Sonderkommando Revolt: Controversial Video Game Rewriting Holocaust History

Posted by: Lesley Broff on January 18, 2011 at 11:38AM
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Sonderkommando Revolt Game Release

The new video game that was slated for release on January 1, 2011, brings with it a great deal of controversy, as it rewrites history. The video game called Sonderkommando Revolt is one of three upcoming scheduled releases for Wolfenstein 3D. The player of the game takes on the role of an Auschwitz prisoner who revolts against the Nazis.

The Historical Background

The Sonderkommando were prisoners who were forced to work in death camps such as Auschwitz during World War II. These prisoners suffered unimaginable psychological and physical torture only to have their lives cut short in the very gas chambers they were forced to maintain. Under the harsh command of the SS, Sonderkommandos had to clear the gruesome remains from the gas chambers, retrieve gold fillings, work in the crematoriums, and burn the bodies of their fellow inmates.

The SS chose healthy young men to be in the Sonderkommando, or Special Commandos. Being a Sonderkommando only prolonged the time until their inevitable death. While alive they received more food and clothing than the rest of the prisoners of war - a twisted benefit for the Nazis who needed these workers to remain healthy in order to keep camp operations running smoothly. In October 1944, men in the Auschwitz-Birkenau camp revolted against the SS guards, resulting in a mass killing of the Sonderkommando. The revolt was unfortunately suppressed quickly and resulted in little disruption to the camp's operations.

Game Creator Says Revenge Fantasy Game is "Meant to be Fun"

This new Holocaust first-person shooter video game takes the idea of the Sonderkommando Revolt and creates a fantasy with a different outcome. The creator of the game claims the game is meant to be fun, not controversial. In the game, as opposed to our history books, the prisoner is a virtual killing machine.

The leader of game development, Maxim Genis, claims to have had no political agenda with this game, but was simply trying to recreate a very different world than the one we are accustomed to. He claims to have drawn no distinction between this fictional game and any other portraying a time in history.

PR Nightmare or Successful Revenge Fantasy?

Many wonder what the public reaction will be for a game 'playing' out such an emotionally charged and sensitive time in history. So far, the game has been met with mixed reactions. Rabbi Abraham Cooper of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, a museum focusing on the Holocaust, worries that the historical inaccuracies will have a harmful effect on people’s understanding of history. He claims that an issue of this nature should not be reduced to a game, considering the difficulty survivors have with sharing their stories.

Genis claims that the game is not intended to be educational or teach anything about the actual historical events of World War II. Furthermore, Genis has claimed in e-mails that part of his inspiration for the game was his spiritual convictions as a Jew. According to these e-mails, Genis believes himself to have been a Jewish prisoner of the Nazis who became a member of the Sonderkommando in a previous incarnation. Yet he maintains that the game is merely intended to be fun, and not religious in nature.

Does This Game Exploit Holocaust Victims?

Is this game a form of exploitation for the sake of entertainment or is that giving it too much power? The plot twists the actual events leading to the mass murder of 451 Sonderkommandos and the 3 SS officers by giving the prisoners the advantage. Exploring and experiencing in first-person the killing spree of one prisoner, Zalmen Gradowski, who massacres as many Nazi soldiers as he can find. The fact that the character shares the name of an actual prisoner who suffered at the hands of the Nazis in Auschwitz is a little disturbing. Instead of a fictitiously named hero, the game creators took the identity of an actual Auschwitz prisoner as its protagonist.

The two games intended to follow Sonderkommando Revolt are Sonder 2: Warsaw Uprising and Sonder 3: Mission Treblinka. The company releasing the game, Kotaku's website mentions that the company has reached out to the Anti-Defamation League seeking reaction to the game. The game is a Wolf3D mod - the engine is based on Wolf4SDL engine featuring very advanced coding features and screenshots are based on photos from the actual site. In a message on moddb.com, the lead developer of the project stated that exposure to the game from the trailers that were pre-released has put the project in trouble of cancellation. He claims that he regrets releasing the trailer because of the misrepresentation of the game that he feels the trailer initiated. He further stated that as with all mods, one is not supposed to attach historical significance, but simply accept it as a fantastical representation of events - an unspoken agreement among modders.

Anti-Defamation League Response

The Anti-Defamation League has harsh criticisms for the game, and told Kotaku that this subject matter should be considered off-limits for a video game. The advocacy group founded with the goal of justice and fair treatment and protection of the Jewish people, judged that even if it is taken as a pure violent fantasy, this game should not be released regardless of the intentions of the creators. The spokesperson for the Anti-Defamation League called the game an offensive portrayal of the Holocaust.

Revenge Fantasies Are Nothing New

Will people view the game as a cathartic recreation of events, as the creator hopes? Some believe revenge fantasies offer a psychological benefit. Allowed to act out traumatic events in which the brutalized have the upper hand. It could be argued that Quentin Tarantino’s film Inglorious Bastards is an ultra-violent revenge fantasy about killing Nazi soldiers. Similarly, in the early 60s, books called Stalags, featured stories about the torture and rape of female SS officers. Stalags were considered by some to offer Jewish readers an emotional outlet through vengeful fantasy. (It should be noted that some of these Stalags were seized by police for their content.)

Whether revenge fantasy is exploitative or cathartic has been a topic widely debated with every movie, book, or video game released in this genre. Of course it also sparks debate over the very idea of the violence, history set aside, and what impact it has on society. But depicting the crematoriums, gas chambers and torture of Auschwitz may be taking this idea a little too far. You are no longer playing a fictional game with unrealistic characters. You portray a documented prisoner, with an authentic name from a specific time in history. You are fighting in a place that existed not all that long ago, using realistic scenery. The real controversy of this game is not the theme of the Nazis, but it is the representation of concentration camp victims. The emaciated prisoners’ bodies are a little too close to home, regardless of your opinion on violence in video games. What the ultimate public response to the release of this game will be seen in the coming months.

Update - Sonderkommando Revolt Cancelled

Due to the bad press surrounding the initial trailer's release, Sonderkommando Revolt was first put on hold and just recently canceled. We wonder game designers will take away from this experience. We’d like to hear what you think about this game and other revenge fantasy games in general. How much is too much?