View No. 17 (2021)

No. 17 (2021)

ISSN:
1895-247X
eISSN:
2657-3571

Publication date:
2021-12-20

Section: From research workshops

Playing with Holocaust symbols. The video game franchise ‘Wolfenstein’ as a case study for digital Holocaust representations

Johannes Breit

joe.breit@me.com

Studied history in Vienna and Berlin, and his interests focuses on the history of Nazi Germany, forced labor, and the German occupation of Yugoslavia. He is currently working on a doctoral dissertation on the significance and role of anti-Serb discourse during the German occupation of Serbia. He published, inter alia, Das Gestapo-Lager Innsbruck-Reichenau: Geschichte, Aufarbeitung, Erinnerung (2017).

https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8856-9223

Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin

Lukas Meissel

lmeissel@campus.haifa.ac.il

graduate in History, Contemporary History, and Holocaust Studies in Vienna and Haifa. Ph.D. student at the University of Haifa analyzes photographs taken by SS guards in concentration camps. He was a scholarship holder of various institutions in Israel, the USA, Germany, Austria, and France. Published on Holocaust studies/education, visual history, and anti-Semitism. He is currently a Ph.D. scholarship holder at the Fondation pour la Mémoire de la Shoah in Paris.

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0872-6215

University of Haifa

Zagłada Żydów. Studia i Materiały, No. 17 (2021), pages: 329-357

Publication date: 2021-12-23

https://doi.org/10.32927/zzsim.882

Abstract

Digital games are the world’s most popular and profitable form of entertainment, accounting for 116 billion dollars in yearly revenue and 2.3 billion people playing in 2018. Games taking place during the Second World War and/or involving Nazis constitute a well-established sub-genre within this digital game culture. Given this background, comparatively little attention has been paid to the representation of Nazis in the medium and how this portrayal affects popular imaginations of Nazism and its crimes. This paper  aims to investigate these questions and discuss the impact of games set in WW2 on Holocaust memory using the example of the Wolfenstein Game series.

Arendt Hannah, Elemente und Ursprünge totaler Herrschaft. Antisemitismus, Imperialismus, totale Herrschaft, Munich: Piper, 2014.

Bartov Omer, Spielberg’s Oscar: Hollywood tries Evil [w:] Spielberg’s Holocaut. Critical Perspectives on “Schindler’s List”, red. Yosefa Loshitzky, Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1997.

Bowman Nicholas David, Wolfenstein [w:] 100 Greatest Video Game Franchises, red. Robert Mejia, Jaime Banks, Aubrie Adams, Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2017.

Brink Cornelia, Ikonen der Vernichtung. Öffentlicher Gebrauch von Fotografien aus nationalsozialistischen Konzentrationslagern nach 1945, Berlin: De Gruyter, 1998.

Camus Albert, The Human Crisis: A Lectured delivered in America, New York: Columbia University Press, 1946.

Carpenter Nicole, Education-Focused Civilization Game Heading to Schools in 2017, https://www.ign.com/articles/2016/06/24/education-focused-civilization-game-heading-to-schools-in-2017.

Chapman Adam, Linderoth Jonas, Exploring the Limits of Play. A Case Study of Representations of Nazism in Games [w:] The Dark Side of Game Play. Controversial Issues in Playful Environments, red. Torill Elvira Mortensen, Jonas Linderoth, Ashely ML Brown, New York: Routledge, 2015.

Didi-Huberman Georges, Images in Spite of All: Four Photographs from Auschwitz, rłum. Shane B. Lillis, Chicago: Chicago University Press, 2012 [wyd. polskie: Obrazy mimo wszystko, tłum. Mai Kubiak Ho-Chi, Kraków: Universitas, 2008].

Dovey Jon, Kennedy Helen W., Game Cultures. Computer Games as New Media, London: McGraw-Hill, 2006.

Dransfeld Ian, The history of Wolfenstein, https://www.pcgamer.com/the-history-of-wolfenstein/.

Egenfeldt-Nielsen Simon, Heide Smith Jonas, Pajares Tosca Susana, Understanding Video Games. The Essential Introduction, New York–Abingdon: Taylor&Francis, 2020.

Europe – 2014 top 20 half-year software chart, top 10 publishers, https://nintendoeverything.com/europe-2014-top-20-half-year-software-chart-top-10-publishers/.

