# Video games, WW2, and the Holocaust **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 30, 2004, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/video-games-ww2-and-the-holocaust/247856 "2004-05-30T23:37:43Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Wasabee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/f05b48/32.png) [@Wasabee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wasabee)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2004, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/video-games-ww2-and-the-holocaust/247856/1 "2004-05-30T23:37:43Z")
Have any mainstream video games set during WW2 ever dealt with the Holocaust? I know there are some German pro-nazi ones (Death Camp Commander where you earn points by gassing inmates). ---
**Author:** ![Rabid\_Squirrel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e0b2c6/32.png) [@Rabid\_Squirrel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rabid_Squirrel)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2004, 2:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/video-games-ww2-and-the-holocaust/247856/2 "2004-05-31T02:55:10Z")
There was a point n click adventure game called “I have no Mouth but I must Scream”, which did have a part dealing with a doctor who performed experiments in concentration camps. Not exactly a mainstream game, since it sold poorly and is hard to find. Good game though. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2004, 6:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/video-games-ww2-and-the-holocaust/247856/3 "2004-05-31T06:26:10Z")
… and yet, I can never, ever play the Germans in a WW2 game. As far as I’m comncerned, they’re _all_ holocaust games. I mean, what should I say to myself everytime I blow up a Sherman or a T-34? " Hah! With each victory I buy my SS brethren time to gas more Jews!". Sorry. I may just be taking stupid video games much too seriously, but I don’t play to hate myself. Suspension of disbelief is a bitch. ---
**Author:** ![Wasabee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/f05b48/32.png) [@Wasabee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wasabee)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2004, 6:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/video-games-ww2-and-the-holocaust/247856/4 "2004-05-31T06:28:45Z")
> [@Rabid\_Squirrel](#): > > There was a point n click adventure game called “I have no Mouth but I must Scream”, which did have a part dealing with a doctor who performed experiments in concentration camps. Not exactly a mainstream game, since it sold poorly and is hard to find. Good game though. A very good game for that era based on the Harlan Ellison story. I alwasy mean to get a copy off ebay but I tend to forget. ---
**Author:** ![Wasabee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/f05b48/32.png) [@Wasabee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wasabee)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2004, 6:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/video-games-ww2-and-the-holocaust/247856/5 "2004-05-31T06:30:23Z")
> [@Alessan](#): > > … and yet, I can never, ever play the Germans in a WW2 game. As far as I’m comncerned, they’re _all_ holocaust games. > > I mean, what should I say to myself everytime I blow up a Sherman or a T-34? " Hah! With each victory I buy my SS brethren time to gas more Jews!". Sorry. I may just be taking stupid video games much too seriously, but I don’t play to hate myself. > > Suspension of disbelief is a bitch. I am the same way. I can’t play the Germans or the Japanese in any WW2 games. ---
**Author:** ![HPL](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/3da27b/32.png) [@HPL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HPL)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2004, 6:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/video-games-ww2-and-the-holocaust/247856/6 "2004-05-31T06:42:44Z")
> [@Wasabee](#): > > I am the same way. I can’t play the Germans or the Japanese in any WW2 games. Well, you can in strategy games, just not FPS’s. Civilization 2 had a freeware facism patch, which allowed to have an effiencent military, but at the cost of scientific resarch because of “Supression of dissents”. The Wolfenstien games didn’t have the halocaust in them, but tended to have little references to it. People in giant birdcages, scientists doing inhuman experiments, etc. ---
**Author:** ![Kaitlyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/73ab20/32.png) [@Kaitlyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kaitlyn)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2004, 6:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/video-games-ww2-and-the-holocaust/247856/7 "2004-05-31T06:58:33Z")
I think they mean that they refuse to play the German side in a WW2 game, because they find what that group in that war represents repulsive. Nobody in my family drives German cars for much the same reason. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Long\_Road](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b5a626/32.png) [@The\_Long\_Road](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Long_Road)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2004, 7:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/video-games-ww2-and-the-holocaust/247856/8 "2004-05-31T07:43:21Z")
