When I read the story of Louis Zamperini in Laura Hillenbrand’s terrific book, Unbroken, I was amazed by the fact that Zamperini was able to forgive his torturer in a Japanese POW camp. I would have been incapable of such an act of mercy. Now, having read the story below, I am even more astonished. I am…

I’ve been silent when it comes to blogging recently, due to extensive travel and dealing with some health issues. However, that hasn’t kept me from reading. The two books which I completed reading most recently are about the Second World War. One sits atop the New York Times best-seller list for nonfiction at the moment,…

    On Sunday, September 7, it was my honor to participate in the annual METAvivor Authors’ Luncheon, now named for the late co-founder of the organization, Avis Halberstadt. I had the privilege of moderating a panel consisting of six talented writers, several with books that have made the New York Times Best Seller list. All of us had…

    After years of playing golf without a single hole-in-one, I had my second ace in fourteen months today. Playing with Bill Cole and John Smith, I hit a pitching wedge which landed in the cup on one bounce–Heritage Harbour Golf Club, Annapolis, Maryland, hole number 7.

http://mdmorn.wordpress.com/2012/05/15/515122/

The latest “long journey home” was the best of them all. The entire Heller family–my wife Sue and I, son David and his wife Bobbi, and three grandchildren: Sam, Sarah, and Caroline–journeyed to the Czech Republic. It was our grandchildren’s first opportunity to connect with their Czech roots. I had waited a long time for…

The following story-written by Heather Maher-appears in the July 2014 issue of The Rotarian magazine, which has a worldwide circulation of 1.2 million: Rotary Stories: Charles Ota Heller Charles Ota Heller came to America to start a new life. He became a serial entrepreneur – and a link to a reemerging Rotary tradition back home.   …

As a boy living in refugee camps in Germany, I dreamed of a far-off utopia—a land called the United States of America—where justice ruled and all people loved one another. After escaping from Communist Czechoslovakia, we could have immigrated immediately to England or Canada or Australia, as a reward for my father’s distinguished service in…

“In the last days of World War II, nine-year-old Ota Heller picked up a revolver and fired it at a Nazi. He did not wait to see if the man was still alive.” — Radio Prague    Join us Wednesday for a free event:  Prague: My Long Journey Home A Story of Survival, Denial, and…

      In 1979, Senator John Danforth of Missouri introduced legislation to designate eight days of each year as “The Days of Remembrance of the Victims of the Holocaust.” Events are held throughout the nation–including federal government agencies–to commemorate the victims and to educate Americans about the horrors of the Holocaust.      I was honored to be…