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 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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