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In 1935, Sonne ins Haus (The Sun in the Home) was one of the few magazines allowed to circulate in Nazi Germany. The illustrated magazine was largely devoted to publishing photos of German families, including one issue whose cover featured the “the most beautiful Aryan baby,” a photograph which came to represent the Nazi ideal for years to come.

The trouble was that the pictured baby was Hessy Levinsons, the child of Jewish parents. The Levinsons had hired a photographer to take pictures of their baby in 1934, and Nazi officials had subsequently asked many of the country’s photographers to submit their ten best baby photos. They selected the photograph of Hessy to become the Nazi poster child, unaware that the child did not at all fit the “Aryan” definition. When Hessy’s parents realized what had happened, they kept quiet out of fear of reprisal, and the truth was not made public until years after World War 2.

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