Al Pacino Starrer Hunters Criticized for Untrue Holocaust Portrayal

Al Pacino is finally making TV debut with Hunters that is set to premiere on Amazon Prime. However, ahead of its release, the series has landed in controversy for one of its scenes that are being dubbed as “dangerous foolishness” and “caricature” by Auschwitz Memorial.

The scene shows a Jewish chess master held captive by Nazis and forced to play a game of chess with humans as pawns. Every time the chess master loses a piece, a fellow prisoner dies. The scene, in the opening credit of all 10 episodes and played out in the first episode, is being highly criticized by the memorial group for unrealistic holocaust representation.

“Auschwitz was full of horrible pain & suffering documented in the accounts of survivors. Inventing a fake game of human chess for @huntersonprime is not only dangerous foolishness & caricature. It also welcomes future deniers. We honor the victims by preserving factual accuracy,” tweeted Auschwitz Memorial.

In response to the criticism, the show maker David Weil who earlier stated that the series is inspired by real events and is a homeage to his late grandmother, a holocaust survivor, has said that Hunters is not a documentary and it was never purported to be.

“Why did I feel the need to create a fictional event when there were so many real horrors that existed?” said Weil in a statement issued in response to the criticism.

“It is true that Nazis perpetrated widespread and extreme acts of sadism and torture – and even incidents of cruel “games” – against their victims. I simply did not want to depict those specific, real acts of trauma,” he added.

Hunters is based in the 1970s and follow story of a gang that is hunting down Nazis in New York to make them pay for their holocaust crimes. The series stars Al Pacino alongside Logan Lerman, Josh Radnor, Jerrika Hinton, and Tiffany Boone.