Hans Peter Frank (b. 1917) was the son of the Jewish divorce lawyer, Paul Frank (1884-1942) and Betty Frank née Baum (1891-1941) resident in Dortmund. Paul Frank had gone out to South Africa shortly after the Nazis came into power ostensibly to start a business as an art dealer which didn't work. Having then unsuccessfully tried is hand at mechanics, he returned to Germany.

In Dortmund he could only practise as a lawyer for Jewish clients so his wife became a traveling saleswoman selling linen. In the meantime their three children managed to leave Germany. Their son, Hans Peter Frank, recipient of the correspondence in this collection, went to South Africa.