Hitler’s Jewish Baby from https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/history/articles/hitlers-jewish-baby

i n the winter of 1935, a few months after the German government passed the anti-Jewish Nuremberg Laws, the Nazi family magazine Sonne ins Haus (“Sun in the Home”) sponsored a photographic competition to find “the perfect Aryan child.” On Jan. 24, 1935, the magazine published a front-page photograph of the winner, a beautiful 6-month-old baby girl named Hessy Levinsons. Nazi propaganda showcased the baby as “the perfect Aryan baby.” Unbeknownst to the judges, Hessy was Jewish.

Hessy had been born in Berlin on May 17, 1934, to Jewish parents Jacob and Pauline Levinsons. The couple, originally from Latvia, where they both had studied classical music, married before immigrating to Berlin in 1928. Both were singers: Jacob was a smooth-voiced baritone; Pauline had studied at the renowned Riga Conservatory in Latvia.

Jacob had accepted a position at a local opera house and taken the stage name of Yasha Lenssen to conceal his Jewish identity, since this was a time of intensifying antisemitism in Hitler’s Berlin. However, when the opera directors found out that Jacob’s family name was really Levinsons and he was Jewish, they canceled his contract.

Without money, and living in a cramped one-room flat, Pauline gave birth to Hessy. She was so beautiful that when she was 6 months old, her parents decided to have her picture taken. “My mother took me to a photographer,” Hessy recalled. “One of the best in Berlin. And he made a very beautiful picture.”

Hessy’s parents liked the portrait so much they had it framed and propped it up on the piano that Hessy’s father had given her mother as a present after Hessy was born. Her parents thought the picture would remain a private family photo. They were unaware that Hans Ballin, the well-known Berlin photographer who had taken it, had entered the picture in a photo contest of the Nazi magazine Sonne ins Haus.

When the woman who helped clean the apartment arrived, she delivered some surprising news. “You know,” she said, “I saw Hessy on a magazine cover in town.” Hessy’s mother said it could not be Hessy. “No, no, no,” the cleaner insisted, “it’s definitely Hessy. Just give me some money and I’ll get you the magazine.”

The photograph had been selected from an assortment of a hundred pictures of German babies taken by 10 well-known German photographers. The competition had been arranged by the Nazi propaganda department headed by Joseph Goebbels, to showcase the ideal beautiful German Aryan baby. The winning baby picture would appear on the cover of Sonne ins Haus.

Ballin put Hessy’s photograph along with nine others into an envelope and sent it to the office of the Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda. He knew full well that Hessy was Jewish. Even though the Nazis typically promoted blond hair and blue eyes as the ideal Aryan features, for whatever reason, the picture of the brown-haired and brown-eyed Hessy won.

Fearing that the Nazis would discover that their family was Jewish, Hessy’s mother informed Ballin. The photographer replied that he knew. He said he deliberately entered Hessy’s photograph into the contest because “I wanted to make the Nazis look foolish.” He explained that “I wanted to allow myself the pleasure of this jest. And you see I was right. Of all the babies, they picked this baby as the perfect Aryan.”

The magazine was one of the few publications that were allowed to circulate at the time. Edited by a friend of Nazi leader Hermann Goering, the magazine broadcast the virtues of Nazi Germany and the superiority of the Aryan race. Its pages brimmed with photos of men wearing swastikas.

The Levinsons were horrified when their daughter’s photograph appeared in its pages. Her face was plastered all over the streets, in storefront windows, and in newspapers and magazines. Hessy’s picture was later distributed on postcards throughout Germany and in the countries they occupied. Hessy’s aunt even found a card in Memel, Lithuania, with Hessy’s photo and the inscription in gold letters, “Best wishes for the birthday.”

Out of fear of Hessy getting recognized and maybe even killed, her parents hid her from the public eye. “I could no longer play in the park,” she recalls, “and I couldn’t go to the zoo, my favorite place.”

One close call occurred when a friend of the family had been visiting a German woman’s apartment and spotted Hessy’s photo framed on the wall. She accidentally blurted out, “But that is Hessy Levinsons.” The woman responded angrily, “What? Did you say the baby’s name is Levinsons?” The woman pulled the picture off the wall and pensively stared at it for a while, and then calmed down and said, “Oh, never mind. She is too cute. I’ll hang it back.”

