Jeny Yafa Steiner Orbah

MAIL: adinomberg@walla.co.il , dafnakatz@gmail.com

Survivor: Jeny Yafa Steiner Orbah

Code: RelatioNet JE ST 35 CH RO

Family Name: Orbah

Previous Family Name: Steiner
First Name: Jeny Yafa
Father Name: Bernard Steiner

Mother Name: Helen Lea Fedder Steiner

Brother Name: Avraham Steiner

Year of birth: 1935

Country of birth: Romania

City of Birth: Chernivtsi
Interviewers: Dafna Katz and Adi Nomberg

                                                 Witness page of Helen Lea Fedder Steiner

The Interview with Jeny Yafa Steiner Orbah

My name is Yafa Orbah (maiden name Jeny Steiner). I was born in 1935 in the town Chernivtsi that was ruled at the time by the Ostro Hungarian Empire, (today it is ruled by Romania).

My mother was born in Chernivtsi, my father in Romania.

Before the war, we weren't a Jewish traditional family. I was 4 years old when the war started. That is why my memory isn't clear.

                     Yafa (in the red circle) and her family. Aunt Mali is in the yellow circle.

At the age of 4, we were deported to Transnistria. The Romanian local authority co-operated with the Germans.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                

We walked for days, and in order to cross the river on rafts and make it to Transnistria, we had to give away all our belongings.

On the way to Transnistria, farmers hunted us. We suffered, hunger, violence and persecutions. We sold all our belongings to get food. My parents sawed a small backpack to put my doll in.

In Transnestria it was hard. There were sickness, hunger and we had no shelter. At that time, my mother passed away in my arms, therefore, my brother and I stayed with our father.

When the Russians came, they took away my father to Siberia. My brother and I had to survive by ourselves without parents. We had nothing to eat, so in order to get food ,we gathered potato peels and we asked the farmers for food. The community supported us a little.

During that time, we were brought into an ultra-religious orphanage with a very harsh educational attitude. My brother couldn't deal with the harsh terms, therefore, he ran away to live in the streets. I stayed there and a year later, he came over to take me. We waited for our father to come back from Siberia. Until then ,we lived in the streets alone. Sometimes my brother had to steal things in order to keep us alive.

My father joined us. Later, my brother joined a youth movement and immigrated to Israel in 1947. As a result, my father and I were left alone.

I moved to an orphanage in a place named "Gura Humorului" where I stayed for about a year. There, we learned to read and a little Hebrew. Finally, I had a shelter and happiness. After that year, all the children from the orphanage were divided and put onto two ships that were supposed to get to Israel – "Pan York" and "Pan Crescent". When we almost arrived to Israel, the Britons turned us to Cyprus. After living in tents for half a year, they gathered about 600 children including myself onto a small ship that sailed to Israel in 1948.

In Israel, I took part in establishing villages, worked in agriculture and worked as a teacher. I have two daughters and 6 grandchildren from my late husband Binyamin Orbah.

                                                 Yafa's late husband Binyamin Orbah 

The Holocaust survivors represent the strength of the Jewish people. Despite the horrors that they had suffered, some of them immigrated to Israel, fought in the wars and took part in building the country.    

                                                         Yafa with her grandchildren

The Town - Chernivtsi

Chernivtsi  is located in the historic region of Bukovina, which is currently divided between Romania (south) and Ukraine (north). The city was first mentioned in 1408.

"Aside from Ukrainian, Chernivtsi  is also known by many different foreign names, which were used during times of rule by different countries throughout the city's history, or by the respective population groups at the time: Romanian: Cernăuți; German: Czernowitz; Yiddish: טשערנאוויץ, Polish: Czerniowce; Hungarian: Csernovic, Russian: Черновцы."

"When Austria-Hungary dissolved in 1918, the city and its surrounding area became a part of the Kingdom of Romania". In August 1941, Romanian military dictator ordered to create a ghetto in the city, where 50,000 Jews from the region were crammed. In October 1941, Two thirds of the Jews would be deported to Transnistria and the rest in early 1942, where most of them died. Romanian mayor of the city convinced the Romanian dictator  to raise the number of Jews free from deportation from 200 to 20,000. "In 1944, when Axis forces were driven out by the Red Army, the city was re-incorporated in the Ukrainian SSR." After the war, most of the Jews left for Israel and the United States.

In Chernivtsi lived Ukrainians, Romanians, Poles, Ruthenians, Jews, Roms and Germans. Since 1991, Chernitvtsi has been a part of the independent Ukraine. Today, there are about 5,000 Jews living in the city.

Coral synagogue of Chernivtsi, was built in 1877 and burned by the Nazis on July 9, 1941.

               The town Chernivtsi - located between Romania (south) and Ukraine (north).