The Holocaust Museum has asked its visitors to stop playing Nintendo’s newly launched Pokémon Go app on the museum's premises.
The museum in Washington, D.C. has become a "PokéStop" in the game, which has transfixed users to their smartphone screens as they attempt to capture digital creatures.
A "PokéStop" is a designated location where players can pick up loot like snacks and medicines for battle-torn Pokémon.
There are three PokéStops in the museum, potentially leading visitors into the exhibits to capture Pikachu, rather than to contemplate the murder of millions of innocent Jews and others marked for death by the Nazi regime.
The Washington Post reported Tuesday:
One image circulating online appears to show a player encountering an unsettling digital critter inside the museum: a Pokémon called Koffing that emits poisonous gas floating by a sign for the museum's Helena Rubinstein Auditorium. The auditorium shows the testimonials of Jews who survived the gas chambers.
Andrew Hollinger, the museum's communications director, said while the museum typically encourages visitors to share their experiences from the exhibits to social media, staff are worried about the Koffing sighting.
"Playing the game is not appropriate in the museum, which is a memorial to the victims of Nazism," Hollinger told the Washington Post. "We are trying to find out if we can get the museum excluded from the game."
Pokémon Go players have also swarmed to the Pentagon, the 9/11 Memorial in New York City, and Arlington National Cemetery in an effort to catch ‘em all.