Pair of toddler's shoes owned by a Jewish child refugee

Susanna Gibian was born on May 1, 1935 in Vienna, Austria. Her father Otto was born on November 19, 1890, in Vienna to Sigmund and Hermine Wetzler Gibian. Susanna's mother's name and other details are unknown, but by 1938, she was motherless. Otto was an assimilated Jew with no religious affiliations. Otto owned the REX Company, which supplied and serviced business machines. It was founded by his father around 1900, when it represented several American suppliers of business machines, such as L.C. Smith and Corona typewriters and Kardex, throughout the Austro-Hungarian Empire. On March 12, 1938, German troops marched over the border into Austria and, the next day, Austria was annexed to the German Reich. Anti-Jewish legislation was passed and Jews were stripped of their civil rights. Otto’s business and property were confiscated by the government. He decided to leave Austria so that his daughter could have a normal life. He had travelled to the United States on business many times and made arrangements to emigrate there. A relative, Emil Gibian, who lived in Ohio sponsored his visa. Otto and Susanna sailed from Rotterdam, Netherlands, on the Nieuw Amsterdam and arrived in New York on November 4, 1938. Otto was offered a position by W.H. Smith of the Smith-Corona Company, with whom he had done business, and they settled in Syracuse, NY. He held an office position and also worked as the staff photographer. He had gotten his first camera on a business trip to Syracuse and was a well-known amateur photographer in Austria and Germany. His work was exhibited and published in photography yearbooks. In addition to his work at Smith and Corona, he established a commercial photography studio in Syracuse, specializing in portraits. On March 20, 1941, Otto married Irene Rosenthal, born in 1906 in Vienna. Otto and Irene had known each other since 1937 in Vienna where Irene worked for an office supply company. Irene fled Nazi Austria for the US in 1940. As the persecution of Jews increased with the Nazi domination of Europe, Otto wrote without success to several persons by the name Gibian in the US in the hope that they were related and would sponsor affidavits so his cousins could leave German occupied Prague, Czechoslovakia. Otto became a US citizen in 1944. Susanna later attended Indiana University. Otto and Irene separated in 1948. Otto returned to Vienna in 1951 to pursue business and restitution interests. He died, age 67 or 73, on either March 12, 1957 or 1963, in Vienna. Irene, age 88, died in Washington DC in 1994. Susanna, age 60, passed away in California in 1995.

Irene Dorothy Rosenthal was born on January 27, 1906, in Vienna, Austria, to Jewish parents, Dr. Laszlo (Ladislaus) and Gisela Leuchtag Rosenthal. She had an older brother, Erich, who was born on September 5, 1905. She was raised in Hamburg, Germany. Her father had a dental office in the lower part of their house. She revealed a talent for art at any early age and received art lessons from her father. The family was well off and enjoyed vacations at the seaside with their extended family. When World War I began in 1914, Irene’s father was conscripted into the Hungarian Army as a doctor and Irene, her brother, and Mother returned to her maternal grandmother’s home in Vienna. Her father was killed during the war. Irene attended the Humanitisches Gymnasium. The loss of her father and the worldwide economic depression meant Irene had to become the family breadwinner and obtain a job rather than attend university to pursue medical and art studies. She became a secretary for a business machine supply company and soon was promoted to a management position. On March 12, 1938, German troops marched over the border into Austria and, the next day, Austria was annexed to the German Reich. A popular vote was held in April and the Anschluss received overwhelming support. Anti-Jewish legislation was passed and Jews were stripped of their civil rights. Seeing her country overrun by German national fanaticism and the suppression of decency, Irene decide to pursue her dream of going to the United States. She had a Slovakian passport in the name Irene Rosenthalova issued in 1939. After two years, she finally obtained permission to leave Germany and a visa to enter the US. She sailed from Genoa, Italy, on the Conte de Savoia on March 20, 1940. She planned to send for her brother and mother after she got settled in her new country. She had a friend in New York City and first settled there. In December 1940, she was in Syracuse, staying at the home of Otto Gibian. Even before the US entered the war in December 1941, Irene had lost all contact with her family in Vienna. On March 20, 1941, Irene married Otto Gibian. Irene and Otto had known each other since 1937 in Vienna where Otto had owned the Rex Company, a distributor of US business equipment. Otto, born on November 19, 1890, left Vienna in September 1938 in order to give his motherless, three year daughter Susanna a normal life. Otto was employed in Syracuse by one the companies he had dealt with, Smith and Corona Typewriters. He also operated a commercial photography studio. In April 1941, Otto submitted an affidavit of support for Irene's mother to use to apply for a US visa. She lobbied other friends to submit one for Erich. The war in Europe ended in May 1945. Eventually, Irene learned that only a few distant relatives and her cousins from Hamburg had survived. Her mother and brother had been forced from their home. She believed that they were deported to Izbica in Poland and then killed. In 1946, she learned from the National Refugee Service that her brother Erich died on July 17, 1945, from injuries incurred in an air raid. Her mother, age 69, was recorded as missing. Irene and Otto separated in 1948. Irene established a successful career as a commercial artist. Her illustrations were published in books and magazines. She later became certified as a botanical and scientific illustrator for the US Department of Agriculture. Otto, age 67, died in 1957 (or 1963), in Vienna where he had gone for business in 1951. Irene, age 88, died in Washington DC in 1994.

The infant's shoes were donated to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 1994 by Jill Shellow, the executor for the Estate of Irene Rosenthal Gibian, the stepmother of Susanna Gibian.

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of Jill Shellow on behalf of the Estate of Irene Rosenthal Gibian

Funding Note: The cataloging of this artifact has been supported by a grant from the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany.