Werner Jarowinsky was born in &lt;a href="Saint%20Petersburg"&gt;Leningrad (as Saint Petersburg / Petrograd had been renamed in 1924)&lt;/a&gt;. His father was a worker of whom little is known, probably originally from Germany. In or shortly after 1930 it appears that his father died and the rest of the family returned to Germany. He completed his schooling in 1941 and then undertook a two-year commercial apprenticeship in industry. Between 1943 and 1945 he undertook his military service in the German army. One result of the end of the war in May 1945 was an end to twelve years of Nazi dictatorship. The Communist Party was no longer banned. Later that year Jarowinsky joined it.