During WWII Joseph worked for the Music Corps of the Stettin Harbor Police, often playing music for the workmen as they cleaned the battle ships, where he remained until Germany surrendered. From 1945 - 1946 he was held prisoner under Soviet occupation in Stettin and survived as a musician and painter for the Soviets. He worked as a performer of palliative music in army hospitals. He told stories of having to paint over masterpieces and if he had refused to do so the Soviets would have shot him. He also painted propaganda signs and large outside murals of Soviet leaders/ war heroes like Stalin. They were so large that he had to run down the ladder to get perspective of what he painted. After being release in 1946 he rejoined family in Munich where he worked briefly as a graphic design artist for the company Überreuther, until he was let go during the currency reform. He sold paintings to occupation soldiers to make a little bit of money. He played violin in a small chamber orchestra and then for a short period he was with the Ukraine Opera Orchestra. These were difficult years scrounging to make ends meet as had been the case after WWI.

In 1952 he immigrated with this wife Elsa to Canada to join his daughters in Windsor and Detroit. He worked as a custodian at Grinell's Music Store first in Detroit and later in Windsor where he also gave music lessons and tunned pianos to make extra money. The following year Joseph auditioned for Matti Holli of the Windsor Symphony with the piece Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto, was hired and served as a member of the Windsor Symphony for 29 years (1953-1982). He was a first violinist for most of his tenure (only becoming second violinist in the last few years when his arthritis and vision bothered him). Concerts where preformed at the Cleary Auditorium on Riverside Dr.