Leaving behind memories of horror, holocaust survivors had reasons to smile. As many as 300 women from across Israel enthusiastically participated in Miss Holocaust pageant, which concluded on Thursday. The contest was part of Helping Hand’s annual cultural night. It included a lavish dinner and music. Some 600 people attended, including two Cabinet ministers, Moshe Kahlon and Yossi Peled, himself a Holocaust survivor.
The women, in the age group of 74 to 97 years, enjoyed themselves.
Wearing black dresses, earrings and necklaces, and sporting blue-and-white numbered sashes, they grinned and waved as they were introduced to the adoring audience. They introduced themselves and described their memories of World War II.
Touching stories
“I have the privilege to show the world that Hitler wanted to exterminate us and we are alive. We are also enjoying life,” said Esther Libber, a 74-year-old runner-up who fled her home in Poland as a child, hid in a forest and was rescued by a Polish woman. She said she lost her entire immediate family.
A four-judge panel consisting of three former beauty queens and a geriatric psychiatrist who specializes in treating Holocaust survivors chose the winner.
Hava Hershkovitz, a soon-to-be 79-year-old, was banished from her home in Romania in 1941 and sent to a detention camp in the Soviet Union for three years.
Today, she lives in an assisted living home run by Helping Hand.
In addition to the contestants’ accounts of surviving Nazi ghettos and concentration camps, their later contributions to their communities were also considered, Pageant organiser Shimon Sabag said.Controversy
Billed by organisers as a celebration of life, the event also stirred controversy. In a country where millions have been touched by the holocaust, many argued that judging aging women who had suffered so much on physical appearance was inappropriate, and even offensive.
Colette Avital, chairwoman of Israel’s leading Holocaust survivors’ umbrella group, said “I am in favour of enriching lives, but a one-time pageant with beautiful clothes is not what is going to make their lives more meaningful.”
Pageant organizer Shimon Sabag rejected the criticism, saying the winners were chosen based on their personal stories of survival and rebuilding their lives after the war, and physical beauty was only a tiny part of the competition.
Holocaust Day
Nearly 2, 00,000 aging survivors live in Israel today, and the country’s annual Holocaust Day is one of the most solemn occasions on the calendar. Restaurants and cinemas close, and the country come to a standstill as sirens wail for two minutes.AP
The Holocaust was the genocide of approximately 6 million European Jews during World War II, a systematic State-sponsored murder by Nazi Germany, led by Adolf Hitler, throughout Nazi-occupied territory. Of the 9 million Jews who had resided in Europe before the Holocaust, approximately two-thirds perished.
The Holocaust plays a unique role in Israeli society. The country gained independence in the wake of the Holocaust, serving as a refuge for hundreds of thousands of people who survived the genocide.
The war-torn countries of Angola and Cambodia have held “Miss Landmine” contests for survivors of land mine explosions, Star Trek fans enjoy the “Miss Klingon Empire” contest in Atlanta, and plus-sized women in Thailand compete for the honour of “Miss Jumbo Queen.” There are also senior citizens’ pageants in the U.S.
