Judith Leiber

Judith Leiber
Leiber's "Socks" and "Cupcake" models at the Museum of Bags and Purses in Amsterdam
Born	Judith Peto (1921-01-11) January 11, 1921 (age 96) Budapest, Hungary
Nationality	United States
Occupation	Founder of Judith Leiber
Spouse(s)	Gerson Leiber
Website	JudithLeiber.com

Judith Leiber (born Judith Peto January 11, 1921 in Budapest, Hungary) is an American fashion designer and businesswoman.

Born Judith Peto in 1921 to Helene, a Vienna-born homemaker and Emil, a commodities broker. She also had one sister named Eva. Leiber was sent to King's College London in 1938 by her family to study chemistry for the cosmetics industry, in part since her father thought she would be safer in London in the case of a war.

She returned to Hungary before World War II, where thanks to family connections, obtained a traineeship at a handbag company, where she learned to cut and mold leather, make patterns, frame and stitch bags. She was the first woman graduated to master craftswoman, becoming the first woman to join the Hungarian Handbag Guild in Budapest.

She avoided Nazi persecution when she escaped the Holocaust of World War II to the safety of a house set aside for Swiss citizens, when her father, a Hungarian Jew who managed the grain department of a bank, was able to obtain a Swiss schutzpass, a document that gave the bearer safe passage. This pass is on view at the Holocaust Museum in Washington DC. In that flat where Leiber survived the war, housed 26 people.

In December 1944, those living in the apartment taken to one of the Hungarian Nazi-run ghettos. After the liberation of Hungary by the Red Army, Leiber's family moved into a basement with 60 other people.

In 1946, she married Gerson (Gus) Lieber, was a sergeant in the United States Army serving in Eastern Europe, whom she met while making purses for the secretaries of the American Legation in Budapest, and moved to New York City in 1947. Her husband Leiber is an abstract expressionist painter, member of the National Academy of Design, with some of his works displayed at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Smithsonian Museum, the Israel Museum in Jerusalem, and other institutions.