When literature teacher Karen Yost began teaching Elie Wiesel's memoir "Night" last year, her students asked many questions about the Holocaust that she couldn't answer.

"Questions came up: Why? How? And we had no answers. How do you understand it anyhow, the sheer horror of it? They can't wrap their minds around it," she said.

So this year, Mrs. Yost, a teacher at Mars Area High School, brought in Holocaust survivor Moshe Baran, of Squirrel Hill, to talk to Mars Area seniors. She also is trying to raise $750 to bring in a trunk-load of Holocaust literature and DVDs for the middle and high school students to use.

The Clara H. Isaacman Memorial Trunk Project was started in memory of Ms. Isaacman by one of her friends. The project provides a trunk that contains 51 items appropriate for middle school students and 54 items for high school students. The trunk costs $1,500, but the Pennsylvania Holocaust Education Council will match funds up to $750, Mrs. Yost said.

"It might take up to a year [to raise the money], but we are going to do it," she added.

Some of the items in the trunk are diaries of children and teenagers caught in the Holocaust, and those are very effective tools for reaching today's students, she said.

"They can understand more from their age group rather than mine, or an elderly person talking about it," she said. "There is more of an understanding because they can put themselves in the place."

That's what Clara Isaacman did when she spoke to students. Her family fled the Nazis in Romania, only to have them catch up to the family in Belgium. They hid from the Nazis by moving 18 times in two years. She emigrated to the United States in 1946 and spent many years speaking to students and other groups about her experiences. Her 1984 book, "Clara's Story," is included in the trunk.

With the help of Brian Fox, a teacher at Mars Area Centennial School who is active in the Holocaust Center of Greater Pittsburgh, Mrs. Yost brought Mr. Baran into school this month to talk to seniors.

"You could hear a pin drop if there was a pause," she said. "That is unusual. You get 17- and 18-year-olds together, if they get 30 seconds, they start talking."

Mr. Baran, 88, helped the Jewish Resistance in Germany during World War II. His family hid from the Nazis in the forest and mountains near their home.

"One girl asked him, 'Do you hate Germans now?' And he looked at her and he said, 'No. Do you hear me? No. How could I? This is what started it,' " Mrs. Yost said. "His message was, 'Don't harbor hate; don't harbor revenge.' You may not be able to change the world, but you can change the world around you ... and that's what spreads."