Born on 26 August 1897 in Guebwiller, Alsace, Joseph Storck was the eldest of nine children. In 1912, he enrolled at the preparatory school and then the teacher-training college in Colmar. He was called up in September 1914 and served in the artillery on the Eastern Front until 1918.

​After the war, Storck completed his studies in Aix-en-Provence and began a career in education. He taught in several towns before becoming a teacher of literature in Colmar in 1928, then a senior teacher in Carcassonne in 1931.

​In 1938, Joseph Storck was appointed headteacher of the Lycée Gay-Lussac in Limoges. In 1940, he was called up to serve on the Lorraine front and in Belgium as an artillery battery commander.

​At the start of the Second World War, his school had around fifty Jewish pupils, including Marcel Mangel, later known as Marcel Marceau. Storck provided them with false papers and ration cards produced in his clandestine printing press. When German forces occupied Limoges in November 1942, Joseph Storck took further risks by sheltering Lazare Landau, a 14-year-old Jewish pupil, in his home. In 1944, when the Milice raided the school, the headmaster hid the pupil in a room in his office for the duration of the operation.

Joseph Storck also protected pupils involved in the Resistance. In May 1943, eleven pupils belonging to the organisation known as the ‘17th Barreau’ were arrested and interned at the Nexon camp. When ordered to expel them, Joseph Storck and Mr Font, the history teacher, defended them before the disciplinary committee. The headteacher visited them at the camp, arranged for their homework to be marked and secured permission for them to sit their exams.

​After the Liberation, Storck joined the Departmental Liberation Committee (CDL). In 1944, he became an education inspector in Alsace, first in Altkirch and then in Colmar. He was elected Mayor of Guebwiller from 1971 to 1977.

​Joseph Storck died on 4 January 1989 in Biarritz. In 1998, he was recognised as Righteous Among the Nations by Yad Vashem. As an honorary citizen of Limoges, a street in the town bears his name.