The middle and upper school student of NYI had the honor of having Marion Blumenthal Lazan speak at a special assembly today. Ms. Lazan shared her story including spending 6 ½ years in the Bergen-Belsen Concentration Camp in Germany during World Word II in her memoir “Four Perfect Pebbles”.
When British and Canadian troops liberated the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, they found over 13,000 unburied bodies and around 60,000 inmates, most acutely sick and starving. During its existence, approximately 50,000 persons died in the camp complex including Anne Frank and her sister Margot. Both died in the camp in March 1945. Most of the victims were Jews.
Upon liberation by the Russian army, Marion and her family eventually came to the United States and settled in Peoria, Illinois. Ms. Lazan has chosen to share her and has spoken about her personal Holocaust experience to students, teachers, adults, all over the country and the world.
One of our teachers, Ms. Jessica Hurley, read this memoir with her student’s, upon learning Ms. Lazan is a Long Island resident she contacted her about the possibility of speaking and sharing her story with NYISE.
Today, Ms. Lazan shared her story with staff, and students, and requested that we never judge anyone based on religion, race, or ethnicity. Our students will be the very last generation that will hear the of the Holocaust first hand and it is her hope that by sharing her story that future generations will know about the Holocaust and never let history repeat itself.
Photographers: Christopher Busone and Nathaniel Lazan
