His father kept a pub (carciuma) located close to the Barlad barracks. At the end of the thirties, Ozias ended the Commercial High School of Barlad and started to work as a bookkeeper. Ozias was the head of Beitar Barlad branch and he held this position from 1937/38 until the outbreak of World War II, according to the Epstein-Cohen version, or until the eve of his departure, according to the oral testimony I heard from Shabetai Nadiv. According to the data given in the victims’ record, Ozias Blank’s age was 28.[20] During Blank’s period the branch grew from 120 to 200 members, at the time he completed his term of office.[21] When he sailed on the Struma, Blank was still a bachelor. Upon his death, he left, as Shaul Cohen (Cahani) informed me, two or three sisters; one of them, Neti, was also a member of Beitar in Barlad.