Four Perfect Pebbles

Four Perfect Pebbles is a Holocaust memoir written by Marion Blumenthal Lazan and co-authored by Lila Perl. It was originally published in 1996, 51 years after Marion and her family were liberated from the death train by Russian troops in Nazi Germany. Marion was five years old when she and her family moved to a refugee camp in Holland, which was later converted into a transit camp for Auschwitz. The Blumenthals also lived at the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp for over a year. Marion, her mother Ruth, her father Walter, and her older brother Albert all survived until liberation, but Walter died of Typhus weeks later. The family eventually moved to the United States, where they reside today. They never let go of their hope for a better life. Marion’s memoir also shows the effects of prejudice through her personal account of the Holocaust. Four Perfect Pebbles uses language suitable for middle-grade and young-adult audiences while still describing the horrors that Marion and her family experienced. The memoir received several recognitions, including a Sidney Taylor Award, an ALA Notable Book, and an IRA Young Adults’ Choice.

This guide uses the 2016 Greenwillow Books edition of the memoir.

Content Warning: The source material and guide feature depictions of religious discrimination, graphic violence, and death.

Summary

Marion Blumenthal Lazan was born in 1934 in Nazi Germany. She was five years old when she and her family moved to the Westerbork refugee camp in Holland to escape Nazi persecution. Blumenthal’s memoir details her family’s experiences in Westerbork refugee camp, Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in Germany, and the years following liberation. At Bergen-Belsen, Marion collected four perfect pebbles, one for each member of her family. She believed that in doing so, her family would survive the Holocaust.

Marion’s mother, Ruth, describes the years before moving to Westerbork. She explains the slow progression of Nazism in Germany during Hitler’s rise to power—stoking hatred in the youth, attacks on Jewish businesses and religion, and Jewish identification on passports and clothing. Increasingly strict laws were imposed on Jews, and minor infractions could lead to imprisonment at a concentration camp or even death. Other minorities—such as LGBTQ+ individuals, Roma people, people with disabilities, and communists—were also targeted. 

Hitler began expelling groups of Jews from Germany, starting with Polish Jews in the east. The Blumenthals lived in Hoya, Germany, staying amid persecution because Walter’s parents were elderly. Both died shortly before World War II officially began in September 1939, and the Blumenthals prepared to emigrate to the United States. Unfortunately, the wait for a visa was prohibitively long. During the Night of Broken Glass (Kristallnacht in November 1938), Marion’s father, Walter, was arrested for being Jewish and spent 11 days in the Buchenwald concentration camp. When he was released, he refused to speak about his experiences there. 

The Blumenthals then left Germany and moved to the Westerbork refugee camp in the Netherlands in 1939, hoping to leave for the United States soon after. In May 1940, Nazi forces took over the Netherlands and converted the Westerbork refugee camp into a transit camp for Auschwitz. The Blumenthals wondered when it would be their turn to board the cattle cars. Meanwhile, they applied for an exchange program, switching Jewish prisoners for German prisoners of war in British-controlled Palestine. In 1944, they took an overcrowded, dirty train to Celle, Germany, moving into the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. Marion and Ruth were separated from Albert and Walter, seeing them once a day for a few minutes. During this time, Marion showed them her pebbles, and Walter and Albert would share any food rations they managed to save.

As Germany began to lose the war, more camp prisoners from surrounding areas were sent to Bergen-Belsen, causing overcrowding and death. Every day, people died around the Blumenthals, most commonly of Typhus (from lice), but also of starvation, dysentery, fever, and infection. Marion’s leg was burned one night when Ruth tried to cook her some soup in secret, and the wound became severely infected. The dead bodies were often piled up or burned in pits. Marion remembers waking in her mother’s arms every day to the sounds of coughing, crying, and screaming. There was a daily mandatory roll call that could last the entire day, a lack of privacy, and extremely overcrowded barracks. In April 1945, the Blumenthals were put into cattle cars with thousands of other prisoners and told they would be traveling east. They were sure they were headed toward Auschwitz. The train became known as the death train because of how many people died on board. Every few miles, the train would stop, and SS guards would demand that the living prisoners unload the dead bodies. The train went through Berlin, which was destroyed by the Allies, and then proceeded along the Polish border. It was stopped by Russian troops who liberated the passengers and told them where to find food and shelter. The Blumenthals and many others stayed in the town of Tröbitz, where they lived in abandoned farmhouses and ate what food remained.

In Tröbitz, Walter died of Typhus—a devastating loss after all he had survived. After a Typhus quarantine, Tröbitz was evacuated, and those living there returned to their homelands. The Blumenthals went to Holland to live with family. They soon moved into a sponsored apartment and gradually began rebuilding their lives. Ruth earned a living through beautician work, and Marion and Albert worked jobs to contribute. The family saved up for their own apartment and soon had the necessary documents to emigrate to America. Arriving there was a mix of joy and sorrow because they went without Walter and held the memories of the Holocaust. In New York, the Blumenthals lived with family and were later offered sponsored housing by the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society. They moved to Peoria, Illinois, where Marion and Albert finished school. Marion met her future husband, Nathaniel, while at a synagogue in Peoria.

Ruth and her family returned to Hoya, Tröbitz, Westerbork, and Bergen-Belsen 50 years after liberation. They met the Huth family in Hoya, who made it their mission to preserve the Jewish heritage of the town. Marion and Nathaniel had three children and eight grandchildren, and Marion continues to share her story through talks and interviews.