A new standard for bad taste was set in this year's Carnival in Brazil, which started today and lasts until Wednesday. The traditional popular celebration in which "everything goes" generated a lot of controversy because of a samba group's allegoric car (float) that was meant to depict the Holocaust, with piled-up naked bodies with a dancing Adolf Hitler on the top. All accompanied by samba rhythms.

On Thursday, though, Rio de Janeiro state's main Jewish federation won a court injunction prohibiting the Viradouro Carnival group from sending out the float.

Viradouro members said it was designed to remind Carnival-goers of past horrors and thus to prevent them from happening again. Nevertheless, they accepted the court decision and said they would change the float - but they promised a "surprising" protest against the "censorship" during Sunday's procession.

Last year, the Carnival group Unidos da Tijuca recreated that famous Vietnam War photograph of 9-year-old Kim Phuc being burned by napalm. A dancer in a bodysuit played Kim, while dancers in bright-orange flame costumes swirled around her. Brazilian Carnival respects no limits... Last year, Carnival group Estacio de Sa, for example, had costumes with swastikas on them (viz photo below).

Every year the Catholic Church complains about the government's free handout of 19.5 million condoms over Carnival. This year even the Vatican protested against the decision by the government to distribute 8 million so-called abortion pills, which women can take after having sex to avoid getting pregnant. The Minister of Health does not agree and said the prevention of sexually-transmitted diseases is a public health problem, not a religious problem.

Protests also poured in from neighbouring Argentina. The Simon Wiesenthal Centre in Buenos Aires said Carnival should not be misused to violate the memory of the Holocaust. A procession with music and half-naked men and women dancing happily does not serve the memory of Holocaust victims and is instead "an abominable spectacle for survivors and their families," the centre said in a statement.

Here are some pictures of the float in question:










Here is the allegoric car being dismantled:


Here is the cover of the main weekly in Brazil, protesting against mixing the Holocaust and samba:


And here is a pic of a costume by Carnival group Estacio de Sa, form 2007: