Hans Kronberger was born of Jewish parents in Linz, Austria, where his father was a leather merchant. Kronberger attended the Akademische Gymnasium in Linz, matriculating in Mathematics, Latin, Greek and German; he was a brilliant scholar. After the Anschluss, the annexation of Austria by Nazi Germany in 1938, Kronberger fled to Britain, arriving at Victoria Station with £10 and his school reports. He set about gaining entry to a university and was accepted at King's College, Newcastle, then a college of Durham University to read mechanical engineering. Following the fall of France, in May 1940 Kronberger was classified as a "friendly enemy alien" and interned on the Isle of Man. In July 1940, Kronberger, along with some 2500 refugees, was deported to Australia on board HMT Dunera ; during the voyage he and others were subjected to ill treatment. In Australia, he was interned first at a camp in Hay, New South Wales, then from May 1941 at Tatura in Victoria. He was released and returned to Britain in 1942. He was tutored by refugee scientists at the camps and it was mainly due to this experience that he changed his course to physics on resuming his studies at Newcastle. He graduated in 1944 with the Stroud Prize in Physics.