Escape rooms have been extremely popular in Greece. So much so that they were once listed by Tripadvisor as being the number 1 attraction of Athens – even more popular than the iconic Acropolis.

Since then escape rooms have sprouted around the country, each one filled with intriguing adventures. One escape room may have taken its theme too far by creating a Holocaust-themed game in Thessaloniki, the city that was once home to a robust Sephardic community.

The room, originally called “Schindler’s List” drew the attention of Germany’s Deutsche Welle that reported that the aim of the game is to draw up a list of survivors to be spared a gruesome death by killer forces. Inspired by Steven Spielberg’s 1993 historical Holocaust movie, the outcry caused the escape room to change its name to “Secret Agent”.

The description of the escape room has been taken down from the site following the report by DW, bu the initial description challenged players to assist a German businessman, Oskar Schindler, who comes to “earn money from the war” but ends up “saving as many innocents as possible from the SS” in Krakow, Poland.

The Central Board of Jewish Communities in Greece (KIS) were outraged by the game. KIS Vice President Victor Eliezer told DW that the “so-called success of these games hinges on ignorance sweeping through Greek society.”

Company officials in Thessaloniki refused to comment on the controversy and officials of the same company in Athens told DW that the game was not linked to the Holocaust or the movie, even though participants of the game said that the theme song of the film had been used and there were many references to Auschwitz in the introduction as well as props from the Spielberg classic.

Critics say that the game trivialises the Holocaust and dehumanises the victims. It is particularly concerning that the game is being played in an area where more than 44,000 Jews were deported to concentration camps and only a handful of survivors returned.

In the past, a Dutch company had also created an escape room to resemble the bunker of Anne Frank in Galatsi, a suburb of Athens.