The Nazis "Perfect Aryan Baby" was Jewish | Holocaust Survivor Hessy Taft

In 1934, the Jewish Levinsons family had a portrait taken of their 6-month-old daughter, Hessy. Soon after, they were stunned to discover her face on the cover of “Sonne ins Haus,” a pro-Nazi magazine that had named her the “perfect Aryan baby” out of 100 contestants. Later, the Levinsons found out their photographer had submitted the photo of Hessy as a joke, reveling in the fact that the example of the ideal Aryan race was Jewish all along. The image was widely reproduced as postcards and birthday cards, even circulating internationally. In 1940, Hessy and her family fled Nazi persecution, escaping first to France, then to Cuba, and eventually settling in the United States in 1949. She went on to build a long career in education and raised a family of her own. Hessy passed away in January at the age of 91. May her memory be a blessing. #USCShoahFoundation #HolocaustSurvivor SUBSCRIBE: https://www.youtube.com/c/USCShoahFoundation/?sub_confirmation=1 Connect with the #USCShoahFoundation: Website: https://sfi.usc.edu/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/uscshoahfoundation/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@uscshoahfoundation Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/USCSFI LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/usc-shoah-foundation-institute IWitness: http://iwitness.usc.edu/SFI/ About USC Shoah Foundation: The USC Shoah Foundation records, preserves, and shares survivor and witness testimonies so that all can learn from the past, reflect on the present, and build a better future. The collections archive is home to more than 59,000 testimonies of survivors and witnesses of the Holocaust, contemporary antisemitism, the Armenian Genocide, and other mass atrocities and genocidal crimes of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. It is the largest such collection in the world. Established in 1994, the USC Shoah Foundation found a permanent home at the University of Southern California in 2006. With survivor testimony at the center, the USC Shoah Foundation’s innovative programming, global-impact strategies, and forward-looking research and education initiatives help preserve Holocaust memory and history, confront antisemitism, and strengthen democratic values. Copyright USC Shoah Foundation – The Institute for Visual History and Education