It so happened that the best school...
in the neighborhood where we lived in terms of academic work...
and also the most convenient...
was a Catholic elementary school.
Now, Catholic elementary schools were supported...
by the Catholic diocese of Berlin,
but they were not, as in this country, taught by nuns or brothers.
They were lay teachers, and basically they had the same curriculum...
as the city schools,
with the exception that after regular classes,
there was a class in catechism.
And the Jewish kids in the school-- and there were a dozen or so--
were excused from that, and we could go home early.
And we did. Now, this was...
about 1931 and 1932.
In 1933, when the Nazis came to power,
this started to change,
because my classmates, who were my little friends--
We visited each other and played together and did our homework together, what have you--
must have picked up new vibrations at home,
because suddenly they called us "dirty Jew."
They called us other names.
They would not play with us. They would not invite us.
Some of their parents would telephone my parents and say, "I hope you understand,
but if my son plays with your son, then his other friends will"--
Et cetera. They knew what was going on.
They made excuses, but it didn't stop.
It was not an official policy of the school. The teachers were very fair.
They never-- This was never permitted in class.
There was never any reference in class to anything like that,
unless the public schools, where the antisemitism had...
become suddenly very rampant.