Location
Genthiner Straße 30 G
District
Tiergarten
Stone was laid
17 September 2019
Born
17 August 1924 in Berlin
Occupation
Unternehmer
Escape
1938 Flucht über Prag und Warschau nach England
Survived
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Peter und Helene Eisner © Familienbesitz -
Das Haus der Eisners in der Genthiner Straße © Familienbesitz
Peter Rudolf Hans Eisner was born on August 17th in Berlin. He lived in Genthiner Straße in the Berlin district of Tiergarten with his parents Rudolf and Hildegard Eisner and his younger sister Helene. His father was a successful industrialist owning a steel-mill who enabled the family to live a prosperous life.
But the Nazis coming into power in January 1933 changed everything, as the Eisner family was subjected to the full force of the anti-Semitic policies of the new state. With his business aryanised, stolen and absorbed by Mannesman Steel, Rudolf Eisner and his family fled Germany in February 1938. They first went to Prague, then Warsaw and finally to the UK, arriving on July 7th 1939, just before war broke out. The first day of Peter’s new London school coincided with the day war broke out, forcing him to adapt quickly to a new identity. Upon joining the British Army in 1943 he anglicised his name to Peter Roderick Easton and was posted to Kenya and Tanzania. Upon being demobilised, he arrived back to London a full year after his father died and set about building a new private and professional life. Despite being an atheist, he chose to convert to Protestantism for his first, short-lived marriage and then, after taking a job in New York in 1958 he met and married Bobbie Cecile (nee Toeman) and together they moved back to London where they had three children, Lynne, Nicola and Antony. After his wife’s premature death in 1987, he moved to Hampshire to be nearer his mother and sister and, following a successful career in business (including Public Relations work for several German companies and organisations) and politics (he stood for both the UK and European Parliaments), he died a proud Englishman and European, a child of two nations.
But the Nazis coming into power in January 1933 changed everything, as the Eisner family was subjected to the full force of the anti-Semitic policies of the new state. With his business aryanised, stolen and absorbed by Mannesman Steel, Rudolf Eisner and his family fled Germany in February 1938. They first went to Prague, then Warsaw and finally to the UK, arriving on July 7th 1939, just before war broke out. The first day of Peter’s new London school coincided with the day war broke out, forcing him to adapt quickly to a new identity. Upon joining the British Army in 1943 he anglicised his name to Peter Roderick Easton and was posted to Kenya and Tanzania. Upon being demobilised, he arrived back to London a full year after his father died and set about building a new private and professional life. Despite being an atheist, he chose to convert to Protestantism for his first, short-lived marriage and then, after taking a job in New York in 1958 he met and married Bobbie Cecile (nee Toeman) and together they moved back to London where they had three children, Lynne, Nicola and Antony. After his wife’s premature death in 1987, he moved to Hampshire to be nearer his mother and sister and, following a successful career in business (including Public Relations work for several German companies and organisations) and politics (he stood for both the UK and European Parliaments), he died a proud Englishman and European, a child of two nations.