Spanish Holocaust-themed carnival celebration triggers outrage

A Spanish Carnival troupe performing a Holocaust-themed parade has canceled its shows after it triggered widespread outcry.
The parade in the central Spanish region of Castilla-La Mancha featured gun-toting Nazis, lines of people wearing striped concentration camp uniforms, and girls in white holding Israeli flags. It was immediately condemned by officials, including Israel’s ambassador and by Spain’s foreign minister.
“We condemn the Campo de Criptana carnival’s vile and repugnant trivialisation of the Holocaust, which mocks the 6 million Jews murdered by the Nazis”, the Israeli embassy in Madrid tweeted.
“I am horrified by and utterly reject the shameful trivialization of the Holocaust that took place at the Campo de Criptana carnival. It is an affront to the memory of the victims of the Shoah and an intolerable expression of anti-Semitism”, Israeli Ambassador to Spain, Rodica Radian-Gordon, tweeted.
The Auschwitz memorial museum also slammed the act: “Hard to describe: memory upside-down, far beyond vulgar kitsch, without any relevance, without reflection & respect”, it said.
“Horrified by the Carnival parade in Campo de Criptana. I totally reject any trivialization of the Holocaust”, Spanish foreign minister Arancha Laya tweeted.
The town council of Campo de Criptana explained that it had granted the permission on the understanding that it would honour the dead of the Holocaust: “If the aim was to commemorate the victims, it’s obvious the attempt fell short”, it said. “I agree that it doesn’t feel like a very carnival-type theme. I don’t think it will happen again”, the town’s mayor said.
Some six million Jews and millions of other ethnic minorities were brutally slaughtered during World War II. Hitler’s genocide wiped out two-thirds of Europe’s Jewish population. Around 1.5 million of them were children.