Four Perfect Pebbles

Marion’s memoir both begins and ends with words about her mother, Ruth, who also contributes many of her own memories to the work. Ruth was a pillar in Marion’s life before, during, and after the Holocaust and until her death in 2012 at the age of 104. Ruth was born in 1908 in Stallupönen, East Prussia, and one day discovered that she was restless in the small town in which she grew up. She eventually found herself in Hoya, working for Walter’s parents as a bookkeeper at their shoe store. Walter proposed to Ruth two weeks after they met, and they had their two children, Albert and Marion, in the following years.

As Germany fell to Nazi rule and life became more and more dangerous for Jews, Ruth knew it would soon be time to leave her home country and find safety with her family elsewhere. Walter’s parents were elderly and did not want to leave, and so Ruth and her family were obligated to stay with them until their passing. When Walter was arrested and taken to Buchenwald, Ruth was distraught and had no idea when she would see her husband again: “It was shattering for Ruth to think of Walter, always dignified and deeply proud of his ability to protect his family, so helpless and degraded” (32).

Ruth demonstrated immense courage throughout the entirety of the Holocaust. She fought for Walter’s release and for her family’s right to emigrate. She protected Marion during their time in Bergen-Belsen and acted as her primary source of comfort and safety. Ruth always put her family first and, following her husband’s death, fought through her hopelessness to work hard for her children. She and her children managed to rebuild their lives together from having nothing but each other, demonstrating the true meaning of Family as the Foundation for Survival. Marion describes her mother as “a survivor in the truest sense, she continues to be a vital presence in the lives of those she sustained through the Holocaust and its aftermath” (124).

Walter Blumenthal was Marion and Albert’s father and Ruth’s husband. Walter was born in Hoya, Germany in 1896 and grew up working for his family’s shoe business. He met Ruth when Ruth moved to Hoya in response to the family’s job ad searching for a bookkeeper and proposed to her only two weeks afterward. Walter was a dignified and highly protective man who strived to do the best for his family. He served for Germany during World War I and kept his gun from the war as a symbol of the pride he felt for having been able to serve his country.

When the Nazis took over Germany and began targeting Jews, they eventually resorted to raiding homes and arresting men simply on the basis of being Jewish. Walter was taken from his home without warning or explanation and sent to the Buchenwald concentration camp, where he spent 11 days. Walter sent only one postcard during this time, which Ruth kept for decades afterward. He insisted he was well, but that he could not receive mail or money. When Walter was released and came home, he remained silent about what happened in the camp: “Not that evening or at any future time did he speak of what his life in Buchenwald had been like” (33).

Throughout the Holocaust, Walter and his wife maintained hope that they would be able to move to the United States and survive. Walter kept a German-English dictionary with him during those years, always with the idea that the Blumenthals would eventually make it to America. Walter struggled to see his family suffering while unable to do anything to help them, and his dignity was assaulted on a daily basis. Walter survived until liberation, but died two months later of Typhus in Tröbitz. His death was particularly difficult for the family because of how much they had endured and how far they had come: “We had come so far, through flight, imprisonment, evacuation, the Nazis’ final attempt to destroy us, liberation at last, and now this—freedom and sorrow” (97).