Holocaust float banned; Barros cries

Photo by José Carlos Pereira de Carvalho

Viradouro's Holocaust float has been banned by a Rio judge today. This occurred a day after LIESA's magazine Abre-Alas, which carries full descriptions of all floats for the coming weekend, said that Viradouro's float would also carry a person dressed as Hitler.

Here is second story of the day about this from O Dia. This story describes Viradouro's response: (translated by KH)

Thurs Jan 31 10pm

Viradouro announced at nightfall today that it will carry out the changes required by the judge, prohibiting the use of the Holocaust float. The float will be modified to have the theme of freedom of expression, according to RJTV. Workers in the barracao (float construction warehouse) have already begun work.

(Photo at top shows the float in its last intact moments. Photo below - being dismantled.)

(photo O Dia)

On this Thursday morning, following the plea of Sergio Niskier, president of the Israelite Federation of the State of Rio de Janeiro (FIERJ in Portuguese), the judge prohibited Viradouro from parading with the Holocaust float, which was to show a pile of corpses, alluding to the millions of Jews killed by the Nazi regime.

The Independent League of Escolas de Samba (LIESA) stated that Viradouro needs to describe the alterations to the float at least 24 hours before the parade so as not to lose points.

Paulo Barros Cries

(photo O Dia)

The carnavalesco of Viradouro, Paulo Barros, cried on seeing the float being dismantled in the Cidade do Samba. Earlier, in an interview with the site Tudo de Samba, he commented on the judge's decision.

"The point of this float was to be a reminder so that a tragedy like this will never happen again. The float is being described as if it were an aggressive act on my part. In truth, what was stated in "Abre-Alas" was a misinterpretation of the float. Corintho, the man was who was going to ride on the float, dressed as Hitler, was going to act out Hitler's blame for the massacre. I regret that people prefer to close their eyes to a historical fact of the gravity of the Holocaust, and that instead they prefer to trivialize the memorial that I had prepared to show in the Viradouro parade."

Fines Would Be R$ 250,000

The preliminary verdict was granted by Juliana Kalichsztein, judge of the the Tribunal Board of the Justice of Rio. If the escola disobeys the order, they will have to pay a fine of R$ 200,000. And if they parade with any member dressed as Adolf Hitler, they'll have to pay another R$ 50,000.

"An event of this magnitude, despite being, at is essence, intended to bring happiness, [?descontracao - sorry, I don't know this word - KH], and informing the population about various important facts that have occurred over the years, should not be used to celebrate the cult of hatred, any form of racism, or a clear trivialization of barbaric and injust events that have been committed against minorities, especially the approximately six million jews (many still alive), and led by the execrable figure of Adolf Hitler," said the judge in a statement.

According to the judge, the urgency of the issue has been discussed on both sides, and therefore Viradouro will be allowed to simply change some passista costumes and make certain changes to the float. They will have to dismantle only the part that has the nude cadavers of the Nazi victims. The escola can still appeal the decision.

According to the press agent of TJ-RJ, the judge authorized the float to parade as long as it is without the nude corpses. In practice, this will invalidate this section of the parade. The verdict was delivered by the 33rd Civil Court. After the judge's decision, FIERJ released a statement commending the decision:

"Once again, FIERJ has acted in defense of the community, not permitting any trivialization of the Holocaust or any disrespect to the memory of all the victims of this barbarity, including the Brazilian heroes who died in the fields of Italy, and all the 54 million victims of the barbarity that was World War II," read the statement.

The decision came one day after the newspaper O Dia revealed that a dancer depicting Hitler would be on the float. Barros had denied that there would be any people on the float when the existence of the float became widely known to the Jewish community, as O Dia noted on Jan. 18th. The magazine Abre Alas, with its detailed description of the parade, therefore, contradicted the carnavalesco's statement. The Israelite Federation of Rio appealed to the escola to not use the float.

The president of FIERJ, Sergio Niskier, criticized the float and said, after receiving the information from O Dia, that he had "changed his mind" about Viradouro: "When the presence of a person dressed as Hitler was confirmed, bringing [to Carnaval] an image of a bloodthirsty, murderous dictator, my opinion changed." [Niskier had previously stated that though he was upset about the float, he believed that Viradouro had honestly meant to memorialize the Holocaust, not celebrate it.]

(end O Dia story)
*****

(me again)
The designer of the float, Paulo Barros, is widely regarded as the boldest and most innovative float designer of the modern era of Carnaval. I think what we have here is a fundamental disagreement about whether Carnaval can be a true art form. Is Carnaval inherently frivolous? Or can it depict complex topics, even horrifying and abhorrent events, without trivializing those events? The escolas take great pride in the fact that they tackle some difficult and serious themes in their parades - something that most tourists don't understand. It leads to widespread tourist puzzlement every year as certain floats go by, whether because the float subject seems non-festive, or simply too intellectual or serious. Case in point: Imperio Serrano's float last year that attempted to depict Einstein's theory of relativity!

But.. it's a party, too. There did seem to be a lot more dancers in feathered bikinis involved in Einstein's theory of relativity than I remember from physics class.