… Ernst Schwerin remained in the house of his parents. Following elementary school, he attended the Bismarck Gymnasium, but left before receiving a high school diploma. From 1935 to 1938 he completed a bricklayer apprenticeship in Neidenburg in the district of Masuren. A planned emigration to Australia did not materialize, and in 1939 he was required to do forced labor at the German Arms and Ammunition Factory. He avoided arrest during the infamous “Factory Action” at the end of February 1943, having been warned by his father and colleagues. He first stayed with a neighbor for a few days, but then decided to go underground with two friends (one of them being Gert Ehrlich). Various helpers and living quarters enabled him to survive, and in November 1943 he illegally crossed the Swiss border together with Gert Ehrlich. The two the friends first lived in a labor camp for internees in Möhlin (from November 28, 1943 to December 28, 1944). In December 1944, Ernst H. P. Schwerin was allowed to begin studying structural engineering in Basel. During the war he reestablished contact with his former Berlin girlfriend Ursula Tarnowski, who had emigrated with her parents in 1941 to the United States. With the help of her family he was able to travel to New York in 1947 and married Ursula Tarnowski a short time later.
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