6
Living in a very crowded one-room apartment, the young give couple gave birth to Hessy Levinsons on May 17, 1934. She wa
beautiful. So when she was 6 months old. the Parents decided com.
to have her picture taken. They took her to one of the best
rs in Berlin, and h
le out with a very be
Her parents liked it so much that they framed it and put it up prin
on the Piano. They had thought the picture was a private family del
photo. But soon after, a woman who helped clean the apartment def
arrived to deliver some surprising news
8"You know, the woman said, "I saw Hessy on a magazine
cover in town
g Hessy's mother found that impossible to believe. A lot of cor
babies look the same, the mother explained, and surely the
helper was mistaken. But she wasn't
10"No, no the helper explained to Tafts mother It's definitely
Hessy. Just give me some money, and I'll get you the magazine
II Money changed hands', and the maid soon returned with
a magazine. The cover photo was exactly the same picture
that was there, resting on the piano. The magazine was a Nazi
magazine with pages full of images of men wearing swastikas
and even one of Hitler himself reviewing the troops
12 The parents were terrified. Why was their Jewish infant on
the cover of a Nazi magazine?
13 They contacted the photographer and tried to find out
what had really happened
I4 The photographer told them that he had been asked to
submit his 10 best pictures for a beauty contest run by the Nazis
So were 10 other outstanding photographers in Germany And
he sent in Hessy's picture
15"But you knew my Hessy is a Jewish child, the mother
exclaimed
16"Yes, the photographer said, explaining there had been a
competition to find the perfect example of the Aryan race to
further Nazi philosophy. "I wanted to allow myself the pleasure
of this joke. And you see, I was right. Of all the babies, they
picked this baby as the perfect Aryan
I7 Family stories are always prone to exaggeration -but this
appears to be true. Taft has a large collection of photographs
that show her in numerous publications and cards I can laugh
about it now said Taft, now a chemistry professor at St. John's
