(JTA) — At a carnival procession in Spain, participants dressed like Nazis and Jewish concentration camp prisoners while dancing next to a float evoking crematoria.
The Israeli Embassy in Madrid on Tuesday protested the display this weekend at the annual carnival procession in Campo de Criptana, a town situated about 80 miles southeast of the capital.
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“We condemn the vile and repugnant representation that disrespects the victims of the Holocaust,” the embassy wrote on Twitter, “making fun of the murder of millions of Jews by the Nazis. European nations must collectively fight anti-Semitism.”
A video of the procession shows the participants marching in their fake Nazi uniforms. Behind them, dancers wearing striped outfits evoking concentration camp uniforms followed while waving flags of Israel. They were followed by the float shaped like a train locomotive with two large chimneys.
On Sunday, a carnival procession in Aalst, Belgium, featured costumes of haredi Orthodox Jews depicted as ants. Dozens of other participants wore fake hooked noses based on Jewish stereotypes. One group of participants wore shiny black uniforms and red armbands evocative of Nazi uniforms. A third group dressed as Jews carried a sign that warned readers “not to tell the truth about the Jew.”
Last year, UNESCO dropped the Aalst Carnival from its list of world heritage events over the depiction of Jews in the 2019 procession. It featured a float with effigies of grinning haredim holding bags of money and one with a rat on its shoulders.
The group that created the float said it was meant to protest the rising cost of living.
