photo: EPA

Nearly 300 women, ages 74 to 97, across Israel registered for the controversial competition. Last Thursday, 14 finalists paraded the stage donning black dresses, blue and white sashes, and, of course, tiaras (because they make everything better, right?). While some found the festivities a little macabre because of oh, all that suffering and death stuff, 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.

“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.

A four-judge panel consisting of three former beauty queens and a geriatric psychiatrist who specializes in treating Holocaust survivors chose the winner. The glittering crown went to Hava Hershkovitz, a 78-year-old who was banished from her home in Romania in 1941 and sent to a detention camp in the Soviet Union for three years.

Read the full story at the Telegraph

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