Willem Franken

Geslacht: Man
Vader: Simon Christiaan Franken
Moeder: Catharina Maria Overduin
Geboren: 7 Jan 1922 Assen
Overleden: 21 Apr 2012 Deventer
Religie: Ned. Hervormd
Beroep: componist, pianist en beiaardier
Aantekeningen: Last Name: Franken
First Name: Wim
Alias: WILLEM
Rescuer's fate: survived
Nationality: THE NETHERLANDS
Religion: CHRISTIAN
Gender: Male
Profession: STUDENT OF MUSIC
Place during the war: Hilversum, Noordholland, The Netherlands
Rescue Place: Hilversum, Noordholland, The Netherlands
Rescue mode: Hiding
File number: File from the Collection of the Righteous Among the Nations Department (M.31.2/3476)
When Ester van Son, a young Jewish girl from Hilversum, North Holland, was forced to go into hiding, she turned to the Franken family, who lived in the same town. Mrs. Franken, a widow, had three sons and a daughter. The eldest son, who was married to a Jewish woman who had converted to Christianity, was a clergyman in the village of Blokzijl, Overijssel. When the food shortage in Hilversum worsened, the Franken children sent their mother to her married son. The daughter, Johanna (Joop) Franken (later Legrand), and the other two sons, Wim and Sim, a music student and a medical student, who were themselves evading forced labor in Germany, remained at home. The Frankens did everything they could to help Jews: in addition to Ester, a Jewish couple, the Gottschalks, friends of the family, arrived from Assen, where the Frankens had lived before they moved to Hilversum. Their son Henry and his fiancée, Millie, came too. They did not hide with the Frankens but often came to their home, until the Germans caught them. Kathe Schlesinger, a young Jewish woman, actually hid in the Frankens’ house. Tob Chichou, a Jewish man whose wife and young daughters were being hidden elsewhere, was at first turned away by the Frankens, but they contacted him after their mother left and he hid with them. The Franken family was motivated by humanistic and Christian principles. Ester Lemmertse-van Son testified that they helped her for no financial reward. Sim, who was active in the underground, saved his sister-in-law’s mother and her aunt, whose name was Duparc. He brought them from the station in Zwolle to his brother’s house in Blokzijl and tried to get them forged documents. Joop was vigorously involved in all the rescue activities. She took care of everything: food, ration cards, and forged identity papers. She could be trusted without question. After the war she and her husband, a doctor, lived in the Third World for many years.
On September 8, 1986, Yad Vashem recognized Joop Legrand-Franken and her brothers, Sim Franken and Wim (Willem) Franken, as Righteous Among the Nations.