Willi was born on 25 September 1903 in Preußisch-Friedland, Germany to Kaspar and Helene nee Jacobsohn and he had five older brothers and a sister. Their parents both died in Germany in 1928 and only 2 of his siblings survived the war with the rest murdered in Auschwitz. Willi escaped from Nazi Germany to England and in 1939 he was listed as living at the Kitchener Camp, Sandwich in Kent and was listed as a master butcher.

In 1941, Willi married German born Johanna Lewy, who had also escaped from Germany, in Leeds, Yorkshire. Willi enlisted into the Pioneer Corps and was based in Sedgefield, County Durham. He died only a year after his marriage at Winterton Emergency hospital, Sedgefield from Lobar Pneumonia and Emphysema.