At Easter 1939 I was confirmed in the Lutheran church in Berlin- Karlshorst, after a year of preparation classes. As part of the preparation, we made an excursion to Wittenberg, where Martin Luther had nailed his theses to the church door. Each pupil was supposed to bring 2 Marks for the trip; the poorer ones could bring 1 Mark. I was expected to bring at least 50 Pfennig, but I didn't have even that much, because the ben Ahmeds didn't give me any pocket money apart from a Mark they had once given me at Christmas. I didn't dare to ask. Not long before that I had lost 50 Pfennig on the street while I was out shopping and hardly dared to go home. The result had been a sound beating.

Pastor Völkel took me along anyway and I still owe him the 50 Pfennig. Pastor Völkel was a big strong man with a powerful voice. I imagined Luther had been just like him. We confirmation pupils were all afraid of him; none of us would have dared to ask stupid questions in lessons, let alone act up. One day he remarked casually that he would have to cancel the next class because he had been summoned to the Prinz-Albrecht Strasse. A year later I was summoned there, too, but at that time I didn't know what it meant. He told us to behave ourselves, even if another pastor were to take over the classes. We kids didn't understand why he was bothering to say that. Or even what the point was of getting confirmed. As far as we were concerned the confirmation classes were just a necessary evil, and in fact in those days more young people were confirmed out of the church than into it.

The question of what to wear was my next problem, since of course there was no money for a confirmation suit. So the Youth Welfare Bureau produced a voucher for a complete outfit with a white shirt and black tie. The salesman struggled to find the smallest size in long pants, and they were still up to my armpits and had to be held up with suspenders.