By: Avery Jones
“This is a story that conveys a message of faith, perseverance, and, above all, hope.” This is the story of Marion Blumenthal Lazan. Marion Blumenthal Lazan not only lived through the Holocaust, but also chooses to share her experiences with as many people as possible. In a little over 20 years, Lazan has spoken to over one million people. On Wednesday April 18, Lazan came to Eaton High School to share her story with the students, teachers, and community members of Eaton. Lazan said she was deported to Camp Westerbork in Holland in 1939 when she was only five years old. Ironically, they were waiting for the US to approve their paperwork– paperwork that would send them to America six years later, only after her father’s death. All of her family’s belongings were burned. In January of 1944, Lazan was shipped to Bergen-Belsen. The only living space the prisoners were allowed was one hard bunk shared with another person. According to Lazan, “it was a dismal existence.” She said, “We, as children, saw things that no one, no matter what age, should ever have to see.”
In order to give herself a small reprieve from the atrocity of her reality, Lazan invented small games to distract herself. The most prominent game that Lazan recalls is the game in which she would search for four pebbles of the same size and shape. If she found all four pebbles, then that would signify that all members of her family; her, her father, her mother, and her brother Albert; would survive the camps and the Holocaust. Lazan says she cheated the game by stashing away pebbles and resorting to “finding” those when she lost hope. But as she says, “Hey, my game, my rules.”
Lazan said, “I am grateful— very grateful— that I survived.” She says that despite all the things that happened to her as a child, she has lived a very fulfilled life. Lazan begged the students to “Please, please share my story. Please, please, remember these messages. Remember them, share them, but, above all, live by them.”
Lazan’s overall message was one of hope and acceptance. She said, “Respect the right of others to their beliefs. And above all, don’t ever, ever give up hope.”
Lazan is so highly regarded and respected, that her home town, Hoya Germany established and opened a high school in her honor. The high school is named The Marion Blumenthal Hauptschule.
Lazan said that she was prompted to begin sharing her story with others when she realized we were running out of time. As she reminded the audience at Eaton High School, the current generation at the high school will be the last generation to ever hear a first-hand account of the Holocaust. According to her, the time is now. Lazan said, “As difficult as it is, the horror of the Holocaust must be told, must be taught, so that it may never be repeated.”