Hewlett Holocaust survivor Marion Lazan's journey from Bergen-Belsen

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This year, International Holocaust Remembrance Day, on Monday, commemorated 80 years since the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp in Germany.

The day serves as a time to remember the 6 million Jewish victims of the Holocaust, and the millions of other victims of Nazi persecution.

Marion Blumenthal Lazan, 90, of Hewlett, was 10½ when the Holocaust ended, in 1945. She was born in Bremen, Germany, in 1934 and was barely 1 when Adolf Hitler came into power.

“He made life very difficult for the adults and for my parents,” Lazan said. “I was only a few years old, so I didn’t feel the threats and hardships that they did.”

Her parents wanted to leave Germany after Hitler took control of the country, but were unable to do so, because Lazan’s mother’s parents lived with them. So the family remained in Germany until her grandparents died, and then made arrangements to emigrate to the United States, first going to Holland, with the hope of making their way out forever.

“That never materialized, and while we were in Holland we were incarcerated in camp Westerbork, a transit camp that was OK,” Lazan recalled. “When the Nazis took over Holland, things became worse. In January 1944 we were transported back to a camp in Bergen-Belsen, Germany.”

Lazan and her family were in there for a year and a half. Marion was sent to the women’s section with her mother, Ruth.

“The conditions were beyond harsh,” she recounted. “Six hundred of us were ‘housed’ in barracks that were initially built to accommodate 100 people. There were triple-decker bunk beds. I was fortunate to share with my mother.”

She attributes her ability to survive to her mother’s fortitude and inner strength.

“Many people gave in and gave up, and I’m a firm believer that a strong mind has so much to do with the physical well-being, for sure,” Lazan said. “My mom was quite amazing.”

Lazan and her family arrived in the U.S. in 1948, three years after the end of World War II.

She was invited to speak at the United Nations on Monday by Tracey Peterson, manager of The Holocaust and the United Nations Outreach Programme.

Lazan initially received an email from Peterson on Nov. 13. At first she was taken aback, and had mixed feelings about accepting the offer. “The U.N. is not very kind to our people and to our little country of Israel,” she said. “How can I be so comfortable speaking there and not even mention their behavior, attitude and way of thinking? (But) if I were to say no, I would be working right into their thinking, and I think it’s important for them to understand and realize and reconfirm that we’re here and still here.”

She wanted to pass her story on to the generations to come, because there won’t be as many Holocaust survivors around to speak in person in the coming years.

After she accepted, a more formal letter arrived from Maher Nasser, director of the U.N.’s Outreach Division, in November.

Other speakers included Philemon Lang, the president of the U.N. General Assembly, representatives of the Permanent Mission of Israel, representatives of the Permanent Mission of the United States to the United Nations, and Secretary-General, António Guterres.

Lazan was slated to speak for 10 minutes, and Peterson approved her speech ahead of time. But, tragically, Lazan had to withdraw on Sunday, when her husband, Nathaniel, 92, died.

She has been traveling around the country, to 44 states, and many countries around the world, sharing her story of survival.

She usually speaks for an hour before answering questions from the audience, so whittling her story down to 10 minutes was a big task for her.

“There are other speakers and dignitaries from the U.N., so I guess they are limited with time,” she said on Jan. 22, four days before her husband died.

Lazan wrote a book called “Four Perfect Pebbles” with Lila Perl, which focuses on her youth in Nazi Germany. The book has been translated to Dutch, German, Hebrew and Japanese.

In her presentations, Lazan stresses the importance of positive thinking to overcome adversity. She also asks her audiences to be tolerant of others and not stereotype people based on their religious beliefs, the color of their skin or their country of origin.

The current generation will be the last to hear firsthand account of the Holocaust in person, and Lazan wants the truth to be passed on for generations to come.

Two of her children, Michael Lazan and Susan Weinberg, were in awe when they heard that their mother had been invited to speak at the U.N.

“She’s done so many things and been invited so many places — she’s a very powerful speaker and connects emotionally to people — that I wasn’t shocked to hear that as a Holocaust survivor, she was asked to do this,” Michael Lazan said, adding that he is amazed at his mother’s ability to capture children’s attention with her story.

“When she speaks, she says, ‘This message is for your children and grandchildren, because we’re the last ones,’” Weinberg said. “She makes sure that she tells that to the kids, and they do listen.”