Two students could be thrown out of university after creating a group on Facebook called “Hitler — The Drinking Game”.
Nicholas Rowley and Anthony Pike, the game’s inventors and music production students at the University of Huddersfield, deleted their Facebook group after complaints were made to their university.
Professor Peter Slee, Huddersfield’s deputy vice-chancellor, told the Yorkshire Evening Post: “We are shocked to hear about this game, and extremely disturbed at the allegations that students at this university have been taking part in it.” Slee said an investigation would be launched.
The group quickly surpassed 12,000 members, up from 5,000 on Sunday, January 10th. The rules included the “holocaust” and “heil Hitler”. Some students had uploaded pictures of themselves playing the game, which included them drawing on Hitler-style moustaches, as well as painting swastikas on their chests.
The Linc contacted Rowley before complaints were made. He told us: “The name Hitler came first and the more we worked on it, the rules just seemed to fit with the theme to make a drinking game that had a bit more to offer, a bit of tongue in cheek humour, but we are glad to see that people are seeing that this is just a satire on the Nazi regime and there are absolutely no racial or political undertones whatsoever.”
When asked if he was worried about being attacked by the national press, he said: “We are a little concerned that the massive growth of the group will attract media attention and we could well be branded boorish, fascist, disrespectful, or however other many adjectives can be slung at us. This group started around two years ago purely to share the rules with our friends. We had absolutely no idea we would get to 10,000 members.”
Rowley said that no offence was ever intended and he would “sincerely apologise” to anyone offended by it. A disclaimer in the group’s information, which reads “This game, group and its creators in no way support, encourage or promote Adolf Hitler or the ideologies of the Nazi party,” highlighted that “this is really just a game,” says Rowley.
The Linc has since contacted Rowley who said: “We have decided to shut the group down after an article began to circulate and we are now at risk of being removed from university.”
A tribute to the original group has already been created on Facebook.