Back in my day, high school parties mainly featured regular beer pong, one couple making out that we would look at, and me vomiting and crying in the front yard. It was the best time of my life. Today’s high schoolers, for some reason, want more than that.
A group of history-minded Princeton High School students posted a photo to Snapchat of them playing a game called “Jews vs. Nazis.” In the game, cups are arranged in the shape of a swastika (team Nazi) and a Star of David (team Jew), and each team gets a little cheat: the Jews get an “Anne Frank cup” that they are allowed to hide wherever they like, and the Nazis get to “Auschwitz” a Jew, meaning one of the opposite team members has to sit out of the round.
In response, Princeton High junior Jamaica Ponder reposted the Snapchat photo to her blog.
“I know I’m not the only one who saw this Snapchat story. Yet here I am, the only one saying anything about it,” Ponder wrote. “I am unsure as to what’s worse: the static silence from my peers, or the fact that this happened in the first place.”
The game, also referred to as Holocaust Pong or Alcoholocaust (both classy), has been floating around at least since 2013. Back then, a Redditor explained the game as such:
Its called Jews vs the Nazis. Its 3-on-3, 30 cups per team. The Nazis shape their 30 cups into a swastika, and the Jews set up their 30 cups as the Star of David. The cups are re-racked to a smaller swastika and a smaller star when 18 cups remain on either team. The Nazis start the game off with ‘blitzkreig,’ and each player on the Nazis shoots until they miss, but this is only allowed for the first volley. The Jews have the ‘Anne Frank Cup,’ and this ability allows them to pick any one of their cups and hide it anywhere in the room, but it has to be shootable, obviously. The Jews can only do that once per game and can be used only during their turn. To equalize this slight advantage, the Nazis also have another ability called ‘Auschwitz’ (or ‘Concentration Camp’ if you don’t know what that means). With this ability the Nazis can pick any player on the Jews team and they have to sit out of the game until the other two players on the Jews team each make a cup. After that happens the 3rd person on the Jews team can play again. Also, throughout the game you are supposed to talk alot of shit and say as many racist things as possible to make it more enjoyable.
My Jewish friends actually love this game haha.
Haha, I bet they do :).
According to Planet Princeton, students in the initial photo have been identified as athletes and peer leaders.
“I am deeply upset that some of our students chose to engage in a drinking game with clearly anti-Semitic overtones and to broadcast their behavior over social media,” said Princeton Public Schools Superintendent Steve Cochrane, according The Washington Post.
“As a community we all have a role in teaching our children to make good decisions, to be legally responsible, and to be respectful members of a diverse society. An incident such as this one, forces us to take a hard look at our efforts in educating our children in the values that may be most important to their success in life.”
Joshua Cohen, regional director of the Anti-Defamation League called the photos “alarming and outrageous.”
“I think an incident like this underscores and highlights a number of different issues. One, the trivialization of Nazis, Hitler, and anti-semitism by teenagers. I think it underscores the critical need for Holocaust education.”
Image via Steve Cukrov/Shutterstock.
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Still here. Still without airbrushing. Still with teeth.
