Greta Zimmer Friedman

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V-J Day in Times Square, a photograph by Alfred Eisenstaedt, was published in Life in 1945 with the caption, "In New York's Times Square a white-clad girl clutches her purse and skirt as an uninhibited sailor plants his lips squarely on hers"[1]

Greta Zimmer Friedman (born Grete Zimmer; June 5, 1924 – September 8, 2016) was an Austrian-born American who was photographed being kissed by a stranger, a Navy sailor, in the iconic V-J Day in Times Square photograph of 1945 by Life magazine photographer Alfred Eisenstaedt.[2] Widely misattributed as being a photograph of a nurse, she was actually a dental assistant with a similar uniform.

Biography

She was born Grete Zimmer on June 5, 1924 to a Jewish family in Wiener Neustadt, Austria.[3] At age 15, Zimmer emigrated from Nazi-controlled Austria in 1939 with her younger sisters Josefin (Fini) and Bella; as Americans, Josefin became Josephine (Jo), while Grete and Bella traded the last letter of each name to become Greta and Belle. The eldest Zimmer sister Lily emigrated to Palestine, took the name Tirza, and remained in Israel after fighting in the 1948 War of Independence. Their parents, Max and Ida, unable to leave Europe, died in concentration camps during the Holocaust.[4]

Inurnment at Arlington National Cemetery

Zimmer attended Queens Vocational High School, the Central High School of Needle Trades and the Harlem Evening High School. Supporting herself as a dental assistant, she then took classes at the Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT) and studied costuming with the New School of Social Research's Dramatic Workshop, led by Erwin Piscator with fellow students Rod Steiger, Bea Arthur, Harry Belafonte, Woodrow Parfrey, Bernard Schwartz (Tony Curtis) and Harry Guardino. Later, while living in New York in the 1940s and 1950s, she variously worked in toy design and doll clothing, as well as early television with the Bil Baird puppets, and summer theater at the Camp Tamiment Playhouse with fellow camp members Jerome Robbins, Larry Kert, Tony Mordente, Bea Arthur, Jane Dulo, Billy Sands and Lucille Kallen.

On VJ Day, August 14, 1945, she had left work at the dentists' office dressed in her uniform and was celebrating the end of World War II in Times Square when a stranger (later recognized as the sailor George Mendonça but sources differ) in a sailor's uniform grabbed her and kissed her.[2][5]

"It wasn’t my choice to be kissed," Friedman stated in a 2005 interview with the Library of Congress.[6] "The guy just came over and grabbed!" she said, adding, "That man was very strong. I wasn’t kissing him. He was kissing me."[7] "I did not see him approaching, and before I know it I was in this tight grip," Friedman told CBS News in 2012.[8]

In 1956 she married Dr. Mischa Friedman, a WWII veteran of the U.S. Army Air Corps and a scientific researcher for the Army at Fort Detrick, moving to Frederick, Maryland. She attended Hood College, studying oil painting, printing, sculpture, and watercolors, but did not graduate until 1981, the same year her two grown children Mara and Joshua also graduated college. Friedman worked for ten years at Hood restoring books.[9]

Death

Friedman died at age 92 on September 8, 2016, in Richmond, Virginia. She is inurned beside her husband at Arlington National Cemetery.[5]

1939 passport issued by the government of Austria for "Grete Sara Zimmer," the middle name added by national socialist decree

References

  1. ^ Kreps, Daniel. "Greta Friedman, Woman in Iconic Times Square Kiss Photo, Dead at 92". Rolling Stone. Retrieved September 15, 2016.
  2. ^ a b "Greta Zimmer Friedman dies; kissed sailor in World War II iconic photo". The Washington Times. September 11, 2016. Retrieved September 14, 2016.
  3. ^ Rosenberg, Eli (September 10, 2016). "Greta Friedman, Who Claimed to Be the Nurse in a Famous V-J Day Photo, Dies at 92". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved September 12, 2016.
  4. ^ Callahan, Maureen (June 17, 2012). "The true story behind the iconic V-J Day sailor and 'nurse' smooch". New York Post. Retrieved September 15, 2016.
  5. ^ a b Chuck, Elizabeth; Calabrese, Erin (September 10, 2016). "Greta Zimmer Friedman, 'Nurse' in Iconic WWII Kissing Photo, Dies at 92". NBC News. Retrieved September 12, 2016.
  6. ^ Martino, Andy (September 2, 2016). "How a celebrated image marking V-J Day in Times Square has taken on a sinister shade". New York Daily News. Retrieved September 12, 2016.
  7. ^ "Woman in V-J Day photo dead at 92". CBS News. September 10, 2016. Retrieved September 10, 2016.
  8. ^ "Interview Transcript: Greta Zimmer Friedman: Veterans History Project (Library of Congress". memory.loc.gov. August 23, 2005. Retrieved September 15, 2016.

Further reading

  • Redmond, Patricia (August 23, 2005). "Interview Notes". American Folklife Center. LOC.
  • Sulzgruber, Werner, Lebenslinien. Jüdische Familien und ihre Schicksale. Eine biografische Reise in die Vergangenheit von Wiener Neustadt. Berger, Wien / Horn 2013, ISBN 978-3-85028-557-5. [biographies of Jewish families from Wiener Neustadt, Austria, incl. a chapter about family Zimmer]
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