Miss Holocaust Crowned

[borjastick]

You couldn't make it up could you?

HAIFA, Israel (AP) — Grinning and waving, 14 women who survived the horrors of World War II paraded Thursday in an unusual pageant, vying for the honor of being crowned Israel's first "Miss Holocaust Survivor."

Billed by organizers 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.

"It sounds totally macabre to me," said Colette Avital, chairwoman of Israel's leading Holocaust survivors' umbrella group. "I am in favor of enriching lives, but a one-time pageant masquerading (survivors) 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.

"They feel good together. They are having a good time and laughing in the rehearsals," said Sabag, director of Yad Ezer L'Haver, or Helping Hand, which assists needy Holocaust survivors and organized the pageant.

"The fact that so many wanted to participate proves that it's a good idea."

Nearly 300 women from across Israel registered for the competition and contestants were whittled down to the 14 finalists who appeared Thursday.

Fourteen women who lived through the horrors of World War II paraded on stage Thursday night in an unusual pageant, vying for the honor of being Israel's first "Miss Holocaust Survivor."

The contest, part of Helping Hand's annual "cultural" night, included a lavish dinner and music at a Haifa reception hall. Some 600 people attended, including two Cabinet ministers, Moshe Kahlon and Yossi Peled, himself a Holocaust survivor.

The women, ranging in age from 74 to 97, clearly 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. Music played as the contestants walked along a red carpet, introduced themselves and described their memories of World War II.

"I have the privilege to show the world that Hitler wanted to exterminate us and we are alive. We are also enjoying life. Thank God it's that way," 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.

"This place is full of survivors. It puts us at the center of attention so people will care. It's not easy at this age to be in a beauty contest, but we're all doing it to show that we're still here," the silver-haired Hershkovitz said.

Wearing a glittering tiara, she was joined by her granddaughter, Keren Hazan. "I'm very proud of her because she's the most beautiful woman in the room tonight," Hazan said.

In addition to the contestants' accounts of surviving Nazi ghettos and concentration camps, their later contributions to their communities were also considered, Sabag said. Physical appearance was maybe "10 percent" of the criteria, he said, though a cosmetics company was recruited to help the women dress up for the occasion.

"We always tell them to dress well and look good. To think positive and to take care of themselves," Sabag said. "Always look at life with a smile and continue to live."

The thought that physical appearance could even remotely be a factor rubbed some the wrong way. Avital, of the Holocaust survivors' umbrella group, criticized the cosmetics company, saying it was using Holocaust survivors in a cheap marketing stunt to promote their products.

"Why use a beauty contest to show that these people survived and that they're brave?" wondered Lili Haber, a daughter of Holocaust survivors who heads an Israeli organization that assists survivors from Poland. "I think it's awful. I think it's something a decent person shouldn't even think about."

The Holocaust, in which Nazi Germany oversaw the systematic slaughter of 6 million European Jews, 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.

Nearly 200,000 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 comes to a standstill as sirens wail for two minutes. Israeli leaders, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, frequently make references to the Holocaust when discussing the threat they believe a nuclear-armed Iran would pose to the Jewish state.

Thursday's contest was among the many unconventional beauty pageants that have sprouted up over the years. 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 honor of "Miss Jumbo Queen." There are also a senior citizens' pageants in the U.S.

Gal Mor, editor of the popular Israeli blog "Holes in the Net," said Thursday's pageant was well-intentioned but misguided.

"Why should a decayed, competitive institution that emphasizes women's appearance be used as inspiration, instead of allowing them to tell their story without gimmicks?" he wrote. "This is one step short of `Survivor-Holocaust' or `Big Brother Auschwitz.' It leaves a bad taste. Holocaust survivors should be above all this."

[Jerzy Ulicki-Rek]

Jerzy Ulicki-Rek

[Kingfisher]

["I have the privilege to show the world that Hitler wanted to exterminate us and we are alive." ...
"This place is full of survivors... "

Yet again they appear not to notice that multiplicity of survivors is hardly proof of intent to exterminate.

[Steven Willow]

["I have the privilege to show the world that Hitler wanted to exterminate us and we are alive." ...
"This place is full of survivors... "

Yet again they appear not to notice that multiplicity of survivors is hardly proof of intent to exterminate.

How true that the greater the number of these so called survivors, the smaller the Nazi anti-jew program must have been. A vast program of systematic slaughter encompassing the entirety of Europe would have produced far fewer of these so called survivors than a small, local program confined to a limited population. 97% of these so called survivors are probably posers anyhow, who spent WW II in places like Miami.

As revisionists expose the Hoax, there will be more obscene displays of senile jews dressed in pilfered bling. All of this publicity is in response to the work that we are doing here.

[borjastick]

Actually you could make it up, clearly. It is hilarious, funny and like some Sideshow Bob sketch. They must be really naive these old ladies, to think that this has any credibility and gravitas. Once again the dumb are leading the dumber.

Miami beach in the 1940's, probably a lovely place to sit out the privations of europe.

The claim of 200k survivors still living in Israel is worthy of some maths, because that too is an extraordinary claim.

I really didn't know whether to laugh or cry when reading this article this morning. So I did both...

Can you imagine this saturday when she has lunch with her family or even tonight and her grand kids ask 'what sort of week have you had grandma?' 'Well' she says all excited, 'I became Miss Holocaust!' They will be spitting out wine and creasing up with laughter.

[Charles Traynor]

I am astonished by this story. If these individuals really had witnessed the alleged horrors of the holocaust they certainly would not be engaging in this type of behaviour. Then again they are Jews and perhaps they just couldn’t help themselves. Jews are the destroyers of culture and this is just more of the same kind of degeneracy the Germans had to put up with during the Weimar Republic.

[Hektor]

I am astonished by this story. If these individuals really had witnessed the alleged horrors of the holocaust they certainly would not be engaging in this type of behaviour. Then again they are Jews and perhaps they just couldn’t help themselves. Jews are the destroyers of culture and this is just more of the same kind of degeneracy the Germans had to put up with during the Weimar Republic.

I find this quite odd behaviour myself. Yet I don't see reasons for a generalized bashing at Jews. While there are certainly things that make their critiques sound more plausible like this pageant.

[Mkk]

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.

Under who's definition exactly is she a Holo-survivor?

[Steven Willow]

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.

Under who's definition exactly is she a Holo-survivor?

From this we can deduce that the Soviets sent a 7 year old jewess to a "detention camp" that one can assume might have been considerably less pleasant than the German counterparts with libraries, swimming pools and football matches. Yet one never hears of Soviet crimes against jews. It appears, as Mkk notes, that jews victimized by Soviets get added to the list of Holo-survivors. Does she collect reparations from the German/Zionist regiime? It appears that jews, anywhere on earth, are free to pluck good money from the Germans for the mere fact of their hebrew origins.
This is beyond disgraceful.

[widmann]

I don't think the following can in fact be deduced from the article:

From this we can deduce that the Soviets sent a 7 year old jewess to a "detention camp" that one can assume might have been considerably less pleasant than the German counterparts with libraries, swimming pools and football matches. Yet one never hears of Soviet crimes against jews. It appears, as Mkk notes, that jews victimized by Soviets get added to the list of Holo-survivors.

Romania was joined with the Axis powers and participated in Operation Barbarossa.
Antonescu's regime is typically charged with the murder of some 280,000 to 380,000 Jews.
It appears much more likely that the Romanians in league with the NS Policy at the time sent this child to a camp that was "further to the east" than the typically discussed Polish camps. This actually provides additional evidence for NS run camps that physically existed in the territory that was the Soviet Union. See Thomas Kues's work on this subject: http://www.inconvenienthistory.com/archive/2010/volume_2/number_2/evidence_for_the_presence_of_gassed_jews.php.

