Holocaust trip brings history to life
Apr. 24—By Barry Porterfield
A group of Pauls Valley academic team members got the chance to walk through history with a trip to a Holocaust museum.
PV High School history teacher Nolan Pullen led the way on a recent trip he and 16 of his academic team students took to the Dallas Holocaust and Human Rights Museum.
It was a trip earlier this semester funded by a grant from the Pauls Valley Foundation for Academic Excellence.
Pullen, in his first year as coach for the academic and scholastic teams, came across the idea of taking some of his academic team members on a fun trip where they could also learn some valuable lessons from history.
"I wanted to give the students a reward for all their hard work, and at the same time help them learn more about the Holocaust," Pullen said.
"It's a fun reward and helps with their knowledge of the Holocaust. The way they were engaged, it was good to see that.
"Talking about it is one thing but seeing the actual artifacts is another thing, seeing the physical representation of the Holocaust.
"I thought it made it a little more real for my students."
One of those students on the trip was Jaspur Davis.
"It was very moving, informative and moving with the original artifacts and especially when you walk through that cattle car," Davis said, referring to one of the actual train cars used to transport people to concentration camps.
They also talked about the shooting boards from the camps, which displayed bullet holes left after victims were lined up, shot and killed.
There were also interactive holograms of Holocaust survivors preserving their stories even after their passing.
