Lincoln Junior High Students hear the story of Holocaust from survivor Marion Blumenthal Lazan

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[November 03, 2014]  LINCOLN - On Monday afternoon the student population of Lincoln Junior High School attended an all-school assembly to hear from guest speaker Marion Blumenthal Lazan. Lazan, who will be 80 years old this coming December, spoke to the kids about her life as a Holocaust survivor in World War II.

Lazan is the author of the book “Four Perfect Pebbles,” the story of her life and survival in a Nazi detention camp.

Lazan spoke for approximately 90 minutes. Her story, and her ability to tell her story kept the students nearly spellbound as they sat quietly listening to what Lazan had to say.

Most all of the students filled the bleachers of the school gymnasium. On the floor of the gym there were 60 chairs set up. Those chairs were filled by students who had submitted the best essays on World War II and the Holocaust in a school-wide competition. Twenty students were chosen from each of the three grade levels – sixth, seventh and eighth.


The afternoon began with Principal Mike Workman introducing the eighth grade language arts teacher, Tina Workman, who was the driving force behind organizing the essay competition and arranging for the guest speaker.

Workman spoke briefly, offering words of gratitude to the participating teachers. She said, “Creators of the common core learning standards would be greatly impressed with the depth of knowledge our students gained in these lessons. All the students were receptive and engaged during this study.”


 

She went on to say, “Thanks to all content area teachers who willingly gave up teaching time for this very important event (the assembly). Thanks to the administration for their support and to Integrity Data and Mrs. Ramlow for helping make this event a reality.”

Workman closed by introducing Lazan.

Lazan spoke to the students, stating first that her story was much like that of Anne Frank with one important distinction, Lazan survived.

Lazan was born Marion Blumenthal, in 1934. She was four years old when her family was taken prisoner. The Blumenthal family consisted of Marion, her mother and father and one brother. Her parents had envisioned the future of Jews in Germany, had applied for, and received immigration papers to go to America. In order to make that trip, the family left their home and went to Holland where they were to wait for their immigration number to come up so they could set sail. However, when the Germans invaded Holland the Blumenthal family was taken captive along with many other Jews awaiting transport.

The Blumenthal family spent the next seven years in two camps; Westerbork and Bergen-Belsen.

Speaking Monday, she described the conditions under which they lived, calling it “complete misery.”

Among the many horrific stories of detention, she described a night that her mother stole potatoes from the camp kitchen and attempted to boil them in the bunk the family shared in the prisoner barracks. When a surprise inspection by the Nazi soldiers occurred, her mother attempted to conceal her cooking and consequently spilled boiling water on Lazan’s leg. Lazan explained that prisoners had to be very good, and very quiet during inspections. Even though she was covered with boiling water she knew she dare not cry out, and she didn’t. Her leg was seriously burned and she suffered a great deal with it, but had she cried out, her mother would have been severely punished for stealing the potatoes, if not killed.

She said the barracks where her family lived had been built to house 100 prisoners. However, more than 600 people occupied the barracks. Bunks were small, but families had to share one bunk, and sometimes complete strangers had to sleep together in the narrow space.

She talked of how the winters were bitter cold, and there was only one small stove in the building, and often there was not firewood to burn. She recalled a day when the prisoners saw a wagon coming their way with what they first thought was a load of firewood. As the wagon drew closer, they realized it was a load of dead bodies, being taken to a mass burial.

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Lazan talked about her book, a subsequent documentary, and other documentaries, saying that no words, no pictures, could accurately describe the conditions under which people lived, and particularly, could not define the horrid stench of death that filled the camps.

She spoke about the electrified fences that surrounded the camps, and the sight of dead bodies hanging on the fences, the result of someone making a desperate attempt to escape. She said most of the deaths that occurred were from such attempts, or malnutrition, or dysentery.

She also spoke about the spread of Typhus throughout the camps, and shared that her father contracted Typhus. After seven years, the family was liberated, but her father died six weeks later from the Typhus.

Lazan also explained the title of her book. She said there were no playthings for children, so they made their own games. Her game was to gather stones. She worked to gather four at a time, each of similar size and shape. She said in her mind she believed that as long as she could find four perfect pebbles, her family would survive their ordeal. She said finding the four stones gave her some distant hope that all would be well.

In 1945, Lazan was 11 years old. In April of that year her family was loaded into a cattle car to be relocated. They were certain they were being sent to one of the death camps, where they would be gassed and placed in a mass grave with hundreds of others. However, as the train made its way to a new location, it was liberated by Russian soldiers.

With their freedom, the Blumethal family would be allowed to go to America. Lazan said they crossed the ocean and docked in Hoboken, New Jersey. From there they were sent to Peoria, where she lived her childhood. She met her husband Nathaniel Lazan while he was in Peoria attending Bradley University. They later married and moved to his home of New York.

She talked about her new life in America, her education, her relationship with Nathaniel, and shared a photo of her mother who lived to be 104 years old, dying just six weeks before her 105th birthday.

She told the students at LJHS that they were the last generation who would hear the stories of Holocaust from first hand survivors. She told them it was their duty to continue sharing the story when there were no more survivors. She said it was an important story of what hate can do, and that everyone needed to learn this. She also told them that in remembering the Holocaust, they should remember not to judge people by what they believe.

She told the kids, “You must bear witness” and said the lesson she wants all of them to learn is to be kind and good towards one another.

When Lazan finished, she opened the floor for questions from the students, and called on about a half dozen. She then invited the kids in the bleachers to come down on the floor. For several minutes she hugged students and spoke to them personally.
 


At 3 p.m. the students in the bleachers were sent to their last class of the day. The 60 winners of the essay competition received free copies of Lazan’s book. Those 60 stayed in the gymnasium and each one had their book autographed by the author.

Lazan’s story has been put in written form in her book “Four Perfect Pebbles’ a documentary “Marion’s Triumph” and a musical “Four Perfect Pebbles.” There is also a website http://www.fourperfectpebbles.com/ .

[Nila Smith]

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