Greta Zimmer Friedman (born Margarete 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. Widely misattributed as being a photograph of a nurse, she was actually a dental assistant with a similar uniform.
Video Greta Zimmer Friedman
Biography
She was born Margarete Zimmer on June 5, 1924 to a Jewish family in Wiener Neustadt, Austria. She was known as "Grete", "Greta" and "Gretl", variously. At age 15, Zimmer emigrated from Nazi-controlled Austria in 1939 with her sisters. Their parents, Max and Ida, died in concentration camps during the Holocaust.
Zimmer took classes at the Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT) and did some work in toy design and dolls' clothes as well as maintaining an interest in the theater while still doing her dental assistant work. On VJ Day, she was 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.
"It wasn't my choice to be kissed," Friedman stated in a 2005 interview with the Library of Congress. "The guy just came over and grabbed!" she said, adding, "That man was very strong. I wasn't kissing him. He was kissing me." "I did not see him approaching, and before I know it I was in this tight grip," Friedman told CBS News in 2012.
In 1956 she married Dr. Mischa Friedman and they moved to Frederick, Maryland. She attended Hood College, but did not graduate until 1981, the same year as her three children. Friedman worked for ten years at Hood College restoring books and studying watercolor painting.
Maps Greta Zimmer Friedman
Death
Friedman died at age 92 on September 8, 2016, in Richmond, Virginia. She is buried beside her husband, infantryman Mischa Elliott Friedman, at Arlington National Cemetery.
References
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]
Source of article : Wikipedia
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