Hessy Levinsons Taft, the Jewish woman whose photo as an infant was publicized throughout Nazi Germany for being an exemplar of an Aryan baby, died at her home in San Francisco last week, The New York Times reported. She was 91.

In 1934, when Taft was 6 months old, her parents — Latvian Jewish opera singers living in Berlin — had her portrait taken by photographer Hans Ballin.

Ballin submitted her photo to a Nazi contest seeking the perfect Aryan baby. It was selected by Joseph Goebbels, the notorious Nazi chief of propaganda, and appeared on the cover of Sonne ins Haus, a pro-Nazi publication.

The image would spread widely across Germany in magazines, advertisements, postcards, and homes.

When confronted with the matter by Taft’s parents, Ballin said he knew she was Jewish but submitted her photo anyway as a prank, exposing the absurdity of Nazi theories on race, according to her obituary in The Times.

Taft told Reuters in 2014 that she........

© The Times of Israel