Board games from the city of Vijayanagara (Hampi ... - Gioco dell'Oca.

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B OARD G AME S TUDIES 6, 2003
from the Fabricius’ advertisement as well as the article in Das Schwarze Korps contradicts
her statement: the game was published very late in 1938 and was to be promoted only
in 1939. It is most likely therefore that Rogasky was mislead by the company advertisement,
which tried to promote a “big seller” right from the beginning. It seems very
unlikely that the game could have been successful in the face of condemnation by the
SS and the resulting threats to Rudolf Fabricius.
The state archive at Leipzig, where the documents concerning the fairs at Leipzig
are preserved, confirmed by letter that the Fabricius company was not present at the toy
fair in 1939 nor was the game promoted there, despite the company’s previous
announcement. Unfortunately no information was available concerning Fabricius’ presence
at the fair at Vienna in 1939.
Rumors
“Juden Raus!” has been known to a handful of scholars for many years. It has been
used as evidence by museums and college courses on the holocaust of the extent of anti-
Semitism in Nazi Germany. In the course of our research many scholars replied that
they had “heard” or “thought they saw somewhere” information about the game that,
although interesting, cannot be substantiated. As is the case with many games, a mythology
of rumors has developed around “Juden Raus!”. One rumor has it that the two existing
copies were prototypes and that the game was never published, while a contradicting
rumor states that “Juden Raus!” was manufactured but was so unpopular that it was
given away for free. Another rumor claims a third copy of the game was recently sold to
a private collector through internet auction. There is even some talk of a different (and
more blatant) anti-Semitic game of the period described as a “death camp version of
parchisi” where the goal of the game is to be the first to deliver Jews a position on the
game board which symbolized the place of their murder. Several people have claimed to
have heard of this game, but no version is known to exist. Anyone with information
about the rumors mentioned above are asked to contact the authors.
Comments
“Juden Raus!” is not a “Nazi board game” as it is sometimes called. There is no Nazi
symbolism used in the game design and the article published in Das Schwarze Korps
shows that the game was disdained – at least officially – in a major publication of the
most important Nazi organization. But its true history may never be known for certain
and many unsubstantiated rumors about the game exist.
What insights are achieved from “Juden Raus!” about Nazi culture? It is hard to
imagine a family sitting at a table playing a game that taught racial hatred. Yet it seems
there were people like Rudolf Fabricius who imagined that some families would do just
that. Fabricius was one of those mere supporters who thought to make some profit by
following in the wake of Nazi anti-Semitic propaganda. Today most people react with
disbelief or disgust when informed of the game’s existence. “Juden Raus!” shows that
after decades of propaganda, anti-Semitism was so deeply rooted in German society in
the 1930s, that someone thought it would be a good subject for a children’s game.