Baby Shoes

In 1939, Irene and Edgar Böhm escaped persecution in Germany, entering Shanghai, one of the only ports in the world that did not require a visa. They were interned in the Hongkew Ghetto. Edgar worked as a waiter. In 1940, Dorrit was born. These little red shoes are a memento of Dorrit Böhm’s early childhood in Shanghai.

Life for refugees in Japanese-occupied Shanghai was grueling. Despite the poor sanitation, food shortages and an incessant longing for distant shores, the Böhm family managed to eke out a living. At the end of the war, they travelled to Hong Kong. By October 1946, they could finally call Australia home, sponsored by Edgar’s sister, Alice.

Almost 40 years later, Edgar Böhm presented his new son-in-law with an unusual yet meaningful wedding gift: this pair of red shoes. In 1939, a different pair of ruby slippers was brought into the public’s consciousness in the film "The Wizard of Oz". They became an iconic symbol of the lure of home, the value of personal resilience and the triumph of good over evil.

For the Böhm family, it would seem that humble footwear was similarly elevated into a symbol of something entirely more profound and magical: Survival of the Holocaust, the founding of a family and a new beginning.