Heinrich Orlean lived with his family in Dortmund from 1914, initially at Schlosserstrasse 4, and later at Oesterholzstr. 87. Together with his brother Jakob (link to text on Jakob Orlean, Oesterholzstr. 87), he kept a textile and clothing store at Oesterholzstr. 87. In 1931, he married Paula Sophie Stern.
The Orleans had two children, Ludwig and Johanna Gerda, and went to live in the house of the wife’s parents at Klosterstrasse 4.
On 3 March 1938, the family were forced to sell the house in Klosterstrasse and go and live in a “Jew house” at Westenhellweg 91/93.

In the “Pogrom night” of 9 November 1938, the shop and residential premises in Oesterholzstrasse were plundered. In March 1939, Heinrich Orlean was taken into “preventive custody” Steinwache police station by the Gestapo; in October, the business assets were seized. On 15 January 1940, Heinrich Orlean was deported from Steinwache police station to Sachsenhausen concentration camp, and on 3 September transferred from there to Dachau concentration camp. Also here, he was recorded as a “prisoner in preventive custody” and given the prisoner number 17 737. Heinrich Orlean was murdered on 7 June 1941 in Dachau concentration camp, although the official cause of death was stated as “Failure of the heart and circulatory system”.
Following the detention of Heinrich Orleans, the remaining family members moved into a “Jew house” at Mallinckrodtstr. 139.

On 27 January 1942, the Orleans and Sterns were deported from Dortmund to Riga, where the parents/parents-in-law, Isidor and Charlotte Stern, were murdered.
Paula Orlean was transported on 9 August 1942 from Riga to Stutthof concentration camp. There, she was murdered on 30 October 1944, though the official cause of her death was given as “general physical debility”. Her body was cremated a day later in Stutthof.

Ludwig Orlean was taken on an unknown date from Riga to Kauen ghetto/concentration camp. On 25 July 1944, he was sent to Stutthof concentration camp, and then transferred from there on 10 September 1944 to Auschwitz, where he was murdered immediately after his arrival.

The time and place of death of Gerda Orlean cannot be established with any certainty, but she was presumably already murdered in the Riga ghetto.