The Urbach family – parents David (b. 1898) and Chaya-Perla née Fryser (b. 1902), Poland and their daughters Rosa-Rose (b. 1925) and Regine (b. 1927) both born in Germany, lived in the city of Montech, in the Tarn-et-Garonne district of France. David Urbach was a salesman and his daughter Roza was a seamstress.
In May 1940, Germany invaded France and occupied the northern and western areas, while in the southern “Free Zone”, the Vichy government was established. The Urbachs lived in the Free Zone. The deportation of French Jewry to the east began in the spring of 1942. The last transport left the Drancy camp in August 1944.
On 7 May 1944, Perla and the two girls were deported from Toulouse to the Drancy transit camp.
On 13 May 1944, David was deported from Toulouse to Drancy.
On 20 May 1944, David, Perla and their two daughters were deported on transport no. 74 from Drancy to Auschwitz.
On 23 May 1944, on arrival at Auschwitz, David Urbach passed the selection and became prisoner number 5315 A. The last camp document listing David Urbach is dated 28 June 1944.
On 18 January 1945, David was forced on a death march together with other Auschwitz prisoners. The prisoners received a piece of bread, one tin of food for every four men, and a blanket. Thus equipped, they were forced to march dozens of kilometers in the biting cold, wearing rags and tramping through the thick snow in wooden clogs.
Totally exhausted and ridden with dysentery, the prisoners ate handfuls of snow to assuage their hunger. Prisoners who slowed down were shot by the SS. On 22 January, the prisoners approached a forest close to the villages of Malin and Rybnik. As they entered the forest, the guards opened fire, yelling that partisans were attacking the convoy. The dead and wounded were strewn in all directions. David Urbach was among the murdered.
Perla and Rosa Urbach survived. Rosa was liberated from Theresienstadt in April 1945.
Regine’s fate is unknown. In all likelihood, she was murdered.
