page_title: Greta Zimmer Friedman
section_title: Early life and education
hierarchical_section_title: Greta Zimmer Friedman / Early life and education
caption_attribution_description: Deutsch: Reisepass des Deutschen Reichs von Grete Zimmer, verh. Greta Zimmer Friedman, ausgestellt 1939. Der Mittelname "Sara" war per Erlass des NS-Regimes Pflicht. English: 1939 passport issued by the government of Austria for "Grete Sara Zimmer," the middle name added by national socialist decree
context_page_description: Greta Zimmer Friedman was an Austrian-born American who was photographed being grabbed and kissed by Navy sailor, George Mendonsa 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.
context_section_description: She was born Grete Zimmer on June 5, 1924, to a Jewish family in Wiener Neustadt, Austria. At age 15, Zimmer emigrated to America 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. 
  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. 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.
caption: 1939 passport issued by the government of Austria for "Grete Sara Zimmer," the middle name added by national socialist decree
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