Mauthausen

The Mauthausen Memorial demands removal of the area of the Mauthausen Memorial and Gusen Memorial from the Smartphone Game “Pokémon Go”

18.07.2016

The Mauthausen Memorial demands removal of the area of the Mauthausen Memorial and Gusen Memorial from the Smartphone Game “Pokémon Go”
(photo credits: Mauthausen Memorial)

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Much like the areas of the Buchenwald und Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorials, also the Mauthausen and Gusen Memorials have been programmed as locations for the Smartphone Game “Pokémon Go”. The Management of the Mauthausen Memorial is deeply shocked that these sites of suffering and death of thousands of people during the National Socialist reign of terror are being used as locations for playing online games: “It is inacceptable to us that our memorials and other international memorials are being used as locations for playing online games.”

In order to preserve the dignity of the victims, the Mauthausen Memorial appeals to the Japanese game manufacturer Nintendo and the responsible developer Niantic Labs to remove the locations of former concentration camps from the game “Pokémon Go”.

The visitors of the memorials are being asked to refrain from using the game during their visit and out of respect for the dead and their relatives to behave appropriately at the sites which also represent cemeteries for the victims. So that such incidents can be avoided in the future, the Mauthausen Memorial is appealing to developers to show their respect and deal with the history of memorial sites in a more sensitive manner.