Some people have no taste. This week a gunman shot down and killed 11 people worshipping in their synagogue. Another six were wounded, four of them police officers doing their jobs. The incident occurred because the man thought that a ragged group of people were about to invade the U.S. After all, Donald Trump has been indicating that a billionaire Democratic funder, who happens to be Jewish, was financing the “caravan” filled with terrorists. Then, this happened on a day meant to be enjoyed.
Those people the shooter feared had walked over a thousand miles so far, some mothers carrying children, to escape certain death and dire poverty. Yet, they were still another thousand miles away. They were no threat. Yet, Susan Lamerton, a local realtor, decided to put out an outrageous display in front of her home in Pasco, Florida this Halloween. It depicted a Nazi-concentration camp and dead Jewish men in Hitler salute poses.
Drivers slowed down, their mouths open in disbelief as they passed the home. People walking by stopped to stare at the display. Some shook their heads at the controversial representation. NBC affiliate, WFLA News 8 reported:
‘Each person had seemingly the same facial expression – a mixture of disbelief and disgust. Those who saw it describe the Halloween decorations as pure hate.’
The display featured multiple skeletons marked with concentration camp identification numbers on their fleshless humerus (upper arm) bones, all saluting Hitler. Lamerton had also drawn a Star of David on each of their breastbones.
She had also placed a sign in her display that read “Arbeit Macht Frei.” The literal German translation is “Work makes you free.” Another meaning is “Work sets you free.” The entrance of Auschwitz and other Nazi concentration camps displayed this slogan at their entrances.
When Mitchell Katz first noticed the decorations, he said:
‘It sickens me. I’m Jewish, this says she hates Jews, and we should die.’
Katz’s wife, Bonnie agreed:
‘It sickens me that we can have this, you know, with what happened in Pittsburgh.’
A second neighbor, Iris Hookway, said that when she first drove by Lamerton’s house, it made her cry:
‘It sickens me, it sickens me. Â I couldn’t fall asleep the first night I found out about it.’
Lamerton, a Trump supporter, said that the idea of her display originated after an issue with her home owners’ association. She said that she had been in a dispute over landscaping for months.
When the reporters asked her why she would put a Nazi concentration camp display in front of her house this Halloween, she yelled:
‘Because they’re trying to take my house. Don’t you understand?’
Lamerton claimed people had sent her death threats about the concentration display. Yet, she will not budge. The display stays.
As the reporter interviewed her, the realtor looked across the street and saw people staring back in shock. Then, Lamerton added that she is Jewish and:
‘I have freedom of speech, they have freedom of speech. They need to leave my property.’
Her message to those who disliked her display: they can just leave, but the skeletons remain in place.
Featured image is a screenshot via YouTube.
