Holocaust education program examines the portrayal of Jews and the Holocaust in videogames

pcgamer.com:

Videogames have a long history of using World War 2 as a backdrop, but the Holocaust goes virtually untouched. It's not surprising: By and large, games designed as entertainment—often comical or at least unserious entertainment—and the mass murder of six million human beings in pursuit of a racist ideology doesn't suit that intention. To mark International Holocaust Remembrance Day, the Sarah and Chaim Neuberger Holocaust Education Center will take a look at one game that does focus on the Holocaust: The Light in the Darkness, an «educational historical experience» about the Holocaust in France.

«I am French, and the Holocaust in France is rarely discussed,» director Luc Bernard explained last year on Xbox Wire. «Another reason it resonates with me is since I was a boy, and my grandmother would tell me stories of her looking after Kindertransport children in the UK. So, the Holocaust shaped my family.»

At first glance, The Light in the Darkness looks like a point-and-click adventure, but it will not make use of «choice-based mechanics» in order to emulate the powerlessness experienced by victims of the Holocaust, says Bernard. «Instead, the game is more about the story and witnessing these dark times through the eyes of the family, to humanize the victims, and show the kind and heroic actions of those around them.» 

The Holocaust Education Center's program, hosted by the Neuberger's Online Hate Research and Education Project manager Daniel Panneton, will feature gameplay footage from The Light in the Darkness, and will also go deeper on the topic in conversations with Bernard, David Klevan of the US Holocaust Memorial Museum, and Marnie Salsky, a photographer whose work examines the experiences of the Jewish community in