The Daily Mail Joins Growing Faux-Anger at Game Set in Auschwitz

Allan Hall, writing for the far-right UK newspaper the Daily Mail has joined a growing number of people looking to claim offence at a videogame nobody has heard of. SonderKommando Revolt, a mod for Wolfenstein 3D that’s been in production for the better part of four years has, since releasing a trailer (below), attracted more attention than the developers anticipated.

A few days ago, with a headline fit for the Mail, Kotaku published an article about the little-known mod. In the article Kotaku contacted the Anti-Defamation League, a pro-Jewish group based in America who “fights anti-Semitism and all forms of bigotry, defends democratic ideals and protects civil rights for all”. The group said, of the game they’ve never played, that “its execution and imagery are horrific and inappropriate” and that “The Holocaust should be off-limits for videogames.”

The notably anti-videogames Daily Mail has now joined in by quoting Rabbi Abraham Cooper, from the Simon Wiesenthal Centre in America who “slammed” the game by asking “What happens if this is the only thing a young person gets to know about the holocaust or a concentration camp?”, he then went on to echo the viewpoint of the Anti-Defamation League by saying the holocaust “is not an issue that should be reduced to a game”

These quotes are from a different Kotaku article from the tenth, though the Mail gave no credit or sources for their quotes. The Mail also didn’t ask for permission to use the quotes, but that’s a different story.

The developers have released a statement expressing regret that people who don’t have a clue are commenting angrily on the game.

This mod was made for modding fans, particulary for a quite limited community of Wolf3D fans, as Wolf3D mods (being mods of 18-year old game) are not much played nowdays. That community is used to all kinds of Wolf3D mods (most of which are fantasy mods anyway) – and we knew for sure our mod will not be taken more than “just a mod” – as all other mods of modding community. We knew that noone will take this in a wrong way, or try to learn or attach any historic or political meaning to it.

The lack of any additional “meaning” to a mod – is one of the basic rules of modding community in general, and the one we go by. This is the unspoken agreement/trust between a modder – and the one playing/reviewing it.

The group have said that “the project is under question now, and no release date is set”.