‘I want to do half an hour of maths with Maus. It's urgent because of the shoolwork she's facing. She simply doesn't want to. But after a strenuous exchange I leave the field as victor (which is quite something when you're up against Maus) and we plod through it for three quarters of an hour.’ According to her governess Lieselotte Schmidt, Friedelind either didn't do her homework at all, or ‘at best, five minutes before the deadline.’ These problems could be overcome, as in this case. But what really bothered Friedelind so much about school was the manner in which knowledge was presented. Years later she had nightmares when thinking back to her school years in Germany, whose education system seemed to her the epitome of ‘narrow-mindedness, intolerance, dogmatism. It was a systematic act of poisoning everything beautiful. Hate and revenge were the basic tenor of almost everything in school education after the First World War.’ Even if one has become accustomed to Friedelind's turn of phrase, her vehement dislike of school remains striking.