Holocaust Museum to Pokemon Go Users: Please Stop Playing Here

The newly launched Pokemon Go game sees players embarking out into the real world in search of Pokemon. Another element of the game is its PokeStops, which are places people can go to find things like extra Pokeballs. Now, it's been revealed that the Holocaust Museum in Washington D.C. is a PokeStop in the game, and the museum is not too pleased.

"Playing the game is not appropriate in the museum, which is a memorial to the victims of Nazism," a communications director for the site told the Washington Post.

The director, Andrew Hollinger, said the museum is currently trying to determine if the Holocaust Museum can be "excluded" from Pokemon Go. We have reached out to developer Niantic Labs to see what might be happening here.

Right now, players can report issues with a Pokemon Gym or PokeStop, but only if they present "immediate physical danger," according to Niantic. Examples provided by Niantic include the middle of the road or railroad tracks.

There is a particularly disturbing image floating around online that shows the poison gas-spewing creature, Koffing, inside the Holocaust Museum, near the Helena Rubinstein Auditorium. This theater plays the stories of Jews who survived gas chambers.

The Post visited the museum on Monday and did not see the Koffing at that area, though the locations of Pokemon in Pokemon Go can vary. Hollinger said the Holocaust Museum is worried by Koffing's appearance near the hall.

The Holocaust Museum's list of rules does not include any mention of playing video games while at the site. The museum does mention that attendees should be respectful of the site and other visitors during their trip.

For more on Pokemon Go, check out all of GameSpot's previous coverage.