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A dozen contestants cautiously trod the catwalk
- at times assisted - in the city of Haifa, with hair coiffed,
make-up applied and sashes adorning their dresses.
Several generations of relatives, along with well-wishers,
cheered and snapped pictures, underscoring the organizers'
message that the contest bestows glamour and honor on the
dwindling number of those whose youth was stolen in wartime
Europe but who went on build new lives for themselves in Israel.
"I'm very happy. It's something special," said the new Miss
Holocaust Survivor, Polish-born Tova Ringer, who lost her
parents, four sisters and a grandmother in Auschwitz death camp.
"I don't have words for the people working here. They gave so
much ... heart for us," she told Reuters.
"I wouldn't believe that at my age I would be a beauty," the
former jeweler laughed, her tiara perched on her white hair.
Other contestants included a retired gynaecologist and gas
technician, both 81 years old, and two authors of Holocaust
memoirs. The youngest, 74, still works as a teacher despite
complications of pneumonia she suffered as a baby in Romania.
Some commentators and survivors worry that the event cheapens
the memory of the 6 million Jews killed by the Nazis.
But one German spectator deemed it "a wonderful celebration".
"It is very important for my generation to know the history of
the Holocaust, of the Shoah, and it is important for me to
support these people," said Jan Fischer, a 52-year-old credit
card manager from Munich.
"I wish that this (genocide) won't happen again - never."
(Writing by Dan Williams; Editing by Robin Pomeroy)
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