A board game based on Adolf Hitler's reign during World War II stocked on major Australian retailer shelves has left children of Holocaust survivors shaken. About 10 complaints about Secret Hitler have been made to the Anti-Defamation Commission (ADC), a Jewish organisation combating anti-Semitism, in the past week.
A daughter of a Holocaust survivor shook when she saw the game, being sold in several major games retailers, in a toy store in Bright.
"I started shaking, I literally saw the Holocaust flash in front of me. I felt as if there were Nazis about to storm into the store. I could barely look at the shopkeeper," she wrote in her complaint.
"I felt anti-Semitism alive. I couldn't wait to get out of there."
A grandchild of the Holocaust, in which millions of Jews were killed, said she felt nauseated.
"I was absolutely horrified to see the atrocities of Hitler and his regime played out in a game," she said in a statement on Friday.
The product states it is a social deduction game for up to 10 people to find and stop the 'Secret Hitler' among the two teams of liberals and fascists.
The game has been available in Australia since 2017 and is also sold in the US, Canada and New Zealand. For example, gamekings.co.nz has it for $34.99.
"Known only to each other, the fascists coordinate to sow distrust and install their cold-blooded leader," a description on the website states. "The liberals must find and stop the Secret Hitler before it's too late."
It was created by one of the team behind controversial card game Cards Against Humanity.
But ADC chairman Dvir Abramovich told AAP the game had unsettled Jewish people.
"Everyone is revolted and disgusted that a board game bearing that name and revolving around Hitler, whose many victims live in Melbourne and in other cities, is being sold in stores here," Dr Abramovich said.
"Anyone who suffered under Hitler, or lost families at the hands of the Nazis, would not find this playful and amusing."
Poster Comment:
The suffering never stops......
