The collection was donated to the Cape Town Holocaust Centre in 2011 after being purchased at an auction in a brown suitcase. It includes correspondence, documentation, photographs and ephemera related to the life of the elusive Edith Bruch. Little is known about her, and in the absence of any contact with her relatives, all of the information about the collection came from the material itself. Edith Bruch was born on 4 April 1915 in Zülpich, Germany to Herman Bruch and Robertine Levy. Edith attended school in Germany until she matriculated in 1919. She went on to apprentice at Maison Jenny (dressmaking), Amsterdam for one year, during which time she stayed with Kurt Bruch in Amsterdam, Holland. She then returned to Germany, taking on work as a dress maker in Munich until she immigrated to Cape Town in 1936. She married Roy Sorrell between April 1937 and March 1938. Edith and Roy Sorrell had three sons, Roger, Hugh and Marc.