In 1937, as a student when he was travelling in Nuremberg, Heath met three of Adolf Hitler's top Nazi leaders Hermann Goering, Joseph Goebbels and Heinrich Himmler. He described Himmler as the most evil man he had ever met. Heath also travelled to Barcelona in Spain in 1938 at the time of the Spanish Civil War. In 1939, Heath went again to Germany, and returned to Britain before the outbreak of World War II.