WESTPORT — The state chapter of the Anti-Defamation League of Connecticut issued a statement Monday condemning a snowman built in a local open-space property to resemble Nazi leader Adolf Hitler, and called on community leaders to “speak out against this hate. Hate is not child’s play.”

A hiker reported discovering the snowman, apparently built in Hitler’s image — with a swastika, “toothbrush” mustache, drooping hair and Sieg Heil salute — while on a trek Sunday through the snowy Newman-Poses Preserve off Bayberry Lane.

The discovery was reported to police, according to the hiker, who asked to remain anonymous. An emailed request for comment from the Police Department was not returned as of Monday evening.

The full ADL statement on the incident, posted to the group’s Facebook page, reads: “We are deeply concerned about a snowman with a swastika and what appear to be other characteristics of Adolf Hitler found in a park in Westport, CT. The swastika is the symbol adopted by Hitler as the primary emblem of the Nazis. The Holocaust was a singularly evil event, and it is inappropriate and offensive to make light of it. At a time of rising hate and antisemitism, we call upon community leaders to speak out against this hate. Hate is not child’s play.”

The Democratic Town Committee, in an emailed statement Monday evening, said, “It has come to the attention of the Westport Democratic Town Committee that an antisemitic hate incident was committed here in Westport. We condemn this in the strongest of terms …” And then the committee re-posted the ADL statement issued earlier in the day (and quoted in its entirety above).

Harold Bailey Jr., longtime chairman of TEAM Westport, the town’s diversity advocacy committee, also commented on the issue in a personal statement Tuesday morning.

“Whether hidden on a remote trail or in plain sight, such homages to hatred are heinous and must be condemned,” Bailey said.

“While some forces within our nation are pushing us pell-mell toward the outlawing of even their discussion, we must steel ourselves at every level to call them out and see them for the poison they represent to our community  and humanity itself.”