Teen Preserves Holocaust Survivor Great-Grandmother's Story

When Dylan Rauseo's great-grandmother passed away in 2021, he knew her story couldn't die with her. The 16-year-old Baltimore County teen spent months combing through old interviews, photographs, and family memories to preserve the remarkable survival story of Perla Lina Koulias.

In 1944, when she was just 14 years old, Koulias and her family were arrested by the Nazis. Their home was burned, and she was sent to both Auschwitz and Bergen-Belsen concentration camps, where she became the only member of her family to survive.

After the war, Koulias rebuilt her life with her husband, settling in Baltimore in 1951. She lived there for 70 years, carrying the weight of her experiences and the memory of those she lost.

Dylan transformed his research into an 18-minute video as his Bar Mitzvah service project. He interviewed his grandmother, Koulias' daughter, and carefully pieced together a timeline of events from fragmented memories and historical records.

"After she passed away, I wanted to honor her memory and do my family proud," Dylan explained. "I can give justice to her story by kind of putting it all together."

But Dylan didn't stop with the video. He began giving speeches, telling his great-grandmother's story from a first-person perspective, bringing her voice back to life for audiences who will never meet her.

The Ripple Effect

Dylan's work comes at a critical time. As Holocaust survivors age, their firsthand accounts are disappearing. Within the next decade, there may be no living witnesses left to share what happened.

Young people like Dylan are stepping into this gap, becoming the next generation of storytellers. His efforts help ensure that the horrors of the Holocaust remain real and personal, not just dates in a history book.

"Someone has to do it, and if no one does, these stories will just die," Dylan said simply.

On Monday night, Dylan will join two other descendants of Holocaust survivors at the Howard County Yom Hashoah Holocaust Remembrance Service. Together, they'll keep the memories alive, turning family history into collective memory that honors both the victims and survivors.

Through one teenager's dedication, Perla Lina Koulias' story of survival, loss, and resilience will continue to teach and inspire long after her passing.