 His father was captured and incarcerated as a prisoner of war and did not return home until 1947, by which time he had become an alcoholic.Ernst was the fourth in a family of six children consisting of a brother, who later became an attorney in the United States, and four sisters.He studied graphic art at trade school, graduating in 1957 and emigrated to Canada in 1958, when he was 19, to avoid conscription by the German military.