Hessy’s parents were filled with trepidation at what had occurred, but in spite of their unease, they were also astonished at the absurdity of it all. “One time,” Hessy says, her aunt went to the store to buy a birthday card for her first birthday in May of 1935, only to find a card with Hessy’s baby picture on it. “My aunt didn’t say another word, but she bought the postcard which my parents carried with them throughout the years.”

Many years later, Hessy was asked what she would say today to the photographer who entered her picture in the contest. She responded that “I would tell him, good for you for having the courage.”

“I can laugh about it now,” she says. “But if the Nazis had known who I really was, I wouldn’t be alive.”

In 1938, Hessy’s father, Jacob, was briefly arrested by the SS on trumped-up tax charges. After this, he concluded that Germany was no longer safe for him and his family and determined to leave immediately. He took his family and moved to Latvia, his home country. After a short stay, they relocated to Paris.

At one point during their sojourn in Paris, Hessy developed an earache and her mother found a physician who would make a house call. The doctor who came was Jewish and he commented on what a cute child Hessy was. Pauline told him the story of Hessy’s baby photo. The doctor responded by pointing out that there were an increasing number of people in France who were influenced by Hitler’s propaganda. He told them that he had connections at a Paris newspaper, and believed this would be a great story to publicize and make the Nazis look foolish.

Pauline was agreeable, but Jacob said, “No way.” The doctor turned to him and said, “You know Mr. Levinsons, you have no reason to be fearful. You are not in Germany anymore.” The soon-to-be Nazi occupation of France proved the doctor wrong.

France fell to the German army in June 1940, and Hessy’s family was smuggled into the “zone libre” (free zone) in southern France. Her father struggled to obtain visas for the family to emigrate from France—they received a U.S. visa in 1941, but were unable to leave before the visa expired and could not obtain an extension.

Luckily, in 1942, the family acquired visas to enter Cuba. Hessy’s father then purchased train tickets to take them from Marseille to Lisbon, Portugal. In Lisbon, he bought boat tickets to sail to the Americas. As the family waited in Marseille, they discovered that Gerta, the young Jewish nurse the family had hired in Berlin and who had gone to Paris with them to take care of the children, was refused a visa to join her brother, who had already immigrated to Oregon.

Gerta remained in Paris. Hessy’s parents now faced a dilemma: Should they return to Paris or just leave Gerta there? Hessy’s father had no visa for Gerta and no pass for her to get back to Nice. But they feared that Gerta, as a young Jewish girl, would likely be killed. Hessy’s father then headed back to Nice, while the family waited for him in Marseille.

While on the train to Nice, Hessy’s father stayed in the dining car, believing it would protect him. He kept ordering food and wine until he was almost drunk and sick. When the train stopped for two hours at the checkpoint to enter the Vichy sector, the guards examined the passengers’ passes, but walked right through the dining car without disturbing the diners.

While in Nice, Hessy’s father had pawned his silver cigarette case and went back to the Cuban consul to offer him more money for another visa for Gerta. The consul said, “I already gave you four visas and am in enough trouble.” Hessy’s father told him that he would not leave until he gave him another visa, sat down, and waited. At the end of the day, the consul said, “I am going to close. Are you going to leave or should I call the police?”

Hessy’s father responded, “I’ll leave as soon as you give me a visa.” The consul looked at him and said, “You know, there is an old law in the books in Cuba that says a man can immigrate with all his possessions, including his slaves. Would you say this woman is your slave?” Hessy’s father said, “Of course. Absolutely. This woman is my slave.” The consul gave him one more Cuban visa.

Hessy spent much of her childhood in Cuba. In 1949, she and her family immigrated to the United States and settled in New York City.

There, Hessy Levinsons got married and became Hessy Levinsons Taft. But her father stayed behind in Havana to operate a business, which thrived until the advent of Fidel Castro, when it foundered. Hessy says that her father always said, “I have survived Hitler; I will survive Castro.” Hessy says “And he did, he did.”

