Charles Ota Heller

I am proud to call him my friend (and former business colleague). Doron Almog, a young Israeli soldier commanding a special IDF unit, was a hero of the daring Entebbe raid, which took place 40 years ago yesterday. Doron rose to Major General and head of the Southern Command. Today, he is once again performing…

The following is an op-ed piece I wrote for the July 2, 2016, issue of The Capital newspaper.  As I expected. I’ve received my share of hate mail, the most interesting of which is one that calls me a Nazi. But the good news–I hope, for our country–is that 95% of the messages have been…

Today, I participated in The Human Element Project, a national Holocaust memory reconstruction project led by Los Angeles artist, Lori Shocket. Holocaust survivors and their families construct photo boards which memorialize their lives before, during, and after the war. The picture below shows four photo boards, memorializing the lives of: my father, my mother, my…

I have submitted the following for publication in The Washington Post Magazine–its 250-word features titled “Mine”: It’s only a rusty piece of metal, but it’s priceless to me. I picked it up from a pile of mud back in 1994, the day I regained ownership of my family’s once-burgeoning manufacturing company in Czechoslovakia. As I…

My essay, titled “Something Happened,” just won third place in the 2016 Maryland Writers’ Association writing contest: SOMETHING HAPPENED by Charles Ota Heller Something happened to me. I don’t know when; I don’t know how; I don’t know why. I only know that it happened and that it was subtle, yet profound. It changed the…

As a small boy growing up in Europe, I idolized Roald Amundsen, the Norwegian explorer famous for his heroic journeys to the North and South Poles. I read everything I could find about him and someday wanted to be an explorer like he. So, when I discovered a new book about Amundsen, I was anxious to…

The Baltimore Holocaust Survivors and Descendants Group Under the Auspices of the Baltimore Jewish Council Invites you to our: NEXT MEETING: Sunday, April 17, 2016 2 – 4 pm at the Community Room, Park Heights JCC 5700 Park Heights Ave, Baltimore, MD 21215 Guest speaker: Mr. Charles Ota Heller, author of award-winning book: Prague: My…

I’m happy to have been chosen for the editorial board of Capital Gazette, the nation’s oldest newspaper. My association with The Capital goes back many years. In addition to being a subscriber/reader of the paper ever since coming to Annapolis in 1963, I was a columnist for the Sunday Capital for many years. Serving on the…

Pat Conroy–in my view, the finest American contemporary writer–has cancer. He made the following announcement on his Facebook page: “I have recently been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. With the help of the wonderful people at M.D. Anderson I intend to fight it hard. I am grateful to all my beloved readers, my friends and my…

Yesterday, I received a Christmas present from a good friend in the Czech Republic. What made the gift even more significant was the postage stamp on the package: The Czech Republic honored one of the great heroes of World War II–Sir Nicholas George Winton. This modest, unassuming, English gentleman saved hundreds of Czech children from…