Freyermuth Gundolf S., Games, Game Design, Game Studies. An Introduction, Bielefeld: transcript, 2015.

Gach Ethan, Wolfenstein 2 Collectible Mocks Progressive Magazine Over Its Coverage Of White Nationalists, https://kotaku.com/wolfenstein-2-collectible-mocks-progressive-magazine-ov-1819952709.

„Game Studies” 2016, t. 16, nr 2, specjalny: War/Game: Studying Relations Between Violent Conflict, Games, and Play.

Giere Daniel, Computerspiele – Medienbildung – historisches Lernen. Zu Repräsentation und Rezeption von Geschichte in digitalen Spielen, Frankfurt am Main: Wochenschau Verlag, 2019.

Gwaltney Javy, The Complete Saga Of How MachineGames Saved Wolfenstein, https://www.gameinformer.com/b/features/archive/2017/10/09/the-turbulent-history-of-machinegames.aspx.

Hoskins Andrew, The Right to Freedom in Post-Scarcity. [in:] The Ethics of Memory in the Digital Age, red. Alessa Ghezi i in., New York: Palgrave Macmillian, 2014.

Kansteiner Wulf, Transnational Holocaust Memory, Digital Culture and the End of Reception Studies [w:] The Twentieth Century in European Memory: Transcultural Mediation and Reception, red. Tea Sindbæk Andersen, Barbara Törnquist-Plewan, Leiden i in.: Brill, 2017 (seria „European Studies”, t. 34).

Kamen Matt, Assassin’s Creed historian on merging the past with fiction, https://www.wired.co.uk/article/assassins-creed-unity-interview-maxime-durand.

Klevjer Rune, Cut-scenes [w:] The Routledge Companion to Video Game Studies, red. Mark J.P. Wolf, Bernard Perron, New York–Abingdon: Routledge, 2014.

Knoch Habbo, Die Tat als Bild. Fotografien des Holocaust in der deutschen Erinnerungskultur, Hamburg: Hamburger Editionen, 2001.

Kößler Gottfried, Entscheidungen. Vorschläge und Materialien zur pädagogischen Arbeit mit dem Film „Schindlers Liste“, Frankfurt am Main: Fritz-Bauer-Institut, 1995.

Kuchera Ben, Yes, B.J. Blazkowicz is Jewish, https://www.polygon.com/2017/10/26/16553486/wolfenstein-bj-blazkowicz-jewish.

Mai Stephan, Preisinger Alexander, Digitale Spiele und historisches Lernen, Frankfurt am Main: Wochenschau Verlag, 2020.

Mitic I., Video Game Industry Revenue Set for Another Record-Breaking Year, https://fortunly.com/articles/video-game-industry-revenue/.

Morton Drew, “You must feel the Force around you!” Transmedia Play and the Death Star Trench Run in Star Wars Video Games [w:] Star Wars and the History of Transmedia Storytelling, red. Sean Guynes, Dan Hassler-Forest, Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2018.

Murray Soraya, On Video Games. The Visual Politics of Race, Gender and Space, London–New York: I.B. Tauris, 2018.

Nazisploitation!: The Nazi Image in Low-Brow Cinema and Culture, red. Daniel H. Magilow, Elizabeth Bridges, Kristin T. Vander Lugt, London: Bloomsbury, 2012.

Nielsen Holly, Assassin’s Creed Origins: how Ubisoft painstakingly recreated ancient Egypt, https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/oct/05/assassins-creed-origins-recreated-ancient-egypt-ubisoft.

Nolden Nico, Geschichte und Erinnerung in Computerspielen. Erinnerungskulturelle Wissenssysteme, Berlin: De Gruyter, 2019.

Orland Kyle, Germany says games with Nazi symbols can get “artistic” exception to ban, https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2018/08/german-ratings-board-starts-allowing-nazi-symbols-in-video-games/.

Paul Gerhard, Bilder des Krieges – Krieg der Bilder. Die Visualisierung des modernen Krieges, Paderborn: Schöningh, 2004.

Paul Gerhard, Bilder einer Diktatur. Zur Visual History des „Dritten Reiches”, Göttingen: Wallenstein, 2020.

Parijat Shbhankar, Call of Duty Series Crosses 300 Million Lifetime Sales, https://gamingbolt.com/call-of-duty-series-crosses-300-million-lifetime-sales.

