It was the Second World War that affected me. We were the only family of immigrants. My parents; they met here, but in that vicinity we were the only ones and people were different. Some people weren’t bothered by it; other people were very hostile because of my German background.

So, it wasn’t bad. My schoolmates were all very nice. I never had a bit of problem in school, never, but outside of that there were some people that were hateful but they didn’t do anything openly that was dangerous or anything. I just remember hearing somebody saying, “I don’t like Germans. Do you?” you know? In a loud enough voice to be heard, but other than things like that…

Oh yes, my mother had a chance to really learn English well and she blew it because she didn’t care. She said, “We didn’t pay any attention. We just had fun!” My father would have given his eye teeth for that but he didn’t have the chance. He just learned as he went along.

She blew it; she didn’t pay any attention. They didn’t try. They were just having fun; the people who went. A minister had set up classes for them. They just went and aggravated him I think, probably.

I don’t know too much about it really, but she had a group that she ran with around Fort Wayne and my father was on farms so he really didn’t meet people to any extent.

And he did learn much better English than she, although he had a heavy accent.

My wartime experience was very good in most ways; my classmates never said a word. I never ran into any prejudice because of it. I think all of them knew it, but no one ever said a word.

It was wonderful because I am sure they heard things at home and other places. I don’t know if the teachers had spoken to them privately before I was in the room or something, but never, never.

When the teacher would come in they would – can’t think of the word there – they would take a census every year and they would ask how many people were of such origin and how many people were of…Well, I was the only one who raised his hand when they asked about German even though there were names like Miller and Neiderheiser and…

The war started in ’41. I would have been in second or third grade I guess. And by the time it ended I would have been up in junior high or high school even. I can’t remember now.