The woman in an iconic photo shown kissing an ecstatic sailor in Times Square celebrating the end of World War II has died. Greta Zimmer Friedman was 92.
Friedman, who fled Austria during the war as a 15-year-old, died Thursday at a hospital in Richmond, Virginia, from complications of old age, her son, Joshua Friedman, said.
Greta Friedman was a 21-year-old dental assistant in a nurse’s uniform when she became part of one of the most famous photographs of the 20th century.
On Aug. 14, 1945, known as V-J Day, the day Japan surrendered to the United States, people spilled into the New York City streets from restaurants, bars and movie theaters, celebrating the news.
That’s when George Mendonsa spotted Friedman, spun her around and planted a kiss. The two had never met. In fact, Mendonsa was on a date with an actual nurse, Rita Petry, who would later become his wife.
The photo by Alfred Eisenstaedt is called “V-J Day in Times Square,” but is known to most simply as “The Kiss.” Mendonsa said that in some photos of the scene, Petry could be seen smiling in the background.
Another image from a different angle was taken by U.S. Navy photographer Victor Jorgensen but it was Eisenstaedt’s photo that became seared in people’s minds. His photo was first published in Life magazine, buried deep within its pages. Over the years, the photo gained recognition, and several people claimed to be the kissing couple.
In an August 1980 issue of Life, 11 men and three women said they were the subjects. It was years before Mendonsa and Friedman were confirmed to be the couple.
Joshua Friedman said his mother recalled the events happening in an instant.
“It wasn’t that much of a kiss,” Friedman said in an interview with the Veterans History Project in 2005. “It was just somebody celebrating. It wasn’t a romantic event.”
Both of Friedman’s parents died in the Holocaust, according to Lawrence Verria, co-author of “The Kissing Sailor: The Mystery Behind the Photo that Ended World War II.”
Friedman will be buried in Arlington National Cemetery, next to her late husband, Dr. Misha Friedman.
The Associated Press contributed to this article.
For your information, there’s a 30 ft statue of “The Kiss” down in San Diego right next to where the U.S.S. Enterprise is moored.
I was 5 years old when this photograph was taken and can vividly remember the end of the war. I remember all the fellas walking about on crutches with a pant leg sewn-up or a shirt with one arm sewn-up or a person with a patch over one eye. I remember my Uncle Carl coming over to our home, hobbling on his cane, and the black glove he wore over his left hand. I remember my Mother telling me, when I would ask her about Uncle Carl’s black glove, “Oh!, he got his hand hurt in the war!”. But…most of all, I remember the picture of “the kiss”.
Clinton R. Blossey
Pensacola, FL