We children were very enthusiastic about the new youth movement known as the Hitler Youth (HJ). You couldn't join until you were fourteen, but children aged ten and above were called on to join its Jungvolk section. Almost all my schoolmates joined the Jungvolk and talked excitedly about the comradeship they enjoyed and the “games” they played. Naturally they urged me to come along and naturally I agreed and we went to the next meeting of the “troop” together. And just as naturally I was sent away again. Before I went, though, it was made clear to me that I wasn't one of the “Volk” and accordingly couldn't be a member of the Jungvolk.

From this point on things changed at school. The atmosphere was not poisoned yet, but my schoolmates looked at me differently and I saw them with new eyes, too. Only in sports, that was where I could still stand out. Especially in track events, nobody could match my times. In inter-school meets I was always faster than anybody else over short distances. The pupils from the other schools always said enviously, “If you're bringing Jesse Owens with you, we haven't got a chance.” Once I heard two teachers talking about me and one said, “A great prospect for the ‘44 Olympics, too bad…” That was all he said. The black American athlete Owens had already set five new world records in 1935 and was the star at the 1936 Berlin Olympic Games. I was lucky enough to be able to go to the stadium with my class to watch him run. He became my idol and I wanted to be like him. But as we know there were no Olympic Games in 1944 or even in 1940, and within a few years my talent for running had abandoned me.

My problems with writing had quickly disappeared. The head teacher and my class teacher both insisted that I should go to an academic secondary school, and they did all they could to persuade my foster parents. The ben Ahmeds were not at all enthusiastic, but in the end they agreed.