 They returned only briefly to Germany before embarking to New York City, where his father had secured a post at New York University—and immigration visas to the US.Ernest became an American citizen in 1940.Fluent in English from both early lessons and the recent period enrolled at the Perse School in Cambridge, Ernest was accepted at the Fieldston School of the School for Ethical Culture, with a scholarship, thanks to intervention by family friend (and Fieldston alumnus), J. Robert Oppenheimer.