Hessy studied chemistry at Julia Richman High School in New York City, and majored in chemistry at Barnard College, graduating in 1955. She worked in academia for a while until she left to raise a family, though she returned to professional life later and helped run the AP chemistry exam for the Educational Testing Service. After 30 years in the Educational Testing Service, Hessy returned to New York in 2000 to work as a chemistry professor at St. John’s University, where she studied water sustainability until she retired in 2016.

Although Hessy’s immediate family survived the Holocaust, most of her extended family in Latvia were murdered by the Nazis and their collaborators. When she was asked how she felt about being a Jewish poster child in a Nazi propaganda magazine she said: “I feel a sense of revenge, good revenge.”

 

Fortes in Fide (Again) The true religion is not reducible to a bumper sticker or “meme,” but there is a venerable tradition, rooted in the Old Testament wisdom literature, of packaging hefty drafts of divine truth in small shots. These proverbs or aphorisms have provided sober inebriation to the saints for millennia. Some of the choicest concoctions can be found in the mottos of religious orders. All religious should meditate from time to time on the motto of their order or congregation. Thus one would expect all Benedictines to have internalized ora et labora, all Dominicans, contemplata aliis tradere, and all Jesuits ad majorem Dei gloriam. Such expressions of an institute’s charism provide its members both a target to aim for and a framework in which to operate. They are especially helpful in guiding the interior life of the members. Some religious mottos come directly from Holy Scripture, as does the one given by Saint Vincent Pallotti to the institute he founded, the Society of the Catholic Apostolate: caritas Christi urget nos (“the charity of Christ presseth us”; II Cor. 5:14). This is also the case with the motto of my own community, whose principal motto is fortes in fide (“strong in faith”). These words come from Christ’s first vicar (I Pet. 5:8) and are important enough to Mother Church that she puts them on our lips every night near the beginning of the office of Compline. For us, the two key words in this motto, one an adjective and the other a noun, stand as a shorthand for all the virtues: fortes invokes fortitude along with all the other cardinal virtues; fide(s) (faith) being the first of the theological virtues, it also calls to mind the other two. In the context of Saint Peter’s inspired use of these words, they are related to our spiritual combat. Against the “roaring lion” (leo rugiens) that is our Adversary, we are to resist “strong in faith”: Be sober and watch: because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, goeth about seeking whom he may devour. Whom resist ye, strong in faith [fortes in fide]: knowing that the same affliction befalls your brethren who are in the world. — I Pet. 5:8-9 (click here for Latin-English) In an earlier posting on this site, I focused more on the theological virtue of faith than I will here. There is also this passage from Father Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange, O.P., that instructs us on the purification of the virtue of faith as a part of growing in the spiritual life. Here, I will focus more on fortitude. For all of their sublimity and nobility, and with the countless examples of the martyrs, confessors, and virgins exercising them heroically, there is an ordinariness to the practice of the Christian virtues that we must not forget. Because they are fundamental operative habits in the life of a Catholic, they should enter into everything we do — everything, that is, that constitutes what philosophers call a “human act,” i.e., an act which involves intellect and will. Dom Marmion’s thoughts on “living by faith” in his masterful Christ, the Ideal of the Monk come to mind here. In summary, faith plays an important role in our daily interactions. We must “live by faith” (Rom. 1:17; Gal. 3:11; Heb. 10:38), and it takes faith to see the small trials and tribulations of daily life as integral parts of the Cross, not mere sources of frustration. We work to be “strong in faith” so that we can see Jesus Christ in our neighbor — even when he is annoying! — to see each opportunity to mortify ourselves and not to miss out on practicing the little virtues through spiritual blindness. To neglect these opportunities manifests a lack of that living faith which enables us to see things, to the degree possible, as God sees them. Being possessed of such a supernatural outlook, it will then take fortitude for us to live in accordance with this vision because it is often difficult to act contrary to the “old man” and according to the “New Man.” The little sacrifices and acts of self denial that result from dealing with other people’s tastes, temperament, and idiosyncrasies, are occasions for practicing a kind of “daily fortitude” — not a fortitude that demands combating other people principally, but the kind of fortitude that calls a Christian to combat his very self — in the last analysis, the only enemy who can defeat him. By the courageous exercise of all the little virtues that go into properly engaging our fellow man — at home, at work, or wherever — we can fight the supernatural combat humbly and meekly, without giving needless offense to our neighbor. Doing so, we might possibly bring unbelievers into the fold, which we are enjoined to do: “Having your conversation good among the Gentiles: that whereas they speak against you as evildoers, they may, by the good works, which they shall behold in you, glorify God in the day of visitation” (I Pet. 2:12). This is not easy; it requires self-mastery. At this point, I am going to shift gears and make a recommendation that may surprise some readers. I am currently reading a book whose observations can, I believe, be incorporated into a life of Christian holiness, notably one that includes the virtues and other habits requisite for evangelism. The book is Never Split The Difference: Negotiating As If Your Life Depended On It. Please bear with me. The author, Chris Voss, is the FBI’s former lead international hostage negotiator. He currently teaches college business students and Fortune 500 company employees the art of negotiating as he honed it to perfection in very tense situations where failure meant death for hostages. He employs a method he calls “tactical empathy,” which involves such techniques as “mirroring,” “labeling,” “accusation audits,” asking questions that should be answered “No” (as opposed to “going for Yes,” which he insists is not as effective), and other tactics. A good friend who is a business man recommended I read the book. This gentleman, a pious Catholic layman who attends daily Mass, has incorporated Voss’ methods into his approach to Catholic apologetics and evangelism. Voss’ contributions are valid in the realm of prudence — recta ratio agibilium (“right reason applied to practice”) — and in its most “practical” sense. His bag of tricks helps with the nuts and bolts of human communication in the context of the way most men are in fact — that is, messed up, wounded by sin such that emotions predominate over reason. Voss tells us how to deal with emotional people by working with their overwrought emotions so that empathy, trust, rapport, and calm can be established. Even though Voss does not speak scholastic language at all, I believe his approach can be defended by scholasticism on at least two points: Saint Thomas teaches us “Quidquid recipitur ad modum recipientis recipitur” — whatever is received is received in the mode of the recipient. In other words, whatever is communicated to another will only be received by that other insofar as he is open or disposed to it. Thus, we don’t teach second graders using the vocabulary we would use with High School seniors. Secondly, logic itself is a normative science and art. As such, it concerns how reasoning is to be done correctly, not how people so often think incorrectly. True, logic does label for us certain fallacies, but only to show how they do not conform to the norm of correct reasoning. It is not the subject matter of logic to coach the student in how to neutralize and work with people’s emotions so that they can be open to reason. Using logical syllogisms to convince people who are emoting more than they are thinking is an exercise in futility. Closer than logic to the mark is rhetoric, which does deal with pathos as one of its three appeals — the others being logos and ethos. But rhetoric tends to deal in more formal settings and generally with audiences; it is not so concerned with guiding conversations and negotiations. The skills that Chris Voss teaches are more like salesmanship techniques that aid the practitioner in neutralizing and even leveraging the other person’s heightened emotions. Because your interlocutor’s emotions are realities that most certainly impact the situation, they must be dealt with prudently. As far as I can see it, Voss has accomplished just that. Now, aside from becoming a better salesman, why would a Catholic qua Catholic be interested in this material? What does it have to do with pleasing God and extending the reign of Jesus Christ on Earth? Though I have not yet finished his book, it seems to me that Voss’ approach can be “baptized” and used for apologetic purposes and in other settings when the objective is to convince someone of something good — and that is a very Catholic thing to do. At a deeper level, because these techniques infuse calm, trust, and empathy into the discourse, Voss’ approach is compatible with Christian charity, humility, and meekness. And because his techniques take a lot of effort and patience, they are compatible with Christian fortitude, which is to the point here. While Christian fortitude should lead us to resist what is false and evil, we who oppose the zeitgeist sometimes mistake fortitude for harshness and so run the risk of becoming — in the vernacular — jerks. Let us not be confused on this point. It is not virtuous to be offensive (though, per accidens, offense is too often taken at real virtue). On the other hand, the interior discipline required by this kind of methodical approach to serious conversations can truly be arduous and difficult, which is exactly what fortitude is concerned with, according to Saint Thomas. As a regular part of your balanced Catholic lifestyle, I suggest you keep a bottle of Fortes in Fide in your liquor cabinet and take a little nip from time to time. It'll cure what ails you.

