'Hunters' creator David Weil defends human chess scene in Amazon series

David Weil, the creator of Amazon's "Hunters", has addressed the backlash the show is receiving over a human chess scene.

The show, which features veteran actor Al Pacino and Logan Lerman in the lead, is about a group of Nazi hunters who track down and kill several SS soldiers hiding out in the United States.

However, there is a scene, set in the Auschwitz death camp, that has not gone down well with the viewers.

The scene depicts a life-sized game of chess, played by Nazi soldiers, where they use their Jewish captives as pieces of the board. When they have to knock a chess piece down, the officer would executive the prisoner.

The official Twitter of Auschwitz Memorial had criticised the show, calling the scene as "dangerous foolishness and caricature".

"Auschwitz was full of horrible pain and suffering documented in the accounts of survivors. Inventing a fake game of human chess for @huntersonprime is not only dangerous foolishness & caricature, it also welcomes future deniers. We honour the victims by preserving factual accuracy," it tweeted.

Weil has now responded to the criticism in a statement to Deadline, calling the scene "a fictionalised event".

"Why did I feel this scene was important to script and place in series? To most powerfully counteract the revisionist narrative that whitewashes Nazi perpetration, by showcasing the most extreme and representationally truthful sadism and violence that the Nazis perpetrated against the Jews and other victims.

"And why did I feel the need to create a fictional event when there were so many real horrors that existed? After all, it is true that Nazis perpetrated widespread and extreme acts of sadism and torture and even incidents of cruel 'games' against their victims. I simply did not want to depict those specific, real acts of trauma," the creator said.

"The Hunters" started streaming on Amazon Prime Video from February 21.