Helen Colin was born on April 15, 1923 in Tuszyn, Poland to Josef and Miriam Fried Goldstein. After being moved into the Lodz ghetto in 1942 she lost her father but married Kopel Colin in 1944. In the summer of 1944, together with her husband and her family, she was deported to Auschwitz where her mother and sister perished.After starvation, injury and unremitting terror, Helen and her sister were liberated from Bergen-Belsen on April 15, 1945 on Helen’s 22nd birthday. Helen and Kopel moved to Houston, where they raised their two daughters and ran a jewelry store for 35 years.

For more than 70 years, Helen willingly shared her experiences as a Holocaust survivor. Each time she spoke, Helen would experience anew her anguish, pain and deep sadness, but drove herself to speak because she felt that it was critically important to convey her message that a more peaceful, loving and tolerant world should be our continuing work and was possible.

Helen’s obituary is here.  Please click here for her video.