A new Amazon Prime series about Nazi hunters includes some "dangerous foolishness," according to the Auschwitz Memorial. The memorial has strongly criticized a scene in which inmates are forced to kill each other in a game of "human chess," NBC reports. The memorial, a charity devoted to preserving the death camp as a historical site, called the "fake" scene "dangerous foolishness & caricature" that encourages Holocaust deniers. "We honor the victims by preserving factual accuracy," the memorial tweeted. The show, which stars Al Pacino as one of a group of Nazi hunters living in New York City in the 1970s, made its debut on Friday.
Karen Pollack, chief executive of the Holocaust Educational Trust, tells the BBC that the depiction gives the show a tone of "flippant entertainment." "We have a real responsibility to protect the truth of the Holocaust, particularly as we're moving away from living history, the survivors are few and frailer," she says. Show creator and executive producer David Weil issued a statement defending Hunters, saying "it is not documentary. And it was never purported to be." He said the show is "inspired by true events." "After all, it is true that Nazis perpetrated widespread and extreme acts of sadism and torture—and even incidents of cruel 'games'—against their victims," he said. "I simply did not want to depict those specific, real acts of trauma." (More Auschwitz stories.)