Refugee in search of a homeland

to see me again and he seemed quite pleased with me. He allowed me to go to Halberstadt and sit for the exams, but he warned me that if I didn't let my liver heal properly now, I could be left with a damaged liver for the rest of my life. I promised to be sensible.

The Sunday before the exams my parents took me by coach to Frau Starck in Halberstadt. I was only allowed to go to the exam and back to bed again. Frau Starck took over from Mutter and saw to it that I kept my promises. I passed on to her all my nervousness and excitement before the exams. She felt more jittery than we. We thanked her that she took over our nervousness, and laughed about it, but there was truth in it.

The strain of sitting for the written papers was almost unbearable. We had to sit for all subjects.

On Monday was a five hour paper for German, Tuesday four hours in Mathematics, Wednesday two hours only for Latin, Thursday three hours English. The rest of the week was free. The following Monday started with History (two hours), Geology (two hours), Physics (three hours), Chemistry (three hours), and a three hour paper in Biology on Friday. After I was through with the last paper I went home immediately and stayed in bed for another week.

But school was not over yet. There were still the oral examinations to come. We were told to expect an oral examination in about three subjects, but we were not told which subjects to prepare. The scout motto 'be prepared' was definitely for us!

Our teachers were terrific. The examiners were appointees from the city council, from the government department, as well as our own teachers. It was in their own interest to help us as much as they could. Eventually they told us how the system worked. Each student was given an assessment mark by his own subject teacher. Then the marks of the written exams were added. If they varied from the assessment marks, the student would be called for an oral exam in that subject. Having discovered that important information, we went to each subject master and asked, whether our marks were the same as their assessment marks. They were not allowed, of course, to tell us the actual marks, but this information helped. However, by the time we knew that, there wasn't much time left for extra studying anyhow.

Only in Maths I had a lower mark than my teacher's assessment. So I concluded that I was going to be examined orally only in Maths. As this had been my strongest subject, I could look forward to the exam with more confidence. I was determined to do well, as I wanted a credit. In all other subjects I had received the same marks as the subject masters had given me.

On the day of the oral examinations, we were all assembled in a class room next to the examination room, nervously hopping from one leg to the other. Every time a poor victim came out of the room he was bombarded with questions by us.

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