Home
Log in / Sign Up
    Private Messages   Advanced Search   Rules   New User Guide   FAQ   Advertise   Contact Us  
Forum -> Interesting Discussions
Amazon selling "Secret Hitler" Game



Post new topic   Reply to topic View latest: 24h 48h 72h

Mevater




 
 
    
 

Post Mon, Dec 30 2019, 1:20 am
https://www.amazon.com/Secret-.....r=1-1

Amazon is selling a popular board game that pits “fascists” against “liberals” in a contest to see who will be crowned history’s worst genocidal monster, Adolf Hitler.

By United with Israel Staff

An Australia-based watchdog recently demanded that Amazon stop selling “Secret Hitler,” a top-rated board game recommended on several “best holiday gift” lists. In the game, players vie for the position of Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler.

“Using Hitler as part of a board game whitewashes his inhuman crimes, is very unpleasant and shows that today many still do not understand the inexpressible horrors of the Holocaust,” Dvir Abramovich, chairman of Australia’s Anti-Defamation Commission, said in a statement.

“It’s deeply troubling that Amazon Australia is offering a public platform for Hitler’s name to be revived and standardized, and reaching a new generation of young people who might think it’s cool to play this game. We call on society to immediately stop selling it,” said Abramovich.

Though the group from Melbourne sent the request on Friday only to Amazon in Australia, the product is sold worldwide. They asked the retail giant to “show respect to the survivors” of the Holocaust, noting that the complaint stemmed from a person “whose father lost his parents, four siblings, as well as his nieces and nephews in Auschwitz.”

“This is no laughing matter and is beneath contempt,” Abramovich said in the statement. “It is an insult to the memory of the victims and our courageous soldiers who sacrificed their lives to vanquish the Third Reich. With each passing day, we are hitting new lows when it comes to the cheapening, exploitation and vulgarization of the Holocaust. What will they think of next: a game where a player is given the chance to execute Jews in the open field or push them into the gas chambers?”

Desensitizing Kids to Nazi Horrors
To play “Secret Hitler,” touted on Amazon as “a dramatic game of political intrigue and betrayal set in 1930’s Germany,” players become either liberal or fascist in the Reichstag of the Weimar Republic. Through “lying to one’s friends,” factions compete to enact liberal and fascist policies. Either the liberals get into power or Hitler’s fascists.

At press time, a whopping 96 percent of the 1,446 customers who rated the game on Amazon’s US site gave it four to five stars.

A reviewer on Amazon named “Sargon,” who gave the game five stars, wrote that he was introduced to “Secret Hitler” during a high school retreat.

He explained how “excited” everyone was to play.

“[W]e all get seriously into it, shouting expletives at each other so loud that the entire complex can hear it and all that…The cards are passed out and I’m Hitler, its my first time. I proceed to have the most fantastic match as Hitler ever witnessed, I was trusted by all the liberals and had even rooted out some fascists on purpose…. After about five minutes of people begging the president to give me the chancellorship, we finally voted on me and I jumped up yelling ‘DEUTSCHLAND’ and I had pulled off the most perfect match ever.”

The high school senior added that his success in the game gained him social acceptance among his peers, explaining, “Two weeks later, a guy holds the Secret Hitler game at his house, needless to say I hit it off very well with the group and become more or less of an official member.”

The game’s process is eerily similar to how Adolf Hitler actually recruited youth in Nazi Germany, a process that ultimately resulted in the cold-blooded murder of six million Jews and 14 million members of other groups and nationalities.

Top Seller?
The game came in second on the “50 Best-Selling Board Games of 2019” list, according to The Gamer, a top video game website. It also was recommended in the “Holiday Gift Guide 2019” by Birth.Movies.Death., a magazine and website covering films and the entertainment industry in general.

“[G]uess which one of your friends is Hitler! The game is played like Mafia except instead of townspeople and mafia it’s liberals and fascists. The liberals have to enact progressive legislation and root out the fascists before they can elect their own Hitler,” says the Birth.Movies.Death. review.

“I’m sure some of my lefty friends can easily tinker with it and make it more relatable to modern US politics, but if you don’t want to piss off your racist Uncle at the family reunion it might be safer to stick with the classics,” the review adds.

Bustle included it on its “50 Most Entertaining Gifts On Amazon According To Thousands Of Reviewers.”

The game was created following a 2015 Kickstarter campaign in which over 34,000 donors contributed $1.5 million.

Though it does not have any blatant Nazi symbols or images of Hitler, it was updated in 2017 to include cards with the image of U.S. President Donald Trump, Vice President Mike Pence and other members of the Trump administration.

A 2017 YouTube video shows the makers of the game packing and sending it to every member of the U.S. Senate. Included was a note that read, “Although our game takes place in 1933 Germany, we thought you and your staff might find our game relevant as you negotiate the balance of power with the Trump White House.”

Appallingly, the Softonic website posted details on “How to create your own Secret Hitler game for free” seemingly in anticipation of the game’s removal from Amazon.
Back to top

groisamomma




 
 
    
 

Post Mon, Dec 30 2019, 1:22 am
Is there a link we can use to protest?
Back to top

Mevater




 
 
    
 

Post Mon, Dec 30 2019, 1:27 am
groisamomma wrote:
Is there a link we can use to protest?


I dont think so but we can all give it a 1 star rating, and call it what it is (like others have done), anti-semitic.
Back to top

groisamomma




 
 
    
 

Post Mon, Dec 30 2019, 1:35 am
Mevater wrote:
I dont think so but we can all give it a 1 star rating, and call it what it is (like others have done), anti-semitic.


