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Conference taveng::bagels

Title:BAGELS and other things of Jewish interest
Notice:1.0 policy, 280.0 directory, 32.0 registration
Moderator:SMURF::FENSTER
Created:Mon Feb 03 1986
Last Modified:Thu Jun 05 1997
Last Successful Update:Fri Jun 06 1997
Number of topics:1524
Total number of notes:18709

1065.0. "Holocaust Video Game" by TERAPN::PHYLLIS (Wake, now discover..) Wed May 01 1991 21:36

    
    
    Well, I really can't believe this hasn't been discussed in here, but if
    it has, I can't find the note.  Please feel free to move this to the
    appropriate topic, if there is one.
    
    On the 11:00 news last night in New York City, they showed a pretty
    horrifying piece.  Someone has designed a video game based on the
    Holocaust.  The player is a guard who must decide which people (Turks
    or Jews - he has a choice) to send to the gas chambers.  They used real
    concentration camp names - Treblinka and some others.  The whole thing
    was as sickening as it sounds.  The Simon Wiesenthal Center has
    uncovered about 150 copies of the tape, almost all in either German or
    Austrian.  However, they have received information that there are also
    copies in English in the US.  The spokesman from the center that I saw
    on the news said a copy was being brought to Israel to some technology
    center to be examined with the hope of finding some sort of computer
    signature that would identify the author.
    
    Just when you thought you'd seen it all.  What kind of @#$%^&* lunatics
    do we have in this world?  :-(
    
    Phyllis
    
    
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1065.1You will never see it all!!TAVIS::BARUCHin the land of milk and honeyThu May 02 1991 10:2614
Re 1065.0     
    
>    Just when you thought you'd seen it all.  What kind of @#$%^&* lunatics
>    do we have in this world?  :-(

Phyllis,  you have never seen it all.  There is so much evil, stupidity and
ignorance around the world that you will never have the pleasure of saying
that you will not see some new abhorrance.
                                   
Is this the first video or computer game that is based on evil?  If it is, I
will be amazed.  

Shalom
Baruch
1065.2Computer Kultur?TAVIS::BARUCHin the land of milk and honeyThu May 02 1991 14:4727
    Further to my previous reply, I have just seen today's copy of the
    Jerusalem Post, and found this headline on a page 2 article:
    
    "Neo-Nazi computer games found in Germany, Austria"
    
    According to the article: "More than one in five teenagers in Salzburg,
    Austria, has seen or played one of more than 100 neo-Nazi computer
    games that the Simon Wiesenthal Center believes are circulating widely
    in Austria and Germany."
    
    Another quote: "One game, called "Aryan Test", includes the following
    multiple choice questions:
    		
    		Get rid of the Jews by...
		 A)Ovens
    		 B)Making them into soft soap
    		 C)Dispatch them by airmail to Israel
           
    		The Jews are...
    		 A)Our misfortune
    		 B)Guilty of everything
    		 C)Us, ourselves             "
    
    Anyone still think that anti-semitism is part of history? 
    
    Shalom     
    Baruch
1065.3A feeling of deja-vuDESTOP::MONTYI'd rather be TAVENG::MONTYThu May 02 1991 19:4211
    Baruch,
    
    I saw the report of these "games" on the TV yesterday .... It was
    pretty sick.  On the other hand, this world is not short of really sick
    people :-(
    
    However, I can't help feeling that I saw a similiar report about Nazi
    games about 18 monthes ago.  Are these a new set of games or has the
    media just re-discovered them again ???
    
    							.... Monty
1065.4And so it continues..........TAVIS::BARUCHin the land of milk and honeySun May 05 1991 14:5317
    Monty, I do not know whether these are a new set of games or the
    18-month old set you mentioned just getting new publicity. However,
    according to the reports they seem to be getting a lot of use.
    
    The main target of some of the games is reported to be the Turks, but
    do not get "jealous" as there is still plenty of hatred coming in the 
    direction of our people.  The main reason is probably the large number 
    of Turkish workers in Germany, as opposed to the comparatively small
    Jewish population.  It will be interesting to see how stongly the
    German and Austrian governments pursue the individuals or companies
    that are distibuting these games.  
    
    Could anyone reading this file from Germany and/or Austria please give
    us a local reaction.
    
    Shalom
    Baruch
1065.5I suspect that in the US they'd be protectedMINAR::BISHOPSun May 05 1991 21:454
    Don't Germany and Austria have some equivalent to the US first
    amendment which would prevent those governments "going after"
    offensive games?
    			-John Bishop
1065.6Protection for evil?TAVIS::BARUCHin the land of milk and honeyMon May 06 1991 09:5515
Re 1065.5    

>    Don't Germany and Austria have some equivalent to the US first
>    amendment which would prevent those governments "going after"
>    offensive games?

John, I sincerely hope not!  I, for one, do not believe that anyone should
have total freedom to disseminate hatred for ones fellow man.  

Does the "First" allow you to do/say anything you want, even if it stirs up
hatred and violence?  If so, that is an amazing infringement on the rights of
those who are subsequently injured as a result of such hatred and violence.

Shalom
Baruch 
1065.7No, Nazism is illegal in GermanyTACT04::SIDMon May 06 1991 15:4517
Re 1065.5    

>    Don't Germany and Austria have some equivalent to the US first
>    amendment which would prevent those governments "going after"
>    offensive games?

No, what they have is a law, dating from WW2, which makes it illegal to
belong to a Nazi organization, to use Nazi symbols, to espouse Nazi 
philisophy.  The historical background to these laws is apparent.

The issue of right to free speech versus the right to be protected from
hatred is a complicated one (cf. the American Nazi march on Skokie (circa
1979) in a neighborhood where many holocaust survivors lived).  But in
places like Germany, they prefer to err, justifiably in my opinion, on
the side of suppression of the Nazi party.

Sid