Paterson Eddie, Williams Timothy, Cordner Will, Once Upon a Pixel. Storytelling and Worldbuilding in Video Games, Boca Raton: CRC Press, 2020.

Payne Matthew Thomas, Playing War. Military Video Games after 9/11, New York–London: New York University Press, 2016.

Pfister Eugen, Das Unspielbare spielen – Imaginationen des Holocaust in Digitalen Spielen, „Zeitgeschichte“ 2016, nr 4.

Pfister Eugen, Görgen Arno, Tabu Konzentrationslager – Die Profanisierung des Massenmordes, „GAIN Magazin“, 18 V 2020, nr 13, https://www.gain-magazin.de/tabu-konzentrationslager-die-profanisierung-des-massenmordes/.

Playing with Holocaust symbols. The video game franchise Wolfenstein as a case study for digital Holocaust representations, https://medium.com/@heronetwork/with-2-3-billion-gamers-ww-gaming-is-the-biggest-entertainment-industry-in-the-world-3d5fe85bb036.

Robertson Adi, Wolfenstein II turns killing Nazis into uplifting political commentary, https://www.theverge.com/2017/11/2/16594166/wolfenstein-2-the-new-colossus-nazi-white-supremacist-political-commentary.

Rollinger Christian, Classical Antiquity in Video Games. Playing with the Ancient World, London: Bloomsbury, 2020.

Rosenfeld Gavriel D., The World Hitler Never Made: Alternate History and the Memory of Nazism, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005.

Roth John K., The Failure(s) of Ethics: The Holocaust and Its Reverberations. The Raul Hilberg Memorial Lecture, November 10, 2008, https://www.uvm.edu/sites/default/files/UVM-Center-for-Holocaust-Studies/RothHilbergLecture_000.pdf.

Schmidt Hanns Christian, Transmedialität [w:] Game Studies, red. Benjamin Beil, Thomas Hensel, Andreas Rauscher, Wiesbaden: LIT, 2018.

Styron William, Sophie’s Choice, London: Paw Prints, 2004 [wyd. polskie: Wybór Zofii, tłum. Zbigniew Batko, Warszawa: NOW-a, 1991].

Totilo Stephen, Yes, This Nazi-Killing Video Game Hero Was Of Jewish Descent, https://kotaku.com/yes-this-nazi-killing-video-game-hero-was-of-jewish-de-1535290776.

Van Den Heede Pieter J.B.J., ‘Experience the Second World War like never before!’ Game paratextuality between transnational branding and informal learning, „Journal for the Study of Education and Development” 2020, t. 43, nr 3.

Vice Sue, Holocaust Fiction, New York: Routledge, 2003.

Visualizing the Holocaust. Documents, Aesthetics, Memory, red. David Bathrick, Brad Prager, Michael D. Richardson, Rochester: Camden House, 2008.

Vitchevsky Denis, Aharonoth Yedioth, ‘Nazis Won the War’ Video Game Online Sales Restricted in Israel, https://www.calcalistech.com/ctech/articles/0,7340,L-3724837,00.html.

Widmann Tabea, „‘The Game is the Memory’ – Eine erinnerungskulturwissenschaftliche Analyse von Prosethetic Witnesses über den Holocaust in digitalen Spielen”, robocza wersja doktoratu przygotowywanego na Uniwersytecie w Konstancji..

Winkie Luke, Wolfenstein 2 isn’t available in Israel, so gamers protested with a parody about Hitler's mustache, https://www.pcgamer.com/wolfenstein-2-isnt-available-in-israel-so-gamers-protested-with-a-parody-about-hitlers-mustache/.

License

Copyright (c) 2021 Zagłada Żydów. Studia i Materiały

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0

Altmetrics

Google Scholar citations - click icon to view

Statistics

Breit, J., & Meissel, L. (2021). Playing with Holocaust symbols. The video game franchise ‘Wolfenstein’ as a case study for digital Holocaust representations . Zagłada Żydów. Studia I Materiały, (17), 329-357. https://doi.org/10.32927/zzsim.882

Share it

                            View No. 17 (2021)

No. 17 (2021)

ISSN:
1895-247X
eISSN:
2657-3571

Data publikacji:
2021-12-20

Dział: From research workshops