[1] Ernst Weiner was born on 13 December 1913 in Neustadt an der Waldnaab, Bavaria, Germany, to a merchant father.

After high school, he attended a seminary for a year to train as a Catholic priest, before giving up theology and working for a time in the Bavarian administration.

[3] However, historians Arnfinn Moland and Tore Pryser do not include Hammerø in this list, placing the number of victims at three.

[1][4] Following the Nazi surrender and end of World War II in Europe on 8 May 1945, Weiner disguised himself in a Wehrmacht uniform and used a false name to blend in with imprisoned German soldiers at a camp near Støren in Sør-Trøndelag.

[1] Weiner was interrogated as a part of the post-war legal purge in Norway, but was never convicted: on 17 December 1945, while being held at the Akershus Fortress, he shot and killed himself and a fellow prisoner.