Student Profile: Jerzy Orbach

The convergence of evidence strongly suggests that you have correctly identified Jakub Jerzy Orbach as the gymnasium student, "Jerzy Orbach" (Please add his MIDDLE NAME in the appropriate field and resubmit this entry for our databases!).

Aside from the similar names, he is identified in the Lodz Ghetto Database as a student ("schueler"), and his birth date is in the right time period to have been a gymnasium student in 1941. Good job!

Also, use the COMMENTS field to note that Orbach lived at Wirker Gasse 27 before moving to Baluter Ring 1 Flat 5 in the ghetto. He then moved to Baluter Ring 3 on November 9, 1941. The abbreviation "UMG" indicates relocation.

Jakub moved from Wirker Gasse 27 in Lodz to Baluter Ring
1 Flat 5 in the ghetto and then to Baluter Ring 3 also in the ghetto.

The Czestochowa Hasag Pelcery Labor Camp Index lists a prisoner named Jakub Orbach who was born in 1925. However, the list claims he lived in Czestochowa before the war. It also lists his occupation as "robotnica" - female worker, which he clearly is not.

Since secondary sources indicate that some prisoners from the Czestochowa camps were evacuated to Buchenwald, and postwar records indicate that Jakub Jerzy Orbach from Lodz was liberated there, I suspect that this might be the same person.

Because there is only a birth year, and the prewar location is off, we will have to list this data as only "possible." Perhaps someone will find additional information to help confirm whether your hunch is correct. Secondary sources indicate that there were two large transports of Jews from the Lodz ghetto to Czestochowa camps on March 4 and March 10, 1944 and a smaller one on May 3, 1944. Perhaps Jerzy Orbach was on one of those transports.

It looks like Jakub Jerzy Orbach survived the Holocaust. The Pinkas HaNitzolim I data appears to be a positive ID -- same name, birth date, and birth place. Also, if you cross-reference the World Jewish Congress names for Jakub's mother (Bracha) with the Lodz Ghetto Database, you find a woman named Brucha (born 1887) who lived at all three of the same addresses as Jakub. [Menachem, however, is not with them.]

Also, both Pinkaz HaNitzolim I and Sharit Ha Pletah list a man named Jerzy Orbach from Lodz, born in 1924, who was liberated at Dora (Nordhausen). Until October 1944, Dora was a subcamp of Buchenwald. Therefore, it is possible - given a birth year variation of only one year - that the Jerzy liberated at Dora (Nordhausen) may be the same one listed as liberated at Buchenwald.

Also, please make note of the following spellings for Jakub Jerzy Orbach's name:

World Jewish Congress - Jersy Orbech (born 1925 Lodz), Jecb Aurbach (born 1925 Poland), Jakub Orbach (born 1925 Lodz).

Pinkas HaNitzolim II - Jerzy Urbach (Lodz) and Jakub Urbach (Lodz)

Pinkas HaNitzolim I - Jerzy Orbach (born 1925 Lodz) and Jerzy Orbach (born 1924 Lodz)

Sharit Ha Pletah - Jerzy Orbach (born 1924 Lodz)

Finally, I'd love it if you double-checked on a hunch for me. A number of Lodz Jews were sent to forced labor in the region of Czestochowa in May 1944 and from there survivors were evacuated to Buchenwald (among other camps). Please go back to Stage 3 (Labor Camps) and double-check whether Jakub Jerzy Orbach was sent to Czestochowa. If he was, you can find out more about the camp (and Jerzy's experience) in the Secondary Sources under "Forced Labor Camps."

It appears pretty likely that Jerzy Orbach survived the Holocaust. An interesting mystery is whether he was liberated at Buchenwald or Dora (Nordhausen). There are entries in Pinkas HaNitzolim I and Sharit HaPlatah for a man liberated at Dora named Jerzy Orbach from Lodz who was born in 1924. Since the birth date is off by only a year, it makes me wonder.

Dora was a subcamp of Buchenwald until late in the war (October 1944). So, it conceivable that someone liberated at Dora might have been listed as liberated at Buchenwald (even though Dora was an independent camp by then). For the moment, the evidence for Jerzy Orbach being liberated at Buchenwald appears stronger.