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.

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The New York Times has a report today about a 10,000-seat replica of Solomon’s Temple in Sao Paulo, Brazil. The complex—which took four years to build, and was constructed by the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God for a cool $300 million—encompasses a helicopter landing pad, an olive tree grove, and “more than 30 columns soaring toward the heavens.” The man behind the edifice is Edir Macedo, who founded the Universal Church in a funeral home in 1977 and grew it into a $1.2 billion fortune. Oh, and he wears a kippah:

Mr. Macedo rose from obscurity through his control of Rede Record, one of Brazil’s largest television networks, and his aggressive expansion of the Universal Church, during which he has fought accusations of corruption, including tax evasion and money laundering.

Mr. Macedo was jailed for 11 days in 1992 on accusations of charlatanism and fraud. He has successfully fended off other criminal investigations, including allegations by prosecutors that he and other church leaders siphoned off donations from followers to enrich themselves. In the past year, he has cultivated a somewhat wizardly appearance, growing a flowing gray beard while occasionally donning what appears to be a skullcap like those worn by many observant Jews.

He sounds kind of like a cross between the Pope, Rupert Murdoch, Jim Bakker, and Nate Fisher, which is to say, amazing. Apparently his fixation with Solomon’s Temple is part of his quest for legitimacy: Judaism has a few thousand years on the Universal Church’s 37, after all.

The local Jewish community seems unperturbed.  “On the one hand, there’s the favorable way in which Jewish culture and history are treated in the structure,” Brazilian rabbi Nilton Bonder told the Times. “On the other, there’s the bizarre aspect of the project’s dimensions and aggressive marketing.”

Indeed.

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