Nathan Polak was the eldest of the six children of Levie Frank and Henderina Cohen. He was born on 16 May 1899 in Rotterdam and married there on 30 October 1929 Betje de Leeuw from Hoogeveen, born there on 10 August 1901 as daughter of Salomon de Leeuw and Klara Brest. Nathan Frank and Betje de Leeuw had no children.
Betje de Leeuw arrived from Hoogeveen in Rotterdam already on 13 May 1924, were she went to work as maid and as apprentice nurse in the Israelitic Old Peoples Institution at the Claes de Vrieselaan 70. But up from 15 November 1924, she lodged with a Cohen family at the ‘s-Gravendijksewal 26a.
Nathan Frank was a warehouse clerk. After his wedding to Betje, he lived with her up from 30 October 1929 in the Hugo Molenaarstraat 61 in Rotterdam. After some more moves, as in 1930 to the Goudscherijweg, in 1934 to the Goudscheweg and in 1935 to the Warmoezierstraat, their last known address in Rotterdam became – after having moved one more time – Essenburgsingel 150a, where they have lived until summer of 1942.
In the end of July 1942, Nathan Frank and Betje de Leeuw were drafted into the so-called “Arbeitseinsatz”- provision of additional work in Germany – and responded to that call and reported to Loods 24, the departure point for Jews in Rotterdam to Westerbork. They went with the first transport to Westerbork which left in the night of 30/31 July and were registered in Westerbork on 31 July 1942. On 3 August, they were deported to Auschwitz, along with 1011 other “summons”, where they arrived on the night of 5/6 August 1942.
Nathan Frank and his wife Betje de Leeuw were deployed in Auschwitz as forced labourers. The circumstances there were terrible and the Sterbebücher (death records) of Auschwitz showed that Nathan Frank has already died there on 31 August 1942. Those death registers of Auschwitz had no indication about the death of Betje de Leeuw there.
Because it was not clear after the war under what circumstances Nathan Frank and Betje de Leeuw died in Auschwitz, the Dutch Ministry of Justice ordered the Municipality of Rotterdam to draw up death certificates for both, in which it has been established that Nathan Frank and Betje Frank-de Leeuw have died on September 30, 1942 in Auschwitz.
Sources include the Rotterdam City Archives, family registration cards of Nathan Frank and Betje de Leeuw, the marriage Nathan Frank/Betje de Leeuw in Rotterdam; website Joods Erfgoed Rotterdam/Claes de Vrieselaan 70; the file cabinet of the Jewish Council, registration cards of Nathan Frank and Betje de Leeuw; the website Jodentransporten from Nederland.nl and the death certificates from Rotterdam for Nathan Frank, no. 1650-folio 64v of 30 June 1950 and for Betje Frank-de Leeuw from Rotterdam, no.1809, folio 2-95v of 30 June 1950 and additions of visitors to the website.