Orbach family papers

Elias (1884-1942) and Dobra Tova (née Granek, 1894-1942) Orbach lived in Częstochowa, Poland. They had five children: David (1913-1942), Heniek (1915-1943), Regina (later Regina Penner, 1918-1997), Cadok (also spelled Cudok or Cudek, 1921-2008?), Zeev (also known as Wolf, b. 1931), and Heniek. The family was in the shoe manufacturing business and made “uppers.” After the German invasion of Poland in September 1939, Częstochowa was occupied and renamed Tschenstochau. The Orbachs were deported to the Częstochowa ghetto in 1940. In 1942, Elias and Dobra were deported to Treblinka extermination camp where they were murdered. David was a forced laborer in Skarżysko-Kamienna and died in Częstochowa in 1942. Heniek perished in 1943. Regina was a forced laborer until 1944 when she was deported to Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. After two months there she was transferred to Türkheim and the Dachau subcamp Kaufering until she was liberated in April 1945. She married Pinkus Penner (later Peter, b. 1904), a survivor of Auschwitz and Dachau, after the war. They lived in Munich, Germany until 1949 when Regina and Pinkus immigrated to the United States aboard the USAT General Muir. Zeev and Cadok were both deported to the Hasag Pelcery labor camp in Częstochowa. In January 1945 They were deported to Buchenwald concentration camp. After liberation, they both briefly went to France before immigrating to Palestine. Cadok lived in Haifa with his wife Etka, also a Holocaust survivor, and their two children Tova David and Itzik. Zeev later immigrated to the United States. He and his wife Debora married in 1961 in New York. Their daughter Amy was born in 1966. Zeev and Debora later moved to Florida.

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of Debora Orbach

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of Debora Orbach

The collection was donated to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum by Debora Orbach in 2018. An accretion was donated in 2019. Debora is the wife of Zeez Orbach. The collections previously cataloged as 2018.601.1 and 2019.22.1 have been incorported into this collection.