This is Selina Steinfeld, she is a Holocaust survivor and winner of a controversial beauty pageant. From a field of 10 candidates between the ages of 79 and 90, she receives the diadem of “Miss Holocaust Suvivor.”
In the country in which the “Miss Universe” is to be chosen this year, the seventh edition of the beauty pageant has already taken place. According to the organizer, several hundred applicants from all over the world registered.
The organizer is dedicated to the welfare of Shoah survivors. The aim is to give back the lost youth to Holocaust survivors.
The 87-year-old Kuka Palmon is one of the selected participants, she reports on her family history in the run-up to the event:
Interview: my father was on a death train. I spent six months in a cellar during that time. My father survived and came back with a lot of illnesses. I was a little girl when he stood in front of me like a skeleton. ”
Although the competition with clothes, make-up and cat walk seems like a conventional beauty choice, the jury evaluates the participants according to special criteria.
According to the chief organizer, appearance is less important than personal history and charitable commitment. He told the Associated Press news agency that appearance was 10 percent.
This is not the only reason why the former Israeli diplomat and member of the Labor Party, Colette Avital, considers the election to be inappropriate. Rewarding the suffering of the Holocaust with a beauty pageant is disrespectful to all survivors:
O-Ton I think in the case where we are talking about women who really had to experience this kind of suffering, whose wounds are showing in their skin, that we should not organize beauty elections for them. It’s ridiculous and grotesque.
Contrary to the heated discussion about her election, “Miss Holocaust Survivor 2021” has very few words to say after the coronation.
Original sound:
“Thank you very much, I am speechless! I have no words for you. ”