Most devotedly yours in the Hearts of Jesus and Mary, Brother André Marie, M.I.C.M.

Dada poem9

 Gen they that meth they meth the the th

Tent he the the the tenth the the they Brent

The the the dying you they run a they by tent

The the the tent meth tent run tent run 

Gen they rent th be gen the gnu they runs g

The the they n Danny sync fast achy candy be

The tenth cent gen tenth cent st wth there gen

The the they. The girl the the the gen gen they GB

Gen they sing sync sch at sync they can they e.g. 

Be that barn gang arms vs fancy th fans they he

Engle they my eh they msg sync checks net at 

Grants my that sync tent fan sync th fragment

Gem felt Cheng gen they dinner meth tend th

Gen they gang nether they gen tangent that sch

Rent at at gen Ethernet Sandy tenth s garner g

The the the that synch sync they meth tangent he

He the clerk sign maybe gang synth fans in

The the th tent herb and magnet n gang at n

.שקדים

 

How to ask out a female in this modern world

 I am sorry that I called you cute! I am sorry that I ever noticed you! That was imperialist of me! It's also imperialistic of me to want to date you! I promise to leave you alone! Please🙏! Alright! I go! Goodbye!

Not your or mine, but THE ONE

 There is no such thing as your truth or my truth! There is either THE truth or NO truth! There is no such thing as your reality or my reality! There is THE reality or NO reality! There is no such thing as your God or my God! There is THE God or NO God! We are not all that important! We are bugs that get squished! Our opinions do not matter! We can not change reality!

Paton prayer for good weather

 🕊Midst bad weather in the Battle of the Bulge, General George S. Patton commissioned his chaplain to write a prayer for good weather and victory.

Almighty and most merciful Father, we humbly beseech Thee, of Thy great goodness, to restrain these immoderate rains with which we have had to contend. Grant us fair weather for Battle. Graciously hearken to us as soldiers who call upon Thee that, armed with Thy power, we may advance from victory to victory, and crush the oppression and wickedness of our enemies and establish Thy justice among men and nations.

At the suggestion of the chaplain, Patton also sent this Christmas message to his staff

Dada poem8

 And brb there they they th GB

Range the the th the they n teeth

The they tend they renting better by

Bathtub tent bet gang began the they

They herb genuine bent eggs ten

Fast at set the gentle g at EU they

Tumult gen run bent eh Lenten 

Dada poem7

 At the the they meth tenth 

The they they net tenth tagged

Genome they net they e.g. 

The they they beg th they run

Debt went fencing nudge tents sung

Fence brb sg at st debt st st egg

Debt eggs they tangent fish ever 

Debt ahh that's they the the the 

The the the that barber g the the they

Debt egg the they meth Abernathy 

Enter meth they've they n feather

Feb gangs by the the gang gang syn

Whether by debt barber debt barber b

Why at egg fever ebb gang run ante brb 

I am with you

 I am with you in the ups.

I am with you in the downs.

I am with you in the hard.

I am with you in the quiet.

I am with you in the chaotic.

I am with you in the calm.

I am with you in the storm.

I am with you in it all.

Preface to a tract

 I know that you are bored of the idea of information, and you know that nobody will ever date you if you're into reading, but dating isn't really everything, And in a lot of countries, people don't date? And besides, dating gets to be seen as stupid as you grow up. Also I know that you are in pain, and I am sorry to be writing this, and I am sorry to have you read this, and I am sorry that I ever wanted you to read this! Please throw this away rather than read it! You are in pain! I cannot do anything about that! Please 🙏 just throw this away, and forget that I exist, but God is not a Karen! He is not triggered! He is beyond emotions! He is not a terrorist! Terrorists control others! They rule by fear! They are ruled by their emotions! God is not a mere human! Wait! I am sorry that I mentioned God or anything about anything, and once again, I am sorry that you're reading this! We are not terrorists! Yes, you can believe in truth and not be a terrorist! That's actually possible! No, I am not God! I do not define truth! I do not define reality! I am as much a sinner as you! I am not a Nazi! Please🙏 don't hate us! We don't seek to control your mind!