Auschwitz Memorial upset over scene in new Amazon series 'Hunters'

The Auschwitz museum has slammed Amazon's new television series "Hunters," saying that a fictionalized scene from the show starring Al Pacino was "dangerous" and would encourage "future deniers."  

"Auschwitz was full of horrible pain & suffering documented in the accounts of survivors," the Auschwitz Memorial, which preserves the site of the Nazi death camp in Poland, tweeted on its official account.    

"Inventing a fake game of human chess for @huntersonprime is not only dangerous foolishness & caricature," it said. "It also welcomes future deniers. We honor the victims by preserving factual accuracy."    

The tweet was accompanied by a photo of a scene from the series that showed humans used as chess pieces.    

The drama series, which stars Pacino as a Holocaust survivor, is set in 1977 and follows a group of Nazi hunters who discover hundreds of high-ranking Nazi officials living in the US and conspiring to create a Fourth Reich.

The series, advertised on its website as being inspired by true events, premiered on Amazon's streaming service last Friday.    

Its creator, David Weil, hit back at the criticism on Monday, saying in a lengthy statement sent to AFP that he had visited the death camp, where his grandmother was imprisoned.    

"While 'Hunters' is a dramatic narrative series, with largely fictional characters, it is inspired by true events," he said. "But it is not documentary. And it was never purported to be.    

"In creating this series it was most important for me to consider what I believe to be the ultimate question and challenge of telling a story about the Holocaust: how do I do so without borrowing from a real person's specific life or experience?"    

Referring to the "chess...