The Concentration Camp Video Game

An Israeli modder has turned a 1992 first-person shooter into a bloody tale of revenge set in a Nazi concentration camp with Sonderkommando Revolt, putting players in the role of an Auschwitz death camp prisoner on a killing rampage.

Sonderkommando Revolt is based on the real-world uprising at Auschwitz in October 1944—with some obvious Nazi exploitation as entertainment—and built on the foundation of classic shooter Wolfenstein 3D. The actual event in Auschwitz resulted in the deaths of just three German Schutzstaffel soldiers and the murder of 451 Sonderkommandos, a “special unit” of primarily Jewish concentration camp workers who aided in the killing process during the Holocaust.

In the video game version of the Sonderkommando Revolt, the tables are clearly turned, with protagonist and actual Auschwitz prisoner Zalmen Gradowski tearing through Nazi soldiers.

“Graphically it’ll feature many themes,” write its creators, “including Crematoriums, Block 11, Gas Chambers, execution, interrogation and torture areas…most of which are ripped/based off real pic from the real site.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fCUcw44l9F8

Video game modder “Doomjedi” has been working on Sonderkommando Revolt with the group Team Raycast since 2007. The developer describes the Nazi revenge tale as “very realistic, moody, challenging and detailed.” The game is part one of a planned trilogy, with Sonder 2 – Warsaw Uprising and Sonder 3 – Mission: Treblinka currently in the works.

The makers of Sonderkommando Revolt say they will release their mod for Wolf4SDL, a Wolfenstein 3D port, on January 1, 2011.

Kotaku has reached out to the Anti-Defamation League seeking reaction to the game.

Sonderkommando Revolt [MODDB – thanks to Jukio for the tip]