The chairman of the US Holocaust Memorial Council, Fred S Zeidman, hit out at Peta's "desecration" of the Holocaust and said the museum was appalled by Peta's public relations campaign, which equates the more than 6m men, women and children murdered in the Holocaust with animals.
The museum was particularly incensed by Peta's use of materials, which it says were obtained deceitfully.
"This organisation [Peta] has chosen to ignore common decency and desecrate the memory of Holocaust victims, survivors and their families in its perverted effort to generate headlines. We are especially offended that Peta has chosen to use materials obtained deceitfully from the museum," Zeidman said.
Peta says it bought the pictures displaying photos of Nazi death camps from the museum. In the campaign they are shown juxtaposed alongside scenes of animals being herded, confined, crowded, beaten and slaughtered on factory farms and in slaughterhouses.
Peta is displaying the images in a travelling exhibit called "Holocaust on Your Plate", as well as on its website MassKilling.com.
The display, which consists of eight 60-square-foot panels, is designed to graphically depict the point made by Yiddish writer and Nobel laureate Isaac Bashevis Singer, who wrote: "In relation to [animals], all people are Nazis."
The museum has urged Peta to stop, but the controversial animal rights group has refused. The museum has argued that the display is inconsistent with its mission and can legally prohibit Peta from using the photos. Peta and its lawyers disagree on both counts.
Peta lawyer Jeff Kerr argues that the Holocaust museum's own materials point out the danger of "remaining silent apathetic, and indifferent in the face of others". In this instance, Peta says, the "others" are what it says are billions of animals raised and slaughtered for food every year in the US.
Peta is arguing that the museum was aware of Peta's intentions before granting permission, but regardless of this it is arguing the "fair use and comment", which it says allows Peta to use the photographs how it sees fit.
"Simply because the museum may disagree with [Peta's] position does not give it the right to stifle the very type of speech against exploitation and oppression that it is supposedly designed to foster and protect," Kerr said.
To support its case, Peta says the "Holocaust on Your Plate" project is being funded by a Jewish philanthropist and that the project is under the direction of Matt Prescott, who is Jewish, and members of whose family perished at the hands of the Nazis.
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