I had no intention of going to school on the Sabbath, but I could not object to a state school in New York because there were no classes there on Saturday anyway. Since my parents told the relief organization that took care of us that I intended to attend only a Jewish school, they arranged for me to attend a boarding school in Lakewood (New Jersey), about a hundred kilometers south of New York. My parents took me there by Greyhound bus and, although I did not want to stay, disappeared quite suddenly and left me there. I settled in quickly, however, but did not feel as comfortable as I had before in Esslingen. The boarding school was very different. The children came from wealthy families, the standard of living, food and lodging were anything but Spartan, and I had far less in common with my schoolmates than I had in Esslingen. A German-speaking boy from Lithuania lent me his Karl May library, which I devoured out of boredom. Only with the cook, the first black person I met and with whom I could converse well, did I make friends at that time. Because of my lack of English skills, I had been relegated to the fourth grade. However, a teacher devoted a lot of time to teaching me English and politics, so I made rapid progress.
Source: Wilma and Georg Iggers, Zwei Seiten der Geschichte. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2002, p. 67 (translation)