UNESCO Director-General Irina Bokova has expressed shock over the display of a fake Nazi rail car that paraded during the Aalst Carnival in Belgium.
A float satirizing local politicians dressed as Nazi SS officers holding canisters of Zyklon B gas revel and drink champagne, to the tune of popular German songs, took part in a carnival parade in the Belgian city of Aalst on Sunday.
The Aalst Carnival is inscribed on UNESCO's Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.
"I am deeply shocked by this unacceptable act that is an insult to the memory of the six million Jews who were killed in the Holocaust. This Nazi rail car goes against all the values of the Aalst Carnival, which is inscribed as part of humanity's cultural heritage, as well as against the values of UNESCO, which works for mutual understanding, tolerance and peace," Bokova said in a statement on Tuesday.
"The history of the Holocaust must not be trivialized for the purposes of a local political situation or to fuel hatred. This testifies to the deeply worrying belittling of the Holocaust and the deportations, in the very heart of the continent where this tragedy occurred," she added.
The UNESCO chief condemned "firmly this violation of the spirit of the Aalst Carnival, characterized by freedom and satire, which cannot justify the recourse to anti-semitic stereotypes."
Bokova immediately contacted the Belgian authorities, making it clear that UNESCO will not be associated with any declaration or position that goes against its fundamental principles and the objectives of promoting tolerance and mutual understanding on the basis of human rights and human dignity.
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