At first I felt quite comfortable at school, also because the pressure was much less. Despite strict discipline in the German Talmud Torah School, where the children frequently played tricks on the teachers, the classes in Richmond behaved much more orderly. I found the classes too easy at first and was surprised at how poorly informed many of the male and female teachers were - there were almost exclusively female teachers, in contrast to Germany, where I had almost only male teachers - about the world outside the United States and how poorly educated they seemed to me overall. In the traditional subjects, I was far superior to my American peers because of my German schooling, and within a few weeks I was transferred to the eighth grade. This had its advantages and disadvantages.
My adjustment to the American world was probably more difficult than that of many of my emigrated peers. After all, the years in Germany had shaped me a lot, not only the Jewish environment, but also the German environment. I came to Richmond as an Orthodox Jew into a decidedly Protestant environment. The elementary school Knauerstraße with teacher Pohle, the contacts with Jewish children in the gymnastics club Bar Kochba and in the Zionist youth group, and the children’s home in Esslingen had all contributed to creating in me a world view that was difficult to reconcile with the world I found in America. America in 1939 was entirely different from Germany, not only politically but in almost every respect, much more advanced in the process of social modernization described by sociologists. Although America had not yet recovered from the economic crisis, unlike Germany, which was rearming militarily, the standard of living here was significantly higher, even in the American South, which was much poorer than the North. Except for black neighborhoods, one saw little social misery in Richmond, unlike in rural areas, where there was also much white poverty. Motorization, which did not really take off in Germany until after 1960, had taken hold in America right after the First World War. In 1939, the majority of American families were already motorized; in Germany at that time, according to official statistics, there was one passenger car for every 65 people. Most American households had electric refrigerators, washing machines, telephones and radios. Food was plentiful. People did not skimp on food, especially meat. America was much further along the road to a consumer society than Germany. With consumption, the commercialization of culture had also developed further.
My first impression, which changed later, however, was that Americans were much more superficial and materialistic than Germans - or even than Zionists. Luxury was an outrage for me. One had to live modestly. I was disturbed in America by the enormous material waste. I was rooted, quite without knowing it, in German romanticism, which in a certain respect had also been the romanticism of the Zionist youth movement.
Source: Wilma and Georg Iggers, Zwei Seiten der Geschichte. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2002, p. 69ff (translation)