Why Is Henry Grossvatwer's Early Childhood

HENRY EXNER foot note 40

Henry's father attended a trade school and was an excellent carpenter living in East Berlin. The Exner Hoch and Tiefball Firm was a construction company that won the contract for building all the seating for the 1936 Olympic Stadium. The family also owned a wood manufacturing factory in Joachimothall where Henry first saw and met at the age of 15, Inge Worko whom he married in late 1937.

The family with their three daughters and son Henry spent their summers in Parlow, a place in the country where they fished and hunted, a privilege and custom of the times. During the war, the father moved his very young family to their summer home in Tempelfelde, located a short distance from Berlin.

Rose Marie
When little Henry and Maria were taken for a visit at their house, they had a meal under a shady birch tree in their beautiful garden. It was a magical place, surrounded by fruit trees, currant bushes and raspberries. Grossvatwer had small out buildings behind their house, where he raised chickens in keeping with the custom of the times to provide food for the family. On Sundays, Grossvatwer took his children hiking around the Werbillinsee. They took along some baking , stopping part way at a little inn for coffee and to rest. This same lake became the winter playground for skating for the young folk of the
To brush up on her English , she took a course called English for New Canadians at the nearby Central High. Both parents had graduated with English in their school years in Germany. Later Inge took a stenographer's course with a view to becoming a doctor's secretary.

Siegfried Warko came to Canada, with his wife Klara, in 1952, settling in Hamilton. He acquired great skills for his own gardens once he settled in Owen Sound, in turn inspiring Rosemarie's families.

Growing up in Hamilton Henry had his own struggles because some of the boys at school called him a D. P. His sister believes that Henry had no idea what the remark meant , but he challenged a bully to a boxing fight. The gym teacher oversaw the after school event. His sister was not certain of the outcome of the bout, but she thinks Henry felt vindicated.

Henry and Rosemarie attended Tweedsmuir Public School. Their home room teacher assigned Ruthie and Grace Yee to have them read aloud to them to improve and build their confidence with the spoken word. They had already in Germany studied the English language since grade five and they knew the rules of