BALTIMORE — It was billed as light entertainment, a ride back to the 1940s on the Western Maryland Scenic Railroad complete with Abbott and Costello impersonators entertaining passengers during the annual “Cumberland Goes to War” festivities.

But the inclusion of volunteers playing German soldiers and wearing uniforms bearing swastikas gave the excursion a far more somber feel, and sparked strong reaction from at least one passenger as Veterans Day approached.

“There is no way to have a swastika, there is no way to have the Nazis, there is no way to have this presented that is not inherently offensive,” said Marcia Lurensky, a Washington lawyer who found the depiction of Axis soldiers deeply disturbing and insensitive.

Lurensky’s response and similar controversies surrounding war re-enactments elsewhere in the country illustrate the fine line between conveying historical events and glorifying a dismal past, or even reopening wounds.

While playing out depictions of older wars from American history is generally not controversial, conflicts that are fresher present challenges and evoke strong emotions, according to those who have studied the topic.

“The re-enactment of battles from more recent wars like World War II and Vietnam, with some participants playing Nazis or Vietcong, has a different flavor,” Jenny Thompson, the author of a book on 20th-century war re-enactors, wrote in The New York Times. “For real survivors, some whose memories are still raw, the safe historical distance collapses.”

Controversy over depictions of German soldiers was in the news last month, when photographs surfaced of a congressional candidate from Ohio wearing a Nazi SS uniform. Rich Iott argued that he participated in war re-enactments with his son out of historical interest, but he lost the support of some Republican leaders.

Those who took part in the Cumberland festivities — which ran Nov. 4-7 and included a period fashion show and stories from veterans — said they were providing an accurate depiction of World War II-era scenes. The presence of German soldiers, re-enactors said, educates spectators about both sides of the war, while also making clear the challenge American and Allied forces had to overcome. The soldiers on the train were not depicting an actual event, but were instead providing a wartime tableau.

“The goal of my re-enactment group is strictly to demonstrate what the American soldier, the Allied soldier, was facing as they went into D-Day, and what they had to do in order to win our freedom,” said Gilbert White, who displayed war artifacts at a campground in Cumberland but was not on the train.

Arthur Abramson, executive director of the Baltimore Jewish Council, said the acceptable display and use of the German or Nazi uniform depends on context.

“If they were trying to depict the horrors of Nazi Germany, I would applaud them,” Abramson said of the re-enactors. “You just can’t make a general statement, that ‘Oh, it’s bad because they’re wearing a uniform.’”

One risk that World War II re-enactors recognize and guard against is the infiltration of their group by Nazi sympathizers or members of hate groups. Vendors hoping to ply their wares in Western Maryland were warned on a registration form that while they could bring both Allied and Axis military merchandise, no “Neo-Nazi or extremist activity of any kind will be tolerated.”

White said a small minority of other German-soldier re-enactors he has encountered in his 14 years have displayed radical ideology, but that those people are quickly flushed out of legitimate groups. “Everyone in my group is an American; we don’t hold any beliefs other than American ideology,” White said. “We’re not Fascists, we’re not Communists, we’re not Nazis. We’re just ordinary people.”