Cato Ossendrijver was the first child of Andries Ossendrijver and Hanna de Vries. She was born 10 August 1888 in Amsterdam and married there Hartog Frank on 31 may 1911, a son of Andries Frank and Rachel de Vries. The couple had three children, namely Hanna Rachel, who was born in Vlissingen in 1913; Andries in 1914 in Tiel and Alexander in 1923 in Middelburg. All were killed during the Shoah.
Cato’s husband Hartog Frank was educated at the Dutch Israelitic Seminary as religious teacher and cantor and he was director of the Orphanage in Leiden. Also Cato was four years director of this Orphanage and has been a hotel keeper too. Both were registered in Amsterdam since February 1927 as guest house holder.
After their wedding, Cato and Hartog lived at various places in The Netherlands. Their first address was however in Amsterdam at Weesperstraat 116, where they lived in with Cato’s parents Andries and Hanna Ossendrijver.
On 9 February 1928 the Frank family was unsubscribed from Amsterdam to Oosterbeek in the municipality of Renkum, where they resided at Utrechtseweg 48. In 1928 they returned to Amsterdam where they shortly lived in with Cato’s parents at Swammerdamstraat 68. In June 1929 they left Amsterdam again for Bergen in Noord Holland, where they lived till September 1932 in the Jan Oldenburglaan 11.
It is not known whether Hartog and Cato Frank also had a guest house in the years that they lived in Renkum and Bergen. But certain is that after their return in Amsterdam in 1932, they runned a Rest Home in the Plantage Franschelaan 11, “Rest Home Frank”, where they accommodated fifteen guests. (this lane was renamed in September 1945 into Henri Polaklaan). After their return in 1932 from Bergen, they have lived at various addresses in Amsterdam, but on 7 March 1939, they moved in themselves to Plantage Franschelaan 11 too, their last known address in Amsterdam.
Hartog Frank was “exempted from deportation until further notice because of function”, but was taken to Westerbork on 4 February 1943. Also Cato Ossendrijver had such an “exemption because of function”, but was carried off together with her husband to Westerbork. At the time of the registration of the Jews by the Jewish Council in 1941, it has been recorded on Hartog’s registration card that he suffered from a spinal cord inflammation and that he was nearly totally paralysed. He ended up in Westerbork in the hospital barrack 84 and his wife Cato had to stay in barrack 55.
Both were put on transport to Auschwitz on 16 February 1943 where on arrival on 19 February 1943 they have been killed immediately.
Sources among others: City Archive of Amsterdam, family registration card and archive cards of Hartog Frank and Cato Ossendrijver and the file cabinet of the Jewish Council, registration cards of Hartof Frank and Cato Frank-Ossendrijver.