Jozeph Frank was a son of Hartog Samson Frank and Frouke Cohen. He was born in Groningen on 4 February 1907 and was a traveling salesman by profession. Jozeph married Siphora Henriette Levie on 8 September 1932, who was born in Assen on 24 July 1907, as the daughter of Jozef Levie and Bertha Blumenthal. Witnesses at the wedding were Sam Blumendal, 73 years old, uncle of the bride and Emanuel Keizer, 33 years old, brother-in-law of the groom. (spelling Blumenthal and Blumendal according to birth certificates).
Bertha Blumenthal passed away however on 27 August 1913 in Groningen, after which Jozef Levie remarried in Lochem on 1 September 1916 Elisabeth Fortuin, a daugther of Jacob Fortuin and Grietje van Kleef. Elisabeth was born there on 5 August 1882.
Sam Blumendal, then 73 years old, uncle of the bride and brother of Siphora's mother Bertha Blumenthal, was a merchant and shopkeeper in Groningen. At the time of her marriage, Siphora was working as a manager. It is not known where she worked, but it is not inconceivable that she might have worked in the shop of her 73-year-old uncle Sam. Incidentally, Sam Blumendal passed away in Groningen on 29 June 1938 and his wife, aunt Beate Sahmer, who came from Salzkotten (Germany), died there on 16 February 1941.
Jozeph and Siphora Henriette continued to live in Groningen, where also their two children were born: Hartog Jozef Frank was born on 21 April 1934 and Bertha Frouke Frank on 15 January 1937. Presumably sometime after Bertha Frouke's birth, the family moved to the municipality of Zuilen in the Province of Utrecht, where they moved into a house at Van Egmondkade 50. There they were also registered during the mandatory registration of all Jews in the Netherlands in 1941.
On 19 August 1942, Jozeph Frank's family was carried off to Westerbork and on 21 August, together with more than 1000 others, they were deported to Auschwitz. Upon arrival there on 23/24 August, 35-year-old Jozeph Frank was selected for employment. Not his wife and children; Siphora Henriette Frank-Levie and her children Hartog Jozef and Bertha Frouke were - as was customary at the time with women and children - loaded onto cars and driven to the gas chambers of Auschwitz-Birkenau, where they were immediately murdered on 23 August 1942.
Jozeph Frank, on the other hand, was put to work after arrival, but it is not known where he ended up. After the war, the Dutch authorities, partly based on investigations by the Red Cross, determined that given the appalling conditions and hardships under which prisoners had to "work", Jozeph Frank could no longer be alive after 30 September 1942.
The municipality of Zuilen was then instructed to draw up a death certificate for Jozeph Frank, which stated that he died in Auschwitz on 30 September 1942. However, when remaining remains of the death registers of Auschwitz were found, it could be determined that Jozeph Frank did not die on 30 September but "only" on 10 October 1942. In the “Sterbebücher” of Auschwitz this is described as “fate: 10-10-1942, murdered".
However, the website Joods Monument only publishes the official and legal dates of death, as determined after the war by the Ministry of Justice and as published in the Government Gazette. Jozeph's real fate is further described in the story “The Deviating Date of Death of Jozeph Frank”.
Sources include Groninger Archives/marriage Jozeph Frank x Siphora Henriette Levie; The Utrecht Archives/overview of Jews living in Zuilen in 1942, born between Aug 1882 and Aug 1924, with Jozeph Frank; the file cabinet of the Jewish Council, registration cards of Jozeph Frank, Siphora Henriette Levie and of Hartog Joseph Frank and Bertha Frouke Frank; the Utrecht Archives/death certificate no. 66 for Jozeph Frank dated 25 Aug 1950; website Memorial & Museum Auschwitz-Birkenau/Auschwitz Prisoners/Josef;Joseph Frank 1907 and the Wikipedia website Jodentransporten uit Nederland.nl/transport 21 Aug 1942.