Holocaust carnival float shocks in Brazil

RIO DE JANEIRO, Jan 29, 2008 (AFP) - Jewish groups in Brazil have expressed disgust over a controversial float to appear in Brazil's upcoming carnival parade that depicts dead victims of the Nazi Holocaust.

The display, by the Unidos da Viradouro school, will be sandwiched among 11 others that are to parade along the city's carnival avenue on Sunday.

In dramatic contrast to the floats carrying sequined, scantily clad dancers smiling and gyrating, and followed by drum bands, the Holocaust entry will show only motionless, skeletal figures piled on top of each other.

Its creator defended the float, which will move along under the theme 'It's Horrifying.'

'It's a very respectful float. It's going to depict it (the Holocaust) as a sort of alarm, so that it never be repeated,' the creator, Paulo Barros, told AFP.

'I believe the carnival is also a way of showing what happens in the world,' he said.

But Brazilian Jewish groups are not seeing it that way.

Sergio Niskier, the president of the Israelite Federation of Rio de Janerio, said it was 'inappropriate' to punctuate the festival atmosphere of carnival with a scene symbolizing the systematic murder of six million people in Nazi concentration camps between 1938 and 1945.

'Really, it makes no sense to highlight this issue with drums and dancing girls when there are still survivors of that horror and many of their descendants who carry the mark of that tragedy in their skin,' he told reporters.

Barros, however, said he informed the Jewish group of his plans months ago.

'They were anxious about putting this float in a carnival atmosphere,' he admitted.

But, he predicted, 'When the float goes by, people will feel respect.'

A counterpart at the rival Grande Rio samba school, Roberto Szaniecki, himself of Polish Jew descent, disagreed.

'It's insensitive. The parade is going to be broadcast in Europe. I don't have grandparents because of the Holocaust,' he told the newspaper O Dia.