Outcry over Hitler's 'star status' in card game

LONDON: Soon after Adolf Hitler's waxwork in Berlin caused an outcry, a card game featuring the great dictators of history, including the Nazi leader and Josef Stalin, has sparked a row in Germany.
 
Hitler's waxwork at Madame Tussauds was beheaded earlier this month as it opened its doors in Berlin.
 
The card game, called The Fuehrer Quartett presents information on historical figures such as Hitler, Stalin, Franco of Spain and Ceaucescu of Romania. The dictators are divided into Asian, African, European and South American dictators.
 
Even as the creators said they wanted to "make an ironic statement" about the tyrants, many Geramns have flayed the attempt to present 'war criminals' as risible figures.
 
Berlin Senator Ehrhart Koerting, 66, called the deck "tasteless" while German historian Arnulf Baring said they "played down the enormity of the crimes committed" by the tyrants.
 
"The further back the Third Reich recedes in history, the more bizarre the way it is dealt with becomes," he was quoted as saying by the Mail online.
 
Also featured is Mussolini, Italys wartime fascist leader; Salazar, erstwhile military strongman of Portugal; Castro of Cuba;  Idi Amin of Uganda;  Mao Tse Tung of China and Papa Doc of Haiti.
 
"When you can laugh at them, you don't fear them as much," argued Volker Oppmann of the publishing house behind the game.