Willner, his mother and his father, a veteran of the German Army from World War I and recipient of the Iron Cross, fled Germany in 1939 due to the worsening situation for the Jews. They went initially to Belgium and then to France. Following the German occupation of France, they were arrested and transported from Drancy internment camp near Paris to Auschwitz.^[1] Willner's mother was immediately sent to the gas chambers, the SS made the male Willners slave laborers at subcamps of Auschwitz. At one of those camps, Blechhammer, Willner’s father became ill and was sent to Auschwitz and murdered.^[2] The SS put the prisoners, including Willner, on a death march to Gross-Rosen concentration camp, where he was then transported by train to Buchenwald and then on to one of Buchenwald's sub-camps, Langenstein-Zwieberge.

The work at Langenstein was excavation of rock in order to build tunnels to hide (from allied reconnaissance) production facilities for the Junkers factories that would build new types of aircraft and weapons.^[3] The work was extraordinarily harsh even by Nazi concentration camp standards. On average prisoners survived six weeks.

Towards the end of the war, the SS put Willner and the other prisoners on another death march. At one point Willner and five others prisoners attempted to escape; Willner and one other prisoner, his close friend Maurits Swaab, were successful despite gunfire from the guards, the fate of the others is unknown.

By following the sounds of artillery, Willner and Swaab found the U.S. Army 3rd Armored Division, 32nd Regiment, Company D.^[4] As the company advanced further eastward, the two survivors pointed out German positions which they had observed during their escape. The unit's medical personnel examined Willner and indicated he weighed 75 pounds. The soldiers of the division cared for the two survivors over several months and returned them to health.^[5] After the war Willner learned that 27 members of his family had been murdered by the Nazis.^[6]

After the war, Willner immigrated to the United States and dedicated his life to service to the country that liberated him. He enlisted in the US Army and served for 21 years. Willner served in Europe, Korea and Japan, primarily as a criminal investigator and intelligence officer. He retired in 1969 as a major. Willner continued to serve his country as a US federal government employee for another 20 years and as a volunteer for 20 years on the Falls Church, Virginia, Law Enforcement Safety and Advisory Commission.

Eddie Willner married a German, Johanna, who had fled the Russian occupation of Germany. Johanna is the author of Christine: A Life in Germany after World War II, a novel based on the three years before her escape from East Germany. Nina Willner, Eddie and Johanna's daughter, wrote Forty Autumns: A Family's Story of Courage and Survival on Both Sides of the Berlin Wall, a narrative non-fiction book which further details the family's journey through the Cold War. Eddie and Johanna were married for 49 years until his death in 2008. They had six children.

Willner is buried in Arlington National Cemetery in Section 60, Grave 15.