Frank Engelmann’s family were Donauschwaben, ethnic Germans, who had lived in Novoselo, in the state of Batschka, Yugoslavia, since 1683. He was born in Augsburg, Germany. His father was a POW in Germany; he spoke six languages and was able to use his authority as a valuable translator to send for his wife and bring her to Germany, where he had an apartment. This is where Frank was born. Frank Engelmann spent many years in three concentration camps run by the Partisans in Yugoslavia before he and his family were finally able to escape and come to America.

After attending school in America, Frank Engelmann spent thirty-two years teaching German and English at Kent Roosevelt High School. He also wrote a book about his and his family’s experiences in the camps, Blondes: Allied Atrocities of World War II. He is now retired and lives in Kent, Ohio.