March 29, 2024

Tragedy to triumph

Lazan shares her story of surviving the Holocaust

“Mine is a story that Anne Frank might have told, had she survived. … This is also a story that conveys a message of perseverance, determination, faith and, above all, hope.”

These words were uttered by Marion Blumenthal Lazan, a Holocaust survivor, during a special assembly for Clarke and Murray students in the gym at Clarke Community High School Monday, Feb. 23.

While Lazan’s intelligence and vivaciousness enraptured the students, she spoke with a sense of gravity about why her life’s story is a story that must be told.

Childhood

Lazan was born into a Jewish family in Bremen, Germany, in 1934.

During Adolph Hitler’s rise to power, the Blumenthal family, which consisted of Lazan’s father, mother and brother Albert, were trapped in Nazi Germany.

The Blumenthals managed to travel to Holland, but soon that country was occupied by the Nazis.

Over the course of six and a-half years, the Blumenthals were forced to live in refugee, transit and concentration camps. The camps included Westerbork in Holland and the notorious Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in Germany.

Camp horrors

Lazan recalled the first time she saw a wagon in the concentration camps. She originally thought the wagon contained firewood. She was wrong.

“I soon realized that what was in the wagon were dead, naked bodies — thrown one on top of the other,” Lazan said.

Frostbite was common in the concentration camps, so was hunger. What was worse, though, was the monthly “showers.”

“We had heard about the exterminations and gas chambers in other areas of Europe, and we, therefore, were never sure when the faucets were turned on, as to what would come out — water or gas,” Lazan said. “The Nazis did their utmost to break us physically, spiritually and emotionally. Unfortunately, they did succeed with many of our people.”

Four pebbles

Even at a young age, Lazan was not going to be broken. To survive, she developed her own game, which was based on finding pebbles.

If Lazan could find four perfect pebbles of almost exactly the same size and shape, it meant that her family would survive their terrible ordeal.

“It was a torturous, painful, very difficult game to play,” she said. “What would happen if I couldn’t find that fourth pebble? Might that mean that one or two of my family members would not survive? Nevertheless, this game gave me something to hold on to. Some distant hope.”

Years passed, and eventually World War II came to and end. Even though all of Lazan’s family survived Bergen-Belsen, her father Walter Blumenthal died of typhus right after their liberation. Typhus is a bacterial disease spread by lice or fleas, which were rampant in the concentration camps.

Starting over

It took the remaining members of the Blumenthal family three years of waiting and struggling to obtain the necessary papers that would allow them to board a ship to the United States in 1948. They eventually settled in Peoria, Ill.

Lazan came to the United States at the age of 13, and since she didn’t speak English, she was placed in a fourth grade classroom with 9-year-old students.

However, she diligently focused on her studies and graduated five years later from Peoria Central High School at the age of 18. Lazan was ranked eighth in a class of 267 students.

Through a scholarship, Lazan attended Bradley University. As for her personal life, Lazan married her husband Nathaniel and they live in Hewlett, N.Y.

The couple has three married children, nine grandchildren and one great-granddaughter.

Her story

Lazan began speaking publicly about her Holocaust experience in 1979.

She authored the award-winning memoir “Four Perfect Pebbles” about her childhood in the concentration camps. It has been published in English, Dutch, German and Japanese. It will soon be published in Hebrew.

There is also a documentary video on Lazan’s experience called “Marion’s Triumph.” The documentary is by Dr. John Chua with narration by actress Debra Messing of “Will and Grace” fame. The documentary is suitable for ages 10 and older.

As Lazan finished her speech, she asked all of the students to do her a favor — share her story.

These students will be the last generation who will hear first-hand accounts of Holocaust survivors.

“When we are not here any longer, it is you who will have to bear witness,” Lazan said. “As difficult as it is, the horror of the Holocaust must be taught, must be studied and kept alive. Only then, can we guard it from ever happening again.”