Holocaust Museum Wants ‘Pokemon Go’ Addicts to Stop Playing There

Pokemon: Gotta catch ’em all — unless they’re in the Holocaust Museum. Or at least, that’s what the Washington, D.C., museum dedicated to the Nazi genocide of Jews would prefer.

Andrew Hollinger, the museum’s communications director, told the Washington Post that the Museum wants people to stop playing “Pokemon GO” on the premises, which is apparently a “PokeStop” — a site in the game where players can stock up on free items.

“Playing the game is not appropriate in the museum, which is a memorial to the victims of Nazism,” Hollinger said. “We are trying to find out if we can get the museum excluded from the game.”

Hollinger said the museum encourages visitors to share images and videos of exhibits on social media, “but this game falls very much outside that.”

Niantic Labs, the developer behind the popular mobile game that quickly became a cultural phenomenon, has apologized in the past for incorporating Holocaust history into a game. The company’s founder, John Hanke, released a statement saying sorry in 2015 for allowing players of mobile role-playing game “Ingress” to battle over control of historic concentration camp sites, including Dachau and Sachsenhausen.

Niantic did not immediately respond to TheWrap’s request for comment.

Andrea Peterson, the Washington Post reporter who interviewed Hollinger, did indeed spot a number of visitors playing “Pokemon G)” while at the museum.

A 37-year-old gamer identified only as Angie said, “It’s not like we came here to play, but gotta catch ’em all.”