Students at the University of Amsterdam were publicly chastised in Parliament and by the university’s administration today, and were forbidden ever to engage in the so-called “Dachau Game.” The “game” aroused many protests when one of the oldest campus societies, “Nos Lungit micipia,” (Friendship Binds Us), initiated a group of freshmen last week by herding almost-naked students into an airless cellar where many of the initiates fainted. Thus, the society contended, the students would learn about life at the infamous Dachau concentration camp conducted by the Nazi regime.
Many of the students protested that members of their families had been murdered by the Nazis ad Dachau. Both the Minister of Justice and the Minister of Education told Parliament they would halt the “disgusting game.” The offending society today suspended activities for a week of “contemplation.” By orders of the chancellor of the university, all students were told to attend the showing of a film showing “the real horrors at Dachau.”
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.