As a baby, Jewish woman unwittingly became the face of the perfect Aryan child

(Image credit: Twitter.com/oyolajesica)

last updated 8 January 2015

When she was six months old, Hessy Taft's mother, Pauline Levinsons, took her to a well-known photographer in Berlin to have her picture taken. Several months later, Pauline was shocked to see her young daughter on the cover of the Nazi family magazine Sonne ins Haus, touted as the perfect Aryan baby. She feared that someone would discover the truth: that Hessy was Jewish.

It is believed that the picture was chosen by the Nazi propaganda minister, Joseph Goebbels. Pauline and her husband, Jacob, didn't let Hessy go outside out of fear of being recognized, and Pauline headed down to the photographer's studio to find out why he turned in the picture. He said he had submitted the photo on purpose, knowing that the family was Jewish. "I wanted to make the Nazis look ridiculous," he told her.

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Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.

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