Halloween is all fun and games until you use your lawn to depict historical atrocities. That's exactly what one Florida woman did though.
But the homeowner says she is Jewish and the display is a protest against her HOA.
Neighbors were horrified after Susan Lamerton, a realtor from New Port Richey, Florida, turned her lawn into a grotesque concentration camp for Halloween.
Lamerton filled her yard with skeletons marked with the Star of David and concentration camp ID tattoos—each had their hand raised in the air saluting Hitler.
She also put up a sign reading "arbeit macht frei," or "work sets you free."
This was a notorious slogan displayed at the entrances of Nazi concentration camps like Auschwitz.
One neighbor who spoke with WFLA said:
"It sickens me. I'm Jewish, this says she hates Jews and we should die"
Neighbors call it Halloween hate. A Pasco home has decorations showing Hitler-saluting skeletons inyoutu.be
Lamerton's neighbor Bonnie Katz was especially disgusted given the recent mass shooting at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh.
"It sickens me that we can have this, you know, with what happened in Pittsburgh."
The decorations drew sharp reactions on social media and Lamerton now says she's getting death threats.
Lamerton however says she's Jewish herself. She told Huffpost the whole display was a political protest against her neighborhood's homeowner association (HOA).
Lamerton told WFLA:
"They're trying to take my house. Don't you understand? I have freedom of speech, they have freedom of speech. They need to leave my property."
Lamerton claimed the HOA harassed her after she put a Star of David sign on her lawn, which she says is allowed by the HOA rules.
Since the display is considered protected speech local police say there is nothing they can do about it.
With that in mind, Lamerton says she plans on keeping the decorations up as long as she feels like.
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