Arnstein, Hans (served as Ian Anson)

Private, Pioneer Corps
Service number 13051473
Died 22 Oct 1944
Buried East Ham (Marlow Road) Jewish Cemetery, United Kingdom
Age 36

Headstone Inscription
‘HE FOUGHT FOR THE FREEDOM OF MAN’


Hans was born on 22 November 1907 in Pilsen, Czech Republic to Anton and Anna and the family lived in Vienna, Austria where Hans studied as a law student. On 11 May 1938 in Vienna, the family submitted an application to leave to escape the Nazi regime, but Hans was deported on 30 July 1938 to Buchenwald concentration camp.

His application to leave Germany was approved and he managed to make his way to England. He was then found on the 1939 Register as living at Kitchener Camp in Kent and the records state that he was working as an iron smoother and was a hut orderly in the camp. Sadly, his parents were refused permission to leave and they were both murdered in the Holocaust in 1944.

Hans married Antonia Oberst, also a refugee from Germany, in January 1941 in Hendon and their son Michael was born in 1943 in Oxfordshire. Hans was by now working as a solicitor’s clerk.

Hans enlisted into the Pioneer Corps and changed his name to Ian Anson. On 22 October 1944, Hans died at the Emergency Hospital in Nuneaton, Warwick. His death certificate states: 1.a. Primary tumour of liver (histology unknown). b Laparotomy on 1 October 1944 failed to give more details.

NameHans Arnstein
NationalityAustrian German
Birth Date22 Nov 1907
Birth PlacePilsen/CSR.
Prior ResidenceWien II
Street AddressRotensterng. 23
Arrival Date30 Jul 1938
Arrival CountryGermany
Prisoner Number18335
Arrival Notestrain 30 Jul 1938
Disposition Notestransferred 22 Sep 1938 Buchenwald
DescriptionEnglish Jew Austrian German
Page126-Ky.
Original Notes (desc. / arr. / dis.)E. J. DÖ./ Zug. 30 Jul 1938/ üb. 22 Sep 1938 Bu.
Han’s deportation to Buchenwald