By Jonathon Van Maren On May 17, 1934, a beautiful little girl was born to Jewish parents in Berlin. Jacob and Pauline Levinsons, both talented professional singers, called her Hessy, and they were tremendously proud of her—despite the fact that Jewish babies were not particularly welcome in Germany at the time. A year later, the…
By Jonathon Van Maren On March 27, CNN reported that an 85-year-old Holocaust survivor named Mireille Knoll was stabbed to death in her Paris apartment, which was then set on fire—officials believe the attack was motivated by anti-Semitism. As a ten-year-old girl, Knoll evaded the Vel’ d’Hiv Roundup in 1942 that resulted in the Nazi-directed…
When Hessy Taft was six months old, it was a dangerous time to be a Jewish child in Nazi Germany. But in a bizarre twist of fate, the Nazis selected her baby photo to publish in one of their publications as the ideal Aryan child. Hessy joined Jonathon to tell him the story.