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Holocaust float banned from Rio's Carnival parade


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A Brazilian judge has banned a group from parading a float depicting the victims of the Holocaust and a Hitler figure. Responding to a lawsuit brought by the Jewish Federation of Rio de Janeiro (Fierj), the judge ruled that the float trivialized the Holocaust, and said "Carnival should not be used as an instrument of hatred, any kind of racism and clear trivialisation of barbaric and unjustified acts against minorities." The group is still allowed to parade, but must remove the mannequins meant to represent dead bodies and is not allowed to have a Hitler character on board.

This might seem like a strange idea for a float, but the theme for this year's parade is "It gives you goose bumps" and floats are set to portray cold, fear and birth. I would say this float does exactly that. Though Fierj argues that the Holocaust is too monstrous a situation to "be combined with the excessively festive nature of the carnival." Do you think the ruling is appropriate given the very different nature of the two events?
abbym0308

3 responses // Holocaust float banned from Rio's Carnival parade

  • This is just another form of censorship. It is because of this type od censorship, that people forget about the evil things that occur in this world, and so they do nothing to prevent future monstrosities from occuring. As horrid as the hallocaust was, it should not be forgotten, it should stand as a reminder so that it may NEVER happen again. If we just turn the other cheek and pretend like it never happened, then other genocides might occur. oh, wait its too late, there's already other genocides happening....
    thisisonelongname
  • The parallel of festival and holocaust gives me goosebumps without even having to see the float. Thumbs up to the float's creators for sticking their foot in the door and saying "This is what I think of when I think 'disturbing.' You should too!"
    Philist
  • Does anyone know WHY they decided to use this theme for their float? Was it meant to be disrespectful or hateful? Or, was it meant to display the horrors of what happened and to call attention to it so that we won't forget it? There's an enormous difference between the two in my opinion, and if they were displaying that as a means to say "Those who forget the past are condemned to repeat it.", then they should really be applauded for it. I know that it would have been hurtful to the Jews that would have seen it (as it would have been hurtful to many non-Jews as well) but it might also have made some younger people who may not know about the holocaust, want to crack open a book or rent a documentary and find out about it. It could have helped to educate some young people, which is what we want anyway, isn't it?
    proudmommy777

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