Interesting topic. I’ve played Panzer General extensively and several times while playing it had thoughts along the lines of, “If the Germans had really done this many more people would have died in the camps” but then I remember it’s just a game. When playing and winning as the Japanese in Gary Grigsby’s Pacific War, I’m not thinking about the Bataan Death March, just about the strategy needed to win the game. In the end, it revolves around the “Could I have done a better job against the overwhelming odds” idea than wanting to prolong the holocaust. ---
**Author:** ![interface2x](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/c0e974/32.png) [@interface2x](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/interface2x)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2004, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/video-games-ww2-and-the-holocaust/247856/9 "2004-05-31T18:44:59Z")
Question for those who do not like to play Japanese/Germans - how do you feel about online versions of games like “Medal of Honor” and “Call of Duty” where one team pretty much _has_ to play the enemy in order for there to be a game? I mean, it’s not like you’re really completing any sort of “mission” - it’s just a run-and-gun team vs. team game. ---
**Author:** ![Optihut](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/edb3f5/32.png) [@Optihut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Optihut)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2004, 10:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/video-games-ww2-and-the-holocaust/247856/10 "2004-05-31T22:28:18Z")
> [@Alessan](#): > > … and yet, I can never, ever play the Germans in a WW2 game. As far as I’m comncerned, they’re _all_ holocaust games. > > I mean, what should I say to myself everytime I blow up a Sherman or a T-34? " Hah! With each victory I buy my SS brethren time to gas more Jews!". Sorry. I may just be taking stupid video games much too seriously, but I don’t play to hate myself. > > Suspension of disbelief is a bitch. It’s quite unlikely that the common soldier was clued in on what was going on in the concentration camps. So, I’ll just join a team randomly in games like enemy territory and switch teams when one side is losing, because they are a player short. ---
**Author:** ![GGW\_Abu\_Ghraib](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/9d8465/32.png) [@GGW\_Abu\_Ghraib](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GGW_Abu_Ghraib)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2004, 10:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/video-games-ww2-and-the-holocaust/247856/11 "2004-05-31T22:38:21Z")
> [@interface2x](#): > > Question for those who do not like to play Japanese/Germans - how do you feel about online versions of games like “Medal of Honor” and “Call of Duty” where one team pretty much _has_ to play the enemy in order for there to be a game? I mean, it’s not like you’re really completing any sort of “mission” - it’s just a run-and-gun team vs. team game. Yeah, that got annoying in Battlefield 1942. When the Wake Island demo came out, there were certain people who would always play the Americans, changing teams when the sides swapped during a match. This resulted in the Japanese always being outnumbered. ---
**Author:** ![Knorf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/58956e/32.png) [@Knorf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Knorf)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2004, 11:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/video-games-ww2-and-the-holocaust/247856/12 "2004-05-31T23:03:48Z")
I’m wondering about the new game Battlefield Vietnam. How many people really want to play the VietCong in online games? ---
**Author:** ![Cisco](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ccd318/32.png) [@Cisco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cisco)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2004, 11:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/video-games-ww2-and-the-holocaust/247856/13 "2004-05-31T23:17:06Z")
> [@Knorf](#): > > I’m wondering about the new game Battlefield Vietnam. How many people really want to play the VietCong in online games? Oh believe me, people will do it. On the night of 9/11 my friend and I were playing No One Lives Forever online and there was a turbaned character named Osama bin Laden running around yelling “You what I did this morning you bitches?!!” The average 15 year old gaming brat knows **nothing** about the VietCong and it wouldn’t stop a lot of them anyway. ---
**Author:** ![Cisco](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ccd318/32.png) [@Cisco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cisco)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2004, 11:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/video-games-ww2-and-the-holocaust/247856/14 "2004-05-31T23:18:39Z")
> [@Cisco](#): > > “You what I did this morning you bitches?!!” Should read: “You like what I did this morning you bitches?!!” ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2004, 11:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/video-games-ww2-and-the-holocaust/247856/15 "2004-05-31T23:36:54Z")
> [@](#): > > … and yet, I can never, ever play the Germans in a WW2 game. As far as I’m comncerned, they’re all holocaust games. Not necessarily. _Command and Conquer: Red Alert_, for instance, is set in an alternate-timeline World War II where Hitler was assassinated before taking power, Germany sided with the Allies, and thus presumably the Holocaust never took place. But it’s still possible to play the game as the Russians under Stalin (the aggressor in this alternate history), who was nearly as bad, and many people did play as the Russians.