First-Hand History at the 7th Grade Center

Marion Blumenthal Lazan was just four years old in 1939 when she, her parents, and her older brother Albert fled Germany for Holland after Adolf Hitler's government began persecuting Jews. 

At an assembly this afternoon, she told her story to Spring-Ford's sixth and seventh graders. 

Blumenthal is the author of "Four Perfect Pebbles," co-written with Lila Perl. "Four Perfect Pebbles" recounts Blumenthal's six and a half years as a Nazi prisoner. 

Blumenthal spends her days traveling and speaking to community and school groups about her story and its central message: "Be good, be kind and be respectful of one another." 

Blumenthal strongly believes that people should keep teaching and talking about the Holocaust so that it never happens again. 

Blumenthal's childhood in concentration camps began with them fleeing to the Netherlands after the Nazis came to power. Their first stop was a Dutch refugee camp called Westerbork. In 1942, the Nazis invaded the Netherlands, and Westerbork became a gateway camp to other concentration camps.

Blumenthal's family was sent to Bergen-Belsen. Blumenthal told students that to pass the time, she often made up games. 

One game involved finding four perfect pebbles. 

"If I could find four perfect pebbles, that meant all four of us would survive," Blumenthal said. 

Amazingly, Blumenthal's family did survive. Her father Walter passed away a few months after liberation. Her mother Ruth celebrated her 104th birthday in February. 

"My story is one that Anne Frank might have told had she lived," Blumenthal told the assembly. (Frank's family was imprisoned in Camp Westerbork and sent to Bergen-Belsen in 1944. Only Frank's father, Otto, survived.)

7th Grade Center Principal Heather Nuneviller said that students have been reading and discussing Blumenthal's book. 

"It's an opportunity for them to hear this history first-hand," Nuneviller said. "Stories like Marion's are a way to make history real, and not just something they read in a book."