Brazilian Jews are angry at the Viradouro samba school for its plans for a Holocaust- themed Carnival float, complete with sculpted piles of dead bodies. The school defended its float.

Reuters reports:

“The float is extremely respectful, it’s a warning, it’s something shocking that we don’t want to happen ever again,” said Paulo Barros, Viradouro’s artistic director.

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Viradouro’s parade theme is “Shockers” and it includes floats depicting the shock of birth, the shock of horror and the shock of cold.

Barrossaid the Holocaust float would be the only one without dancers on top.

“If we had people dancing on top of dead bodies that would indeed be disrespectful,” he told Reuters.

Meanwhile, across the ocean, Germany’s Green Party is using a picture of a cat that looks like Hitler to skewer extreme rightists. A poster featuring the cat Hitler says “you can’t always recognize Nazis at first glance.” Some were offended by the poster.

Ha’aretz reports:

The use of the cat was bemoaned by the Web site www.catsthatlooklikehitler.com on the grounds that the Green Party used photo manipulation to produce their “Adolf Kitler” rather of one of the site’s many authentic “Kitler” cats.

UPDATE: JTA is reporting that Rio Carnival parade organizers have banned the Holocaust-themed float.

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