Taft's image was subsequently distributed widely by the Nazi party in a variety of materials, such as magazines and postcards, to promote Aryanism.

Taft's Ashkenazi Jewish parents, Jacob Levinsons and Pauline Levinsons (née Levine),[2] were originally from Latvia and were unaware of their photographer's decision to enter the photograph into the contest until learning that the photo of their daughter had been selected by Nazi Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels as the winner.

[3] In July 2014 Taft told the German-language newspaper Bild that "I can laugh about it now, but if the Nazis had known who I really was, I wouldn't be alive.

[6][7] As a graduate student in chemistry at Columbia University she met her husband, mathematics instructor Earl Taft.

She and her husband joined the faculty at Rutgers University, but she left academia to raise a family, later working on the AP Chemistry exam for the Educational Testing Service.