Spokesman Stephen Smith said they had not experienced any problems with the Pokémon Go players yet but wanted to act before they could potentially happen.
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The Arlington National Cemetery is also asking people to be respectful.
Officials from the New York City memorial on Wednesday had not issued a statement on the phenomenon, though many visitors had expressed anger at seeing Pokemon Go gamers at site, and called for Ground Zero to be off-limits to the smartphone game. We encourage visitors to use their phones to share and engage with Museum content while here.
Note to “Pokemon GO” fans: Don’t try to catch Pikachu – or any other Pokemon – in the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum. Some of them include hallowed locations and grounds inappropriate for gaming, reports CNN Money.
Since it was officially released last week, Pokemon GO has been capturing the headlines fairly often for a variety of reasons that are more or less appropriate.
Now, thanks to Pokemon Go, a journey to commemorate the tragedies of history can be turned into an opportunity to grab prizes. The auto service Lyft said that it’s seeing a rise in traveler dropoffs to restaurants known as Pokemon health clubs and Pokestops, consisting of St. Patrick’s Cathedral.
Other locations, like National Mall and Memorial Parks have embraced the hot game.
But some of those real-world locations, like the Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C. have not meshed well with the game.
“We are attempting to have the museum removed from the game”, the museum’s communications director, Andrew Hollinger, said in a statement.
The museum has reached out to Niantic, the game’s developer, in hopes of having their museum excluded from the whole Pokemon craze, but has yet to see a response.
A representative of The Pokémon Company International declined to comment on specific Pokestops, the Pokestop mapping strategies, or on the site removal process.
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The Holocaust museum has since asked attendees to refrain from playing the game when walking through its exhibits. “We are trying to have the Museum removed from the game”, the declaration stated. “I had to take a second look and I realised it was a body”, she added.
