Israel’s culture minister decries Holocaust-themed ice dance in Russia
Miri Regev says performance, by the wife of spokesperson to Putin, has no place on reality television
Add ToI as a Preferred Source on GoogleCulture and Sports Minister Miri Regev on Sunday condemned a reality television show in Russia that featured figure skaters wearing concentration camp uniforms.
“Holocaust themes are not for parties, they are not for dancing, and they are not for reality shows,” Regev told Army Radio. “Any attempt to present the Holocaust in that way is inappropriate and has no place.”
One of the performers in the Holocaust-themed dance, broadcast on a popular reality television show in Russia on Saturday, was Tatiana Navka, the wife of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman.
“None of the six million danced and the death camps were not a summer camp, and I think that perhaps they need to understand that themselves from our responses,” Regev said.
Navka, a former Olympic figure skating medalist and wife of Putin’s chief spokesman Dmitry Peskov, donned a striped concentration camp uniform complete with yellow Stars of David, to compete for top honors on the celebrity competition show “Ice Age.”
She and her partner Andre Burkovsky skated across the ice to “Beautiful That Way” by Israeli singer Achinoam “Noa” Nini.
The performance appeared to be well received by the audience.
In an Instagram post, Navka said the 4-minute performance was based on the 1997 Holocaust film “Life is Beautiful.”
“Based on one of my favorite movies!” she posted Saturday. “Show this movie to your children!”
The usually glamorous Navka added that her plain look without makeup “was necessary” for the performance.
On Sunday morning, a headline on Russia’s Rambler news site read: “Tatiana Navka appeared before a large audience without makeup.”
Navka and Burkovsky were given a score of 12.00 but it was not immediately clear if the pair made it through to the next round of competition.
The Times of Israel Community.