After four years of grammar school, parents, grades and the family pocketbook would decide where you received your education. A test established whether you were fluent enough in writing, reading, spelling and math. Then there were further choices. But boys and girls definitely went to different schools. Just a half block from our house was a "Gymnasium," a secondary school with emphasis in classical languages and science, a highly regarded institute for college-bound students. But it was for boys only and I had to walk 35 minutes to my Real-gymnasium. My parents had chosen this school, which offered a combination of old and modern languages and a good measure of science. The tuition was 200 marks a semester. After I was admitted, I was locked in with my classmates for the next nine years. A pupil had no choices of subjects, only added classes for Greek, Italian or sports in the late afternoons. On Saturdays we had four to five hours of school also, but these were easy classes, such as art or music. The bell rang at eight o'clock and classes, with one short intermission, lasted until one o'clock. Then we hurried home to take the main meal with the family and were back at three, to have at least two more hours. Lots of homework rounded out the day with no time to get into trouble. Since we met with other children for the walk to school, there was ample opportunity for fun or pranks. A jumping contest over the famous narrow cemented waterways of the inner city was a favorite pastime. These had been built centuries before to keep the town clean.

Within a half year of each other my parents died. I was ten. After my mother's very long battle with multiple sclerosis, my father succumbed from cancer of the spine. Our cook and my sister Gretl, eight years older, were in charge of Susi and me. Our legal guardian was an uncle, who managed the finances but was hardly seen. His wife, Marie, was the one we feared. She was famous in the whole family for her sharp tongue and biting criticism. We tried to avoid seeing her, but sometimes we had to dress up, visit her and pay our respects.

Our grades continued to be good. We felt the responsibility of doing our best just as if our parents were watching over us.

After one year our big house was sold, and we moved with the cook and the dog into a spacious apartment closer to town. Gretl wanted to get away from it all after one more year and study in Königsberg. She and our guardian made arrangements for us two younger sisters. Susi went to a finishing school in Berlin. I had a girlfriend, Hussa, also an orphan, whose aunt managed a finishing school for young ladies in town. Willingly I moved in with Hussa and Annelies, another girl who also lived there and went to school in town.

We three were the youngest ones there, fifteen at that time. All of us yearned for a little more freedom. Hussa and Annelies had already secretly made male acquaintances.

"We want to go with them to a late movie," they told me shortly after I had moved in. "You have to be our support person. We have it all figured out. With the help of two bedsheets, we'll climb out of the window and down the trellis. You pull the sheets back up, remake the beds and wait until everyone is in bed. Then you must tiptoe down and unlock the back door." Since I was younger and the newcomer, I did what they asked me. Then I went to bed. One of the teachers slept on our floor. She was a light sleeper, and because of some former bad experiences, when she went to bed, she left her door a crack open, unknown to us. She greeted the girls when they crept up the stairs at twelve-thirty. The next morning all three of us had to appear before the matron. I was punished for aiding and abetting them just the same as Hussa and Annelies. We had to stay home a couple of weekends. My only worry was that the story might come to the ears of my aunt.