Gruen was unsure of what to do with himself after leaving high school. With consequences that would ramify at the end of his life, he worked for some time for a printer. In the same speech in which he promised to "fight on the beaches" Churchill announced widespread internment. "I know there are a great many people affected by the orders which we have made who are the passionate enemies of Nazi Germany. I am very sorry for them, but we cannot, at the present time and under the present stress, draw all the distinctions which we should like to do." Gruen was one such.