Honoring the life and legacy of Rabbi Dr. Eliezer Orlan HaKohen, zt”l on the 80th anniversary of his liberation from Dachau.
My father, Rabbi Eliezer Orlan, was born on January 25, 1910 (Tu B’Shevat) in Biaäystok, Poland, to Baruch and Esther Urlanski, who owned a small bakery. He was the fifth of eight children in an Orthodox, hard-working, yet impoverished family. In the mid-1930s, his parents and most of his siblings emigrated to America, but my father stayed behind to continue learning in the great yeshiva of Novardok. He received semicha at the young age of 20 and was known in Biaäystok for his sharp mind, warmth, and deep commitment to Torah. The Kriniker Rav gave my father additional semicha only on the condition that my father give him and his family a bracha. In addition to his rabbinical learning, he studied medicine and practiced as a physician.
His younger sister, Dvora, also remained in Biaäystok, where she raised her family with her husband, Gedalia Sibirski, and their three children: Sonja, Avraham and Nachum. The families lived near each other and were close. In 1941, everything changed.
Biaäystok Ghetto:
July 1941-August 1943
The Germans invaded Biaäystok in June 1941. They ruthlessly and mercilessly launched what became known as “Red Friday,” burning Jews alive in the Great Synagogue and murdering thousands in the street. In August 1941, the Nazis forced 50,000 Jews into the newly created Biaäystok Ghetto. My father was among them.
Conditions in the ghetto were brutal. Jews were forced to manufacture textiles and weapons for the Germans, subsisting on little food. My father worked in one of the industries and lived in constant danger. His brother-in-law Gedalia was shot, and his sister Dvora and her two sons were deported to Auschwitz, where they were murdered.
Little Sonja remained behind with my father. He recounted once that she was hungry and he had saved an egg for her, but asked her to wait and eat it the next day. Unfortunately, the egg broke and was unsalvageable. He always regretted that moment. In August 1943, when the ghetto was liquidated, my father was sent to Blizyn and separated from Sonja.
Only recently did we learn from records in the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum that Sonja Sibirska was among 1,200 Jewish children transported from the Biaäystok Ghetto to Theresienstadt and then to Switzerland for a ransom of a large sum of money. But no such exchange occurred because the Grand Mufti Amin-Al Husseini, living in Berlin as a guest of Hitler, feared the children would find their way to Palestine. Husseini aggressively intervened and helped force the train to be rerouted to Auschwitz.
On Oct. 5, 1943—Erev Yom Kippur—Sonja and the other children were sent to Auschwitz and murdered in the gas chambers.
Al-Husseini went on to create the Muslim Brotherhood, trained the Fedayeen, including Yasser Arafat, and was the spiritual father of the PLO, led by Arafat. Hamas is a direct offshoot of Husseini’s organization.
Blizyn Labor Camp: August 1943-July 1944
Following the liquidation of the Biaäystok Ghetto, Rabbi Orlan was deported to the Blizyn labor camp, near Radom. The camp held 5,000-6,000 prisoners and was notorious for its cruelty. The SS commandant, Paul Nell, was infamous for unleashing his vicious dog on prisoners. Work conditions were grueling, and food was meager.
Inmates labored in armaments factories or quarries under inhumane conditions. Amid this suffering, Rabbi Orlan, with his medical knowledge, tried to help where he could. He remained in Blizyn until the camp was dismantled in July 1944.
Auschwitz: July 1944-October 1944
On Tisha B’Av, 1944, Rabbi Orlan was packed into a cattle car and sent to Auschwitz. The train journey took days, with no food or water. The horrors of that time never left him. For the rest of his life, he would weep each year while reading Megillat Eicha, unable to suppress the grief of those days.
At Auschwitz, he was struck by a kapo, leaving a deep gash in his leg. Drawing on his medical training, he inserted paper into the wound and held his leg up to the sun, using its heat to heal it. Despite the infection, he stood in the selection line before Josef Mengele—and miraculously, Mengele pointed and said, “Fix his leg and send him back to work.”
His tattooed number in Auschwitz was B-1877, which he later interpreted with faith and symbolism: B for bracha, 18 for chai (life), and 77 gematria for mazal (luck). That number came to represent both trauma and the divine spark that kept him alive.
Dachau and Liberation: October 1944-April 1945
From Auschwitz, Rabbi Orlan was transferred to Dachau and given the number 119491. There, he contracted typhus and weighed only 87 pounds and was near death. On April 29, 1945, he was liberated by the American forces. He was brought to a tuberculosis sanatorium in Stuttgart, where he began a slow recovery.