[Kladderadatsch]

Folks, check out the comments thread here: http://news.yahoo.com/miss-holocaust-su ... 08016.html

Major breakdown of narrative control by The Industry. I don't know how long it will last before the whole thread gets scrubbed, but in the meantime, take a look, and take heart. More and more people are questioning the received story, and getting bolder in voicing their doubts out loud.

[borjastick]

Kladderadatsch, some of those comments are insanely funny.

Why don't we have our own little After Miss Holocaust Awards? I think we should each nominate one of the funny comments for the Forum Golden Globe (upon which you will not find a country called Israel).

Mine is 'Funny I remember her being much thinner' LOL!

[Mkk]

Romania was joined with the Axis powers and participated in Operation Barbarossa.
Antonescu's regime is typically charged with the murder of some 280,000 to 380,000 Jews.

Not to get off topic but this is another typically vapid Holo-claim. Both Benz and Sanning document how there are no significant losses for Romanian Jews in WW2. Infact Sanning only finds 3000 missing, which might aswell be non-significant.

As for what happened to this women, maybe she was deported from Besserabia during the soviet deportations in 1941, and thus ended up in a Soviet camp somewhere.

[Inquisitor]

I am astonished by this story. If these individuals really had witnessed the alleged horrors of the holocaust they certainly would not be engaging in this type of behaviour. Then again they are Jews and perhaps they just couldn’t help themselves.

This was what I though immediately when I heard this. These people have the gall to promote and insist upon laws in various Western nations against "trivializing the holocaust," which lands people who run afoul of them in prison for thought-crimes, then in Israel they pull an out and out stunt like this?!?!? Talk about laughing up your sleeve!!!

They can spin this story nine ways to Sunday, but this, as far as I'm concerned, is just that much more proof that so many of these sainted "survivors" (and God knows there are zillions of them!) and their phoeny tales and now ridiculous behavior all stand as living testament to the fact that their precious "holocaust" is a disgraceful mendacity from start to finish!!

Now who's "trivializing" things???

[Steven Willow]

I don't think the following can in fact be deduced from the article:

From this we can deduce that the Soviets sent a 7 year old jewess to a "detention camp" that one can assume might have been considerably less pleasant than the German counterparts with libraries, swimming pools and football matches. Yet one never hears of Soviet crimes against jews. It appears, as Mkk notes, that jews victimized by Soviets get added to the list of Holo-survivors.

Romania was joined with the Axis powers and participated in Operation Barbarossa.
Antonescu's regime is typically charged with the murder of some 280,000 to 380,000 Jews.
It appears much more likely that the Romanians in league with the NS Policy at the time sent this child to a camp that was "further to the east" than the typically discussed Polish camps. This actually provides additional evidence for NS run camps that physically existed in the territory that was the Soviet Union. See Thomas Kues's work on this subject: http://www.inconvenienthistory.com/archive/2010/volume_2/number_2/evidence_for_the_presence_of_gassed_jews.php.

Thank you, Widmann, for a thoughtful alternative possibility. I will absolutely conceed that this jewess's survival makes it far more likely that she flourished in a clean, hygenic, meticulously deloused German facility than in one of Stalin's murderous gulags. But this ancient jewess, participating in a shameful display of Holo-publicity, would have taken every opportunity to have
slandered Germany. Instead, we are merely told that she was "banished" from Romania and wound up in a detention camp that she cryptically pairs with the location - Soviet Union. It is often frustrating that jews are so ambiguous and unforthcoming, but I interpret her silence to mean that, in typical jewish fashion, she is unwilling to condemn her Soviet oppressors out of unswerving loyalty to Stalin. We, of course, know that Stalin did conduct deportations of Romanians http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_dep ... n_Bukovina
and there is no reason to believe that a handful of jews were not swept into the brutality of Soviet impulse, and that these jews still, as revisionists have noted, retain their Bolshevik commitment even after experiencing the fury of their creation.

I wish to state, Widmann, that I am a big fan of "Inconvenient History." Keep up the good work.