Polak came from a family whose ancestry was traced to Jacob Akiba Levie (Judaleib) Sofer-Levie (Amsterdam, 1732–1776) and Judith Mozes Jacob Verdoner (Amsterdam, 1732–1783). One of their children, Mozes Jacob Levie Polak, was the hazzan of the Jewish community in Hoorn; born in Amsterdam in 1763, he died in Hoorn in 1842 and was buried in Hoorn's Jewish cemetery. He took the name "Polak" in Hoorn in 1813. His son, grandson, and great-grandson (H. M. Polak's father) were all butchers in Hoorn. One of Polak's uncle and his wife, and one of his aunts, perished in Sobibor. "Heiman Maurits Polak en zijn familie" (in Dutch). Vereniging Oud Hoorn. c. 2022. Retrieved 14 January 2024.
