as taft , a professor , recalls , her mother took her to a well - known photographer in berlin in 1935 to have her baby picture taken and was horrified to see hessy 's when hessy taft was six months old , she was a poster child for the nazis .
hessy levinsons were married in 1928 in latvia to berlin to pursue their careers .
but what the nazis did n’t know was that their perfect baby was really jewish .
taft 's full story has long been on the website of the united states holocaust memorial museum and in the " holocaust chronicles " book , but the occasion of her donating her yellowing copy of the sonne ins haus magazine sparked new interest in this incredible story .
her parents , jacob and pauline levinsons , both talented singers , moved to berlin from latvia to pursue careers in classical music in 1928 , only to find themselves caught up in the nazis ’ rise to power .
in 1932 , using his legal stage name , yasha lenssen , jacob signed a contract with the breslau opera to perform as their leading baritone in a series of 19 operas .
yad vashem recently received a most - unusual artifact from the nazi era – a nazi family magazine featuring an image of the perfect aryan philosophy and whose true identity was never revealed .
that baby was hessy taft nee levinsons , whose parents had moved from latvia to berli to pursue classical music careers and would later flee to paris and cuba , eventually landing in the united states .
her father lost his job at an opera company because he was jewish , and had to a birthday card featuring the picture of hessy levinsons , winner of the most beautiful aryan baby contest .