Recently, the Presa Community Youth Program took some of its older students to Houston to visit the Houston Holocaust Memorial.  Students were able to learn about the history of the Holocaust experientially.  Students were especially impacted by various items on display in the museum. Students stood in an actual train car that transported people to concentration camps, viewed a real concentration camp uniform, and boarded a Danish fishing boat that helped rescue Jewish civilians from being killed. We were lucky enough to be able to arrange for our students to visit with 86 year old Helen Colin.

From the age of 16 until her 21^st birthday Helen was imprisoned in the Warsaw Ghetto and three separate concentration camps. Helen shared her amazing story with Presa students for over an hour and our students were mesmerized.  Her ability to share with our students from her experience was so powerful and had an obvious impact on them.  Being an adolescent during the holocaust enabled her to communicate with them from a perspective that was easy for them to relate to. This was an experience that they will never forget and one they will only value more as they get older. It is our hope that experiences such as these will help our young people develop into strong, positive healthy individuals.