Teen preserves great-grandmother's Holocaust survival story

As the number of Holocaust survivors decreases, a 16-year-old from Baltimore County is sharing his family's history.

Apr. 10, 2026 at 6:32pm

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An extremely abstracted, out-of-focus photograph in soft pools of warm color and light, depicting the hands of a young person carefully handling old photographs and documents, representing the act of preserving family history and the stories of Holocaust survivors.A descendant's tender care for the fading memories of a Holocaust survivor's life.Baltimore Today

As the number of Holocaust survivors decreases, their children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren are taking on the responsibility of telling their stories. A 16-year-old from Baltimore County, Dylan Rauseo, is preserving the story of his great-grandmother, Perla Lina Koulias, who was a Holocaust survivor. Koulias was arrested by the Nazis in 1944 at the age of 14 and sent to the Auschwitz and Bergen-Belsen concentration camps, where she was the only member of her family to survive. Rauseo has created an 18-minute video and given speeches to honor his great-grandmother's memory and share her story.

Why it matters

As the number of living Holocaust survivors continues to decline, it is crucial that their stories are preserved and passed down to future generations. Rauseo's efforts to share his great-grandmother's experiences help ensure that the horrors of the Holocaust are not forgotten and that the resilience of survivors like Koulias is remembered.

The details

In 1944, when she was 14 years old, Perla Lina Koulias and her family were arrested by the Nazis. Their home was burned during the Nazi invasion, and Koulias was sent to two concentration camps, Auschwitz and Bergen-Belsen. Koulias was the only member of her family who survived. In 1951, she and her husband settled in Baltimore, where she lived until her death in 2021. Rauseo, Koulias' great-grandson, has worked to preserve her story, combing through interviews she gave and old photographs, and interviewing his own grandmother, Koulias' daughter. Rauseo has turned his research into an 18-minute video that served as his Bar Mitzvah service project, and he has also made several speeches attempting to tell his great-grandmother's story from a first-person perspective.

  • In 1944, when she was 14 years old, Koulias and her family were arrested by the Nazis.
  • Koulias was sent to the Auschwitz and Bergen-Belsen concentration camps.
  • In 1951, Koulias and her husband settled in Baltimore.
  • Koulias died in 2021.

The players

Perla Lina Koulias

Koulias was a Holocaust survivor who was arrested by the Nazis in 1944 at the age of 14 and sent to the Auschwitz and Bergen-Belsen concentration camps, where she was the only member of her family to survive. She later settled in Baltimore with her husband.

Dylan Rauseo

Rauseo is a 16-year-old from Baltimore County who is the great-grandson of Perla Lina Koulias. He has worked to preserve his great-grandmother's story, creating an 18-minute video and giving speeches to honor her memory and share her experiences as a Holocaust survivor.

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What they’re saying

“After she passed away, I wanted to honor her memory, and do my family proud. I can give justice to her story by kind of putting it all together, so I combed through all of the interviews she did and went through old pictures and interviewed my grandmother, who was her daughter.”

— Dylan Rauseo

“Someone has to do it, and if no one does, these stories will just die.”

— Dylan Rauseo

What’s next

On Monday night, Rauseo will be one of three descendants of Holocaust survivors who will tell the stories of their relatives in the Howard County Yom Hashoah Holocaust Remembrance Service.

The takeaway

Rauseo's efforts to preserve his great-grandmother's story as a Holocaust survivor highlight the importance of passing down these experiences to future generations, especially as the number of living survivors continues to decline. His work ensures that Koulias' resilience and the horrors of the Holocaust are not forgotten.