Biography

About Roelof Frank.

Roelof Frank, born in Steenwijk in 1909, was a son of Joachim Salomon Frank and Dora Heijmans. 22 March 1935 he married in Oss  Betty Maijer from Brambauer (Germany), a daughter of Sigmund Maijer and Johanna Rosenbaum. They lived at Spoorlaan 66 in Oss where on 15 August 1938 their son Joachim was born.

Betty Mayer was a doctor's assistant and from 1 August 1942 she was principal and in charge  of the Resthome Hannah in Oss and therefore provisionally exempted from deportation (gesperrt). The archive of the Jewish Council reveal that  Betty and Joachim were repatriatred in Eindhoven after the war. They have survived the Shoah.

Roelof Frank was a medical doctor. During the war, he was a health officer and served with the Australian navy at the corvette Armidale at the time of the Battle for Timor. During that battle, the ship on which Roelof served, was hit by two air-torpedo's and sank, by which also Roelof Frank has lost his life. At the website GO2WAR2.nl (only Dutch language), the following is written about this battle:

Also the Dutch forces should be relieved by a detachment of 63 men, which was put together in Australia and under command of the 1st lieurtenant of the infantry Stoll. To bring the Dutch soldiers to Timor and to evacuate the 2nd Independent Company and Portuguese refugees, were  assigned in addition to the auxiliary vessel Kuru, the Australian Bathurst-class corvettes HMAS Castlemaine and HMAS Armidale. The operation was delayed due to bad weather and Japanese air raids on both corvettes.The Kuru could take 77 Portuguese women and children on board and drop them off at HMAS Castlemaine who evacuated them to Darwin. However, the Armidale, with the dutch troops on board was hit 1 December 1942 by two Janpanes air-torpedo's and sank. More than 100 of the 149 passengers and crew lost their lives with this heavy setback.

12 September 1946 the Municipality of Oss made out a certificate of death for Roelof Frank, based on a letter issued by the Ministery of War.

Sources: website wiewaswie.nl, certificates of birth, marriage and death for Roelof Frank, the website GO2WA@2.nl, the file cabinet of the Jewish Council, registration cards of Betty Frank-Mayer and Joachim Frank and addidition of a visitor of the website.

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