Hans was born on 30 July 1899 in Neumarkt, Germany and his records state that before escaping Nazi Germany he worked as an innkeeper. In early 1939 he was imprisoned at Sachsenhausen concentration camp in Berlin and was released by the spring on the condition that he left Germany immediately. He travelled to England and was sent to Kitchener Camp in Kent and it was from there that he enlisted into the Royal Pioneer Corps.

In July 1945 he married Freiderike Tublin who was also a refugee from Germany. After the end of the war Hans worked as a waiter until he died aged forty-seven in 1947. His death certificate states that his cause of death was: 1a Acute Cardiac Failure, b Coronary Thrombosis.