Universität zu Köln

Pfister, Eugen and Zimmermann, Felix (2021). No One is Ever Ready for Something Like This. On the Dialectic of the Holocaust in First-Person Shooters as Exemplified by Wolfenstein: The New Order. Int. Public HIst., 4 (1). S. 35 - 47. BERLIN: WALTER DE GRUYTER GMBH. ISSN 2567-1111

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Abstract

For almost three decades, the depiction of the Holocaust was considered taboo in digital games. While WorldWar II became a popular historicizing setting for digital games, the crimes of the Nazi regime and the Holocaust in particular remained conspicuously absent. In this article we show that discussions about the fundamental suitability of specific media or media forms for dealing responsibly with the memory of the Nazi regime's crimes have already taken place several times and that similar arguments can now be applied to the digital game. With this in mind, we pursue the question of whether only so-called serious games are suitable for this purpose, or whether, on the contrary, mainstream blockbuster games - here specifically the first-person shooter Wolfenstein: The New Order - can find ways to maintain the memory of the Holocaust without trivializing it. We approach this question by analyzing chapter 8 of Wolfenstein: The New Order, in which protagonist William B.J. Blazkowicz allows himself to be deported to a Nazi concentration camp. We discuss this camp scene dialectically, on the one hand, as an encouragement to rethink the first-person shooter and, on the other hand, as a reproduction of a superficial iconography of the Holocaust.

Item Type:	Journal Article
Creators:	Creators Email ORCID ORCID Put Code Pfister, Eugen UNSPECIFIED UNSPECIFIED UNSPECIFIED Zimmermann, Felix UNSPECIFIED UNSPECIFIED UNSPECIFIED
URN:	urn:nbn:de:hbz:38-567813
DOI:	10.1515/iph-2021-2020
Journal or Publication Title:	Int. Public HIst.
Volume:	4
Number:	1
Page Range:	S. 35 - 47
Date:	2021
Publisher:	WALTER DE GRUYTER GMBH
Place of Publication:	BERLIN
ISSN:	2567-1111
Language:	English
Faculty:	Unspecified
Divisions:	Unspecified
Subjects:	no entry
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Keywords Language History Multiple languages
URI:	http://kups.ub.uni-koeln.de/id/eprint/56781