Judith Leiber - From Holocaust Survivor to Celebrity Handbag Icon.

Judith - a Jewish Hungarian - was sent to King’s College London in 1938 by her father to study chemistry for the cosmetic industry, but she returned to Hungary to train at a handbag company (she was the first woman to join the Hungarian Handbag Guild in Budapest). During WWII, she and her family managed to escape the Holocaust by obtaining Swiss documentation and living in a one bedroom safe house with 20+ people. She wasn’t allowed to leave the apartment and said, “I designed handbags in my head to get through the misery."

In 1944, the safe house was liquidated, Jewish residents were sent to the Hungarian Nazi-run ghetto to await deportation to death camps. They were fortunate to survive the ghetto until liberation by the Red Army. Judith then met (chance encounter on the bombed-out streets) and married a US Army sergeant (and artist) Gerson.

They quickly moved to NYC, settling in a Bronx apartment. At the time, she had been making purses for the secretaries of the American Legation in Budapest, earning American dollars and able to buy food and essentials for her family. She went on to work for numerous handbag designers, but she finally founded her own business in 1963.

She was known for her crystal minaudières, evening purses made of a metal shell often encrusted with Swarovski crystals, plated with silver or gold and with various forms, such as baby pigs, slices of watermelon, cupcakes, peacocks, penguins, and snakes! She passed in 2018, just a few hours after her husband died (a 72 year marriage!).

In a time of great difficultly and potential death, she managed to find solace in her passion. She overcame adversity and became on of the most successful designers of the 20th century - a household name! Pretty amazing!