Marion Blumenthal Lazan, a Holocaust survivor and co-author of Four Perfect Pebbles, an award-winning memoir about her childhood under Hitler’s rule, will talk about her life during a special program at Congregation Adath Israel this month.

Mrs Lazan will be at the temple on Sunday, May 18. Her program will begin at 3 pm.

She will provide a moving, firsthand account of the Blumenthal family’s life in Germany from the events preceding Kristallnacht and then imprisonment in concentration camps to liberation in April 1945. Mrs Lazan was 11 years old when the family gained its freedom after six years in a camp. She relates to adolescents, describing her ordeal in such a manner that students are quickly drawn into the drama.

Mrs Lazan’s mission is to speak to as many students as possible so they hear the story from a Holocaust survivor. Her presentation goes beyond the facts; she applies the lessons learned to society today.

She asks her audience to be tolerant of others and not stereotype individuals based on religious belief, color, race or national origin. She stresses the importance of positive thinking as well as creativity and inner-strength when working to overcome adversity. She warns students to be true to themselves and not blindly follow anyone else.

In her honor, a new high school constructed in Hoya, Germany, and dedicated in November 2010, was named in Mrs Lazan’s honor. The naming of The Marion Blumenthal Hauptschule Hoya was done, she was told, “in recognition of the positive impact I make in teaching the Holocaust and its lessons to hundreds of thousands of young adults around the world,” she wrote in her newsletter prior to the dedication that autumn. The school and its name, she continued, “will be a symbol of how the residents of this beautiful little town on the Weser River continue to do their best to look history in the eye and make amends for the horrors perpetrated by their parents and grandparents some 70 years ago.”

Mrs Lazan is also the subject of Marion’s Triumph, a 2003 documentary about her life. Produced by John Chua, and narrated by the actress Debra Messing, the documentary has aired on public TV stations across the United States and around the world.

Congregation Adath Israel is at 115 Huntingtown Road in Newtown. Copies of Four Perfect Pebbles will be available for purchase following the presentation.

For more information call 203-426-5188 or visit www.congadathisrael.org.