Photograph
Taft's Ashkenazi Jewish parents, Jacob Levinsons and Pauline Levinsons (née Levine), were originally from Latvia and were unaware of their photographer's decision to enter the photograph into the contest until learning that the photo of their daughter had been selected by Nazi Reichs Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda, Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels as the winner. Fearing that the Nazis would discover that their family was Jewish, Taft's mother informed the photographer that they were Jewish. The photographer told her mother, Pauline, that he knew they were Jewish and deliberately entered Taft's photograph into the contest because he "wanted to make the Nazis ridiculous". In July 2014 Taft told the German-language newspaper ''Bild'' that "I can laugh about it now, but if the Nazis had known who I really was, I wouldn't be alive."Later life
In 1938, Jacob Levinsons was briefly arrested by the Schutzstaffel, SS. In the same year, the family immigrated to France and settled in Paris, then later moved to Cuba and from there to the United States in 1949. Hessy Levinsons studied chemistry at Julia Richman High School in New York, and majored in chemistry at Barnard College, graduating in 1955. As a graduate student in chemistry at Columbia University she met her husband, mathematics instructor Earl Taft. She and her husband joined the faculty at Rutgers University, but she left academia to raise a family, later working on the AP Chemistry exam for the Educational Testing Service. After 30 years at the Educational Testing Service, she returned to New York as a chemistry professor at St. John's University (New York City), St. John's University in 2000. Her research in this later period of life focused on Sustainability#Water, water sustainability. She retired in 2016.Author biography fromSee also
* Werner Goldberg – soldier with partial Jewish ancestry also used in Nazi propagandaReferences
{{DEFAULTSORT:Taft, Hessy 1934 births Living people Nazi propaganda Child models Jewish American scientists Women chemists Barnard College alumni Columbia Graduate School of Arts and Sciences alumni Rutgers University faculty St. John's University (New York City) faculty Jewish emigrants from Nazi Germany to the United States People notable for being the subject of a specific photograph Julia Richman Education Complex alumni