Well, someone’s gone to the effort of painting a giant swastika at the bottom of a swimming pool in Pomerode, Brazil. Swell.
The discovery was made by a police helicopter in the southern state of Santa Catarina during a kidnapping investigation, CNN reports. Apparently the swastika is just 13 years old, so it can’t even be attributed to the Nazi old-guard who weaseled their way out of Europe at the end of the war and fled to Brazil. Nope, this one’s relatively fresh and legally legit—charges won’t be pressed because the pool is on private land and the homeowner “is not promoting Nazism.” (Maybe s/he played the old, ‘Oh, I’m a Buddhist card’?)
Pomerode has a large German-speaking population: about 90 per cent of the municipality is of German descent, and an annual Oktoberfest—one of the biggest in the world—is held in the nearby town of Blumenau. Most Germans emigrated to Brazil in the 19th and early 20th centuries, but a good number arrived after WWII—including an estimated 2,000 Nazis. Among them was Josef Mengele, the infamous physician and torturer of Auschwitz.
So, there you have it. Southern Brazil: exporter of supermodels; haven for Nazi sympathizers.