“Charles Ota Heller's newest memoir, Cowboy from Prague, is a gripping and hauntingly beautiful exploration… required reading for a generation that often forgets that the struggle is the most important part of the journey.”

—Major General (Res.) Doron Almog, Israel Prize Laureate

About the Author

Charles Ota Heller's career has consisted of six phases: student athlete, engineer, educator, entrepreneur, venture capitalist, and writer. He is the author of five memoirs: award-winning Prague: My Long Journey HomeDlouha cesta domu (in Czech); Name-Droppings: Close Encounters with the Famous and Near-Famous; Ready, Fire, Aim! An Immigrant's Tales of Entrepreneurial Terror; and his latest—publication date 2022--Cowboy from Prague: An Immigrant's Pursuit of the American Dream.

Behind the Scenes

Hundreds of books have been written about World War II, but few have presented the story through the eyes of some of the millions of children who lived in Europe during the late 1930s and early 1940s and whose lives were shaped forever by the dangers, horrors and unsettling events they experienced. I was one of those children.

“I thank Charles Heller for having the courage to share his poignant and profound story with the world... a record of a history that should never be forgotten.”
His Excellency Petr Gandalovič, Former Czech Ambassador to the U.S.

Also by Charles Ota Heller

Latest Blog Post

1968–a memorable year

As a 12-year-old in a refugee camp in Germany, I had dreamed of a far-off utopia, a land called the United States of America, where justice ruled and all people were created equal. Not long after arriving on these shores, however, I discovered that Americans were just as capable of bigotry and hatred as Europeans.…