Holocaust-themed Carnival float draws protests and threat of lawsuit in Brazil

"The float is extremely respectful, it's a warning, it's something shocking that we don't want to happen ever again ... If we had people dancing on top of dead bodies, that would indeed be disrespectful."

Paulo Barros, artistic director of the Viradouro samba school

A Jewish organization is threatening to go to court to stop a Carnival group from parading in Rio de Janeiro on Sunday with a float that invokes the Holocaust with a mound of mannequins.

Eliane Lorca, a spokeswoman for the Viradouro samba group, said on Tuesday that the group received a letter of protest from the Jewish Federation of Rio de Janeiro. She would not say whether the group would back down, and refused to show the float to journalists.

The float is one of eight the group has been building for its 80-minute parade. The group's theme is "Shockers," and other Viradouro floats will portray cold, fear and birth as "things that give you goose bumps." The Holocaust float would show a mound of mannequins and have no dancers or samba performers, in respect to the victims of Nazi slaughter.

But even without dancers, the float is offensive, the Jewish group said. Federation president Sergio Niskier said he objected three months ago when Viradouro consulted him about its idea, and that he was surprised when the group announced on Monday that it would include it in its parade.

"Good intentions aren't enough," Niskier wrote on his federation's Web site. "Our concern and our arguments haven't changed."

Viradouro insisted its Holocaust float is not meant to offend anyone.

"The float is extremely respectful, it's a warning, it's something shocking that we don't want to happen ever again," said Paulo Barros, Viradouro's artistic director.

"If we had people dancing on top of dead bodies, that would indeed be disrespectful," he said.

In the past, other carnival groups have changed their floats in response to objections from the Roman Catholic Church, which doesn't want depictions of the Virgin Mary or Christ.

Meanwhile, actors posing as Portugal's royal family joined the fictional King Momo at the start of Rio's Carnival celebrations on Tuesday to mark 200 years since the court's arrival in Brazil.

Various samba groups have chosen as their theme the 1808 event that briefly made Rio the capital of the Portuguese empire.

Carnival King Momo in red and golden robes and his samba-dancing entourage crossed the city in three antique carriages escorted by 19th-century guards on horseback to receive a giant symbolic key to the city at the Carnival center.

The highlight of the Carnival celebrations are two parades on Sunday and Monday night by 12 samba groups, each featuring up to 6,000 dancers in the Sambadrome stadium. Next Monday and Tuesday are public holidays.