Even while he was a patient himself, he cared for others—providing medical and emotional support to survivors. His care and leadership were so impactful that the German director of the hospital, Dr. Ferd Späth, wrote him a heartfelt farewell letter thanking him for his compassion and dedication to others.
Amberg DP Camp: Rebuilding Jewish Life (1945-1947)
From Stuttgart, Rabbi Orlan moved to Amberg, where he became known as “Dr. Rabbiner” of the displaced persons camp. He quickly emerged as a pillar of spiritual and communal life—officiating weddings, performing brit milah and pidyon haben ceremonies, and leading religious services. He helped reestablish kashrut, built a mikvah, and provided both medical care and moral strength to survivors seeking to rebuild their lives.
One particularly moving story: My father saved the life of a baby girl for whom the doctors had given up hope. That child grew up to become the Ribnitzer Rebbetzin.
He served as president of the Congregation of Religious Jews of Amberg. Multiple documents and certificates confirm his official leadership role, and photos from the time show him seated proudly with community members outside a kosher soup kitchen, in a sukkah, rekindling Jewish life from the ashes.
Coming to America: 1947 and Beyond
In 1947, Rabbi Orlan immigrated to the United States to care for his elderly parents who had emigrated before the war. In 1949, he married Rose Discant, a devoted and gracious rebbetzin, and together they built a loving home in Rockaway Beach, New York.
He served as the mashgiach at the Park Inn Hotel, a popular location for rabbinic gatherings and Agudas Harabonim conventions. He formed close friendships with many gedolim of the time, including HaRav Yosef Eliyahu Henkin, HaRav Moshe Feinstein, HaRav Pinchus Teitz and HaRav Aaron Zlotowitz. Rabbi Sidney Hoenig famously described him through gematria as “Or Lanu”—a light for us.
Rabbi Orlan loved to daven and lein. Rabbi Teitz once said he would walk all the way from Elizabeth, New Jersey just to hear him lein. His sweet voice was filled with emotion and meaning as he spoke in Yiddish under the chuppah at my wedding. Rabbi Yosef Adler, who heard the recording years later, described it as “devarim ha’yotzim min ha’lev”—words that come straight from the heart.
Legacy of Kindness and Torah
Rabbi Orlan performed hundreds of weddings and could recite the entire ketubah by heart. Every Shabbos afternoon, he would say the entire Sefer Tehillim, a personal expression of gratitude to Hashem for his survival. His walks along the boardwalk with his wife often turned into animated Torah discussions with fellow rabbanim, while the wives waited patiently nearby.
He gave heartfelt brachos to his family during meals and throughout the day. His son-in-law, Bobby, once remarked that he had never heard so many people respond “Amen” at a family dinner.
He even inspired the local priest, who once thanked him sincerely for providing meaningful content to share with his own congregation.
A Grandfather’s Blessing
My father became a zaide at age 81. When Dov was born, my father gave him Birkat Kohanim, a blessing of peace and protection from Hashem. We were fortunate that he was the Sandek at Dov’s brit, transmitting his yiddishkeit and middot to our special and wonderful son.
Final Days and Eternal Light
Rabbi Dr. Eliezer Orlan passed away on April 22, 1996, corresponding to the third of Iyar, 5755. The date, like his tattoo, holds meaning:
- B = Iyar (second month)
- 18 = 18th day of the Omer
- 77 = Days from his birthday (Tu B’Shevat) to the third of Iyar
My father’s positive outlook and emunah in Hakadosh Baruch Hu has always been an inspiration. He would speak freely to Hashem as Tate in Himmel (Father in Heaven).
His favorite quotes were:
- To learn to speak takes two years, but to learn how and when to speak can take a lifetime.
- Tehillim and tea have to be hot: Daven with fervor!
- The darkest hour is just before dawn!
My father’s levaya was on April 23, 1996, the fourth of Iyar. Coincidentally, it is always the same day as Yom Hazikaron. The next day is the fifth of Iyar, which is Yom Ha’Atzmaut. From avelut to simcha, from darkness to light!
Until the end of his life, he continued to bless, to teach, and to inspire.
My father truly lived his name—Eliezer—Hashem helped him and he was an “Or Lanu,” a light to others. Even now, I sit in his chair when I daven and say Tehillim. I feel his presence. I feel his strength. He was one of a kind—and kind he was.
Yehi Zichro Baruch. May his memory be a blessing and a source of eternal light.
May this blessing finally come true, bimhera biyameinu … in our time!
