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Ernst Frinton (formerly Arnost Frischler) was born of poor Jewish parents in 1917. His father was a cobbler and his mother repaired and altered clothing. He grew up in Ostrava, an industrial town in the Czechoslovak Republic, with a mixture of Czech, German, Polish and Jewish residents. A popular student, he was involved in social-democratic activities and hoped to become a physician. With much sacrifice from the family, he entered Medical School at the German University in Prague in 1935. Frinton was in his third year of studies when the Nazis took over the University and he and his politically active friends had to flee the country.
Upon his arrival in England, the British Committee for Refugees from Czechoslovakia placed him with a family in the countryside. He found a way to carry on his medical studies at St. Mungo's College, one of the oldest medical schools in Glasgow. While still in school, he married Lili, herself a refugee from Berlin. She was looking after refugee children from Germany and Austria, a program financially supported by the Glasgow Jewish Community. Dr. Frinton started in General Practice in the slums of Glasgow.
In 1945, a few months after the war was over, the news came that his mother and sister had died in Auschwitz; his father also never returned from the labor camp. After Lili and Ernst's first child was born in 1946, the family moved to Liverpool where Frinton was offered an assistantship in a general practice. After two years, unable to find a medical practice with a future, they immigrated to Canada.
In Canada, Frinton accepted a coal miners' union-funded medical position in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains in Alberta. After a slow start in 1949, a busy medical practice evolved. In 1950 the Frintons' second child was born. Despite having endured and loved their time in Coal Valley, it was time to move on, and the family settled in the greater Vancouver area. Frinton and some partners developed a busy general practice in the Cloverdale and Surrey area of the Lower Mainland but by 1957 he was exhausted and suffered from recurrent back pain. Frinton decided to specialize in radiology. The family moved back to England, where Frinton started his two-year specialty studies at the Institute of Radiology in London. After a year Lili, was expecting their third child, so they returned to Vancouver before the baby was due.
Frinton completed his speciality training at St Paul's Hospital in Vancouver and in the USA and settled into a busy radiology practice in New Westminster for the next twenty years, retiring in 1982. There is an anonymous quotation at the outset of his autobiography: "Memories are a person's life - For we possess nothing certain except the past - which is always with us." Of his retirement years, Frinton writes: "So life goes on... I am happy that I have lived a long life... A good wife, three loving children, two beautiful granddaughters, many good friends, financial security... I often feel guilty to have all this while my parents and in particular, my younger sister, who was probably a better human being than I am, had to perish in misery... Life is not fair."
BOOKS:
Memories - An Autobiography (Self-published, 1994)
[BCBW 2020] Alan Twigg / HolocaustLit
Upon his arrival in England, the British Committee for Refugees from Czechoslovakia placed him with a family in the countryside. He found a way to carry on his medical studies at St. Mungo's College, one of the oldest medical schools in Glasgow. While still in school, he married Lili, herself a refugee from Berlin. She was looking after refugee children from Germany and Austria, a program financially supported by the Glasgow Jewish Community. Dr. Frinton started in General Practice in the slums of Glasgow.
In 1945, a few months after the war was over, the news came that his mother and sister had died in Auschwitz; his father also never returned from the labor camp. After Lili and Ernst's first child was born in 1946, the family moved to Liverpool where Frinton was offered an assistantship in a general practice. After two years, unable to find a medical practice with a future, they immigrated to Canada.
In Canada, Frinton accepted a coal miners' union-funded medical position in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains in Alberta. After a slow start in 1949, a busy medical practice evolved. In 1950 the Frintons' second child was born. Despite having endured and loved their time in Coal Valley, it was time to move on, and the family settled in the greater Vancouver area. Frinton and some partners developed a busy general practice in the Cloverdale and Surrey area of the Lower Mainland but by 1957 he was exhausted and suffered from recurrent back pain. Frinton decided to specialize in radiology. The family moved back to England, where Frinton started his two-year specialty studies at the Institute of Radiology in London. After a year Lili, was expecting their third child, so they returned to Vancouver before the baby was due.
Frinton completed his speciality training at St Paul's Hospital in Vancouver and in the USA and settled into a busy radiology practice in New Westminster for the next twenty years, retiring in 1982. There is an anonymous quotation at the outset of his autobiography: "Memories are a person's life - For we possess nothing certain except the past - which is always with us." Of his retirement years, Frinton writes: "So life goes on... I am happy that I have lived a long life... A good wife, three loving children, two beautiful granddaughters, many good friends, financial security... I often feel guilty to have all this while my parents and in particular, my younger sister, who was probably a better human being than I am, had to perish in misery... Life is not fair."
BOOKS:
Memories - An Autobiography (Self-published, 1994)
[BCBW 2020] Alan Twigg / HolocaustLit
