Breaking new ground, video games link up with the Holocaust – Business News

Confronting one of the greatest human tragedies, a new video game has been released in which players assume the roles of a Jewish family torn from their home during the Holocaust and sent to an internment camp.

“The Light in the Darkness” claims to be the first video game to accurately depict the Holocaust, which killed approximately six million Jews during World War II.

Several games have World War II themes — including the big-selling “Call of Duty” series — but the fact that the Holocaust is barely mentioned has troubled Luke Bernard, 36, the creator of the new game.

“It’s like denying it ever existed,” the Los Angeles-based developer told AFP.

The game is available to play on PC, with versions for consoles to be released soon.

Players follow along with a Jewish family as they navigate life under France’s wartime Vichy regime, only to be arrested during the massive Val’d’Hiv roundup in Paris in 1942 and sent to Pithiviers internment camp.

From there thousands of Jews were deported to death camps like Auschwitz.

A headline description in the online Epic Games Store reads, “Video games can tell profound, meaningful and universal stories of tragedy and triumph in ways that are more realistic and gut-wrenchingly impactful.”

“Our mission is to connect each new generation with the experiences of those who survived one of the greatest atrocities in the history of the world.”

Eugen Pfister, an expert on game history at the Bern University of the Arts, told AFP that there have long been fears that creating such games could over- or under-report atrocities.

The blockbuster video game franchise “Wolfenstein”, which essentially focuses on a hero who kills Nazis, has been an exception, but it makes no claims to historical accuracy.

A 2014 version titled “Wolfenstein: The New Order” has its protagonists holed up in a fictional internment camp in Croatia. But it is set in an alternate universe in which the Nazis won World War II.

Fister said of the game, “You see chimneys, wagons, and even a selection of prisoners, but there is no mention of concentration camps or even Jews.”

The horror of the carnage was addressed more explicitly in a sequel three years later titled “The New Colossus”.

– No way to win –

Bernard, who is originally from France, compared his game to an interactive movie, but players have no control over the final story as the family heads towards a tragic fate.

Bernard said, “I can’t make a game where you win in the end.”

“That wasn’t the Shoah, there was no alternative,” he added, using the Hebrew word for the Holocaust.

Bernard’s research for the game included consulting the archives of Holocaust museums in Los Angeles and Washington.

He also talked with Holocaust survivors and plans to have some of them narrate their experiences in updates to the game.

– Teaching youth –

Bernard set out to create his first Holocaust title about 15 years ago, inspired by his grandmother’s story of transporting Jewish children to Britain during the war.

He abandoned that project due to lack of funding and attacks by critics, who called the concept “disgusting” and “creepy”.

But times have changed, Bernard told AFP.

Pfister compared the change to the way Hollywood is now seen as being able to make powerful history-based films such as the 1993 hit “Schindler’s List” by Steven Spielberg.

Pfister said, “The general consensus today is that Hollywood is capable of making movies about the Holocaust.”

“I’m optimistic that video games will find a language to talk about it as well.”

With players all over the world, video games provide a unique platform to reach a wide audience, especially among young people.

“My goal is to get more developers interested in keeping the memory of the Holocaust alive,” Bernard said.

Along with being available for free from “Fortnite” maker Epic Games, “The Light in the Darkness” is currently on display at the Museum of Pop Culture in Seattle, Washington.

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