Greta Zimmer Friedman, the Jewish refugee whose Times Square kiss from a sailor on the day World War II ended became an iconic photo, has died.
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Greta Zimmer Friedman, who was 92, fled Austria during the war as a 15-year-old.
The photograph has become one of the most famous photographs of the 20th century.
Taken by photographer Alfred Eisentaedt, the picture captured the jubilance people felt upon the war’s end. She was on her break when news began to surface the Japanese had surrendered and the war was over.
The photo was first published in Life magazine, buried deep within its pages.
The caption read: “In the middle of New York’s Times Square a white-clad girl clutches her purse and skirt as an uninhibited sailor plants his lips squarely on hers”.
“It wasn’t that much of a kiss”, Friedman, who came forward as the woman in the photo years later, said in a 2005 interview with the Veterans History Project.
Hundreds gather in Times Square to view the 26-foot-tall Seward Johnson sculpture installed at the site of the historic LIFE Magazine photograph by Alfred Eisenstaedt. She wrote to Life and was told that another person had been identified as the woman in the photo.
The photograph has been controversial after concerns the kiss may have been sexual assault, but Friedman, who was actually a dental assistant, since said she understood the excitement and the sailor being swept up in the moment. “It’s exactly my figure, and what I wore, and my hairdo especially”. “That man was very strong”. He was just holding me tight. “It was just somebody celebrating”. It wasnt a romantic event.. He died in 1995. It has been the subject of countless reproductions, re-enactments and tributes.
Friedman’s son confirmed to NBC and CBS that his mother died Thursday following a bout with pneumonia. She was one of four daughters born to Max Zimmer, a clothing store owner, and Ida Zimmer.
Greta Friedman landed in New York City.
Her burial in Arlington “seems fitting”, said Joshua Friedman to NBC News.
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She will be laid to rest beside her late veteran husband in Arlington National Cemetery, where US military are buried to commemorate their service and sacrifice, which was detailed previously in the Inquisitr.
