An image of players of Hitler, the drinking game
Two Huddersfield students were yesterday facing the glare of the national media as a game they created was said to mock the Holocaust.
Nicholas Rowley and Anthony Pike’s “Hitler” drinking game involves references to World War II and the Holocaust which veterans have described as an insult.
The story has since been picked up by BBC, Sky News and news websites in India and Australia.
A Facebook group has been created in support of the two Huddersfield students, claiming that the media have misrepresented the pair.
The drinking game group, joined by around 12,000 members has seemingly been removed from Facebook.
Both students told the Huddersfield Examiner that they were sorry and had never meant to cause any offence.
Pike said: “I’ve spoken to Nick and we both want to say that we are sincerely sorry.
“It was only ever intended to be a game and has clearly gone beyond a joke. We will be removing the group from Facebook immediately.
“We never expected this to reach the press and feel some of the coverage was inaccurate.
“It was made clear on the site that we in no way sympathise with Hitler or Nazi ideals.
“We were very concerned about some of the photos which were posted but were copied by the press before we had a chance to take them down.
“Obviously we realise that a large number of people sacrificed themselves for this country and this was never an attack on them.”
Huddersfield Student Union President, Junaid Ejaz, told the Examiner: “The University of Huddersfield Students’ Union is shocked by and condemns those involved in ‘Hitler the Drinking Game’.
“To trivialise and play games based on Nazism, which killed so many millions of innocent people from all communities, is disgraceful and disrespectful.
“Any allegations against students will be investigated and appropriate action will be taken.”
I wasn’t going to comment on this story at first as my views are more than likely exactly the same as everyone else that thinks about the issue properly, but having seen a facebook page crop up called ‘huddersfield students against nazi’s’ I’d now like to add my thoughts.
Firstly, I don’t know these individuals and see myself as quite neutral.
I don’t believe for one minute that these individuals are facist or racist. I don’t believe that they were supporting nazism or hitler or, to be honest, any other political views. They are clearly very nieve and ignorant about what they were doing.
That being said, whats happening on the facebook site is strange.
Firstly, the groups appears to have been created in a rush to get a point out and links nazism, facism and the BNP with this group of silly students – I don’t see the reason behind this but it seems to be mixed political views trying to be whole. That being said, I understand why they may have made this group.
Secondly, what is more suprising is the string on people that are not only defending these individuals as people, but also defending what they have done. I’d like to say to these people, ‘You should be more ashamed of yourselves than the people playing the game’…
They were clearly doing something that is very distastful without thinking about it (which is like quite a few students moseying on in life without thinking). I doesn’t excuse it but it does take the edge off. What these defenders are doing is viewing how some people feel about these actions and actively defending them without so much as accepting that what they did was wrong.
What they did was wrong. Period. This doesn’t mean that the individuals are horrible people, just nieve and ignorant. But defending these actions makes worse – not ignorant or nieve – just pathetically ignoring peoples strong and justified views about this ‘game’.
One person has written on the wall that the people supporting this group should ‘get a grip’! I’d baffles me how some people can be so disrespectful about other peoples views, real view…