A shocking image of a small boy dressed as Adolf Hitler at a school Halloween bash has astonished education officials in Brazil.
The photo – taken at a class party billed as a ‘Night of Terror’ at the school in Presidente Prudente in Sao Paulo – first emerged on Facebook.
The boy is dressed in a khaki-coloured suit like the ones favoured by the Nazi fuehrer during World War II.
His hair has been brushed forward into Hitler’s distinctive fringe and a small toothbrush moustache has been stuck to his top lip.
A red, black and white swastika armband is pinned to his left sleeve and an iron cross medal can be seen dangling on a chain around his neck.
To complete the disturbing image, the boy is thrusting out his left arm in a ‘seig heil’ salute.
Other children are dressed as witches and zombies in a snap taken at the private school, Cotiguara College on 26th October, reported local media.
Now the photograph is being investigated by the Prosecutor’s Office for Children and Youth in Brazil.
The school has released an official apology describing the terrifying party image as a “serious error.”
It has also issued a grovelling apology to the Jewish community and went on to state that the Holocaust was a “human tragedy” that should never be forgotten.
The school had originally deleted the Facebook post that first featured the picture but by then it had been taken up all over social media.
Now Marcos Akira Mizusaki – a Justice for Children and Youth prosecutor – has told local media he is worried about the online exposure the small boy is now receiving.
He added: “With regard to possible liability, we will look for it, I will initiate a procedure, I will listen to the parents, I will listen to the school to verify.”
Distributing, manufacturing, commercialising and broadcasting items or pictures that feature the swastika with the aim of propagating Nazism is punishable by law in Brazil, with a jail term of two to five years as well as a hefty fine, according to reports.
Following Germany’s defeat in World War II many senior Nazis were thought to have fled to Brazil and other parts of Latin America.
In the 1978 movie ‘The Boys From Brazil’ a plot to create a new Hitler from his DNA is thwarted by Nazi hunters.
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Story By: Alice Amelia Thomas, Sub-Editor: Marija Stojkoska, Agency: Central European News
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