We'd have to buy it to rate it and NO WAY is that game coming near my house.
Back to top

Mevater




 
 
    
 

Post Mon, Dec 30 2019, 1:38 am
groisamomma wrote:
We'd have to buy it to rate it and NO WAY is that game coming near my house.


Im just discovering that now. I thought I could rate it.

Im wondering whether the ADL or other Jewish organizations are doing anything to get this game removed.
Back to top

amother
Mustard


 

Post Mon, Dec 30 2019, 2:14 am
People have complained to Amazon about other products and in some cases they have stopped selling.
Btw, I take most Amazon reviews with a grain of salt, a lot are fake or paid for. Even if it says "verified purchase" it doesnt necessarily mean anything. Unscrupulous sellers have ways.
Back to top

polka dots




 
 
    
 

Post Mon, Dec 30 2019, 4:52 am
This is so disturbing.
I wonder if lots of people call amazon customer service if anyone would care.
Back to top

polka dots




 
 
    
 

Post Mon, Dec 30 2019, 5:01 am
I just checked it up on amazon. It has 5 stars and a lot of positive reviews.
What is wrong with people??
Back to top

amother
Linen


 

Post Mon, Dec 30 2019, 6:44 am
You should be able to write a review without purchasing. It just won't have the 'verified purchase' label.
Back to top

amother
Lilac


 

Post Mon, Dec 30 2019, 7:01 am
It stinks, but this sort of thing is not new. Any third party seller can put anything up for sale. A few weeks ago, someone was selling Auschwitz Xmas ornaments. You can report it and Amazon will take it down, they generally do within a timely manner. But this is like whack a mole. Tomorrow it will be something else. It really has nothing to do with Amazon (though it would be nice if they could devise a system to catch these things beforehand and not allow them to go up in the first place).
Back to top

DrMom




 
 
    
 

Post Mon, Dec 30 2019, 7:09 am
polka dots wrote:
I just checked it up on amazon. It has 5 stars and a lot of positive reviews.
What is wrong with people??

Maybe it's a fun game?

Honestly, I don't see any need to protest this. I certainly see no value in reviewing a product I have never purchased or used.

If the game were very explicit ("Get 100 points for every million Jews you burn!" or something like that), then I might register my displeasure with the manufacturer, but it sounds like it's just a cheap way to smear anyone on the Right side of the political spectrum.

Which is fine. Free speech applies to everyone. C'est la vie.

Quote:
The liberals have to enact progressive legislation and root out the fascists before they can elect their own Hitler


What I find most ironic is that modern-day leftists are more fascist than the "fascists" they supposedly oppose. Conservatives and/or Trump supporters are routinely conflated with "Nazis" at Leftist rallies and on college campuses.
Back to top

nchr




 
 
    
 

Post Mon, Dec 30 2019, 7:37 am
Why would you protest this game? It is not anti semitic and does not encourage anti semitism. Just don't buy it.
Back to top

Mevater




 
 
    
 

Post Mon, Dec 30 2019, 8:37 am
Those who feel there's nothing wrong with this game, how would you and others feel about games such as "Buy a Slave", the challenging game of who can own more slaves, as the theme, or a game called "9/11, Destroy and Kill more"????

Would the game have 1700 positive ratings?
Back to top

nchr




 
 
    
 

Post Mon, Dec 30 2019, 8:55 am
Mevater wrote:
Those who feel there's nothing wrong with this game, how would you and others feel about games such as "Buy a Slave", the challenging game of who can own more slaves, as the theme, or a game called "9/11, Destroy and Kill more"????

Would the game have 1700 positive ratings?


This game is not about killing Jewish people or about concentration camps so your comparison is flawed. And there is a horrible game like that called Cowboys and Indians and, my children are taught why it is not appropriate and told not to play the game.
Back to top

Mevater




 
 
    
 

Post Mon, Dec 30 2019, 9:10 am
nchr wrote:
This game is not about killing Jewish people or about concentration camps so your comparison is flawed.


Hitler is best known for the mass murder of Jews during the Holocaust. I dont know what the rules of the game are, but any game named after this beast is despicable.
Back to top

Ruchel




 
 
    
 

Post Mon, Dec 30 2019, 2:35 pm
Look I've seen people (Jews) with games mocking shoah and stuff. I have been told it is fun. I would kick them out
Back to top

Mevater




 
 
    
 

Post Mon, Dec 30 2019, 2:43 pm
Ruchel wrote:
Look I've seen people (Jews) with games mocking shoah and stuff. I have been told it is fun. I would kick them out


Jews mocking Shoah? Their ancestors skins made into lampshades?

https://www.npr.org/2010/12/28.....shade
Back to top

Ruchel




 
 
    
 

Post Mon, Dec 30 2019, 3:24 pm
Can't remember the exact questions but it was shocking
Back to top
Page 1 of 1 Recent Topics




Post new topic   Reply to topic    Forum -> Interesting Discussions

Related Topics Replies Last Post
Amazon shabbos top
by amother
5 Yesterday at 5:04 pm View last post
Where to get 44"/48" mattresses/platform beds 1 Yesterday at 10:33 am View last post
Snoo game changer??
by amother
10 Tue, Mar 26 2024, 1:13 am View last post
Does anybody use "the pink stuff"?
by tweety1
11 Mon, Mar 25 2024, 2:47 pm View last post
"Tipping" teachers
by amother
6 Thu, Mar 21 2024, 3:27 pm View last post