes to this issue and put aside the issue of profit.
Dr Abramovich is urging retailers (Australian Geographic website pictured) to pull the game from their shelves
‘We urge all companies to do some soul searching and pull the game off the shelves immediately.’
Daily Mail Australia has contacted a series of retailers for a response.
The game is selling for $50.95 at Gameology, $54.95 at The Gamesmen computer store and $59.99 at Australian Geographic.
Mind Games Melbourne, Good Games Melbourne, Good Games Town Hall Sydney, Spieledeluxe Melbourne and Milsims Games Melbourne are also selling Secret Hitler.
The game is selling for $50.95 at Gameology, $54.95 at The Gamesmen computer store and $59.99 at Australian Geographic