Holocaust Survivor Speaks at Towson University Gathering

Holocaust survivor Charles Ota Heller: “For most of my young life, I had been running and hiding. Now finally, I had struck back." (Photo by Steve Ruark)

When Charles Ota Heller was only 9,he shot a random stranger whom he thought was a Nazi soldier. The memory ofthat day still haunts him, more than seven decades later.

“I had taken revenge for everythingthe Nazis had done — for taking my family from me, for stealing our home andall our possessions, for forcing me to hide like an animal, for desecrating mybeloved Czechoslovakia,” said Heller, who now lives in Annapolis with his wifeof nearly 60 years, Susan.

Now in his early 80s, Heller wasthe keynote speaker May 1 at Towson University’s annual Holocaust RemembranceDay program.

Today, May 2, is Yom HaShoah, or Holocaust RemembranceDay.

The Towson gathering — presentedby the university, the campus Hillel chapter and the Baltimore Jewish Council –was created seven years ago after Dr. Walter “Wali” Gill, an adjunct professorat Towson, visited the Jewish Museum of Maryland and was moved by an exhibitionthere.

“It’s not just for and about Jewishpeople,” Gill said of the university’s Holocaust program. “So many people canidentify with that terrible time in history. No matter how many survivors youhear, each has a different story. They may be different ages, from differentcountries, different concentration camps.

“It’s like racism in America,” he said. “It’s often talked about as a single phenomenon, but in fact everyone has their own version of the story.”

Jeanette Parmigiani, theBJC’s director of Holocaust programs, praised survivors like Heller and their descendantsfor telling their stories in public.

“The lessons of the Shoah have not been learned,” she said. “TheHolocaust began not with bullets but with words. You can make a difference. Whatyou do matters. These survivors are talkingabout the worst possible things that you could imagine, but they feel anobligation to help younger generations understand what happened and what can happen again.”

'Prague: My Long Journey Home'
“Prague: My Long Journey Home,” a memoir by Holocaust survivor Charles Ota Heller (Photo by Steve Ruark)

A retired engineer, educator andentrepreneur, Heller spoke during the program mostly of his wartimeexperiences, largely drawing from his 2011 autobiography, “Prague: My LongJourney Home” (Abbott Press).

While his father was a non-practicing Jew, Heller’smother was a devout Catholic. But when the Nazi army moved into his homeland,being half-Jewish was not enough to protect Heller — or his mother.

“Do I have any rights at all?” Heller said his motherasked a Gestapo officer after being informed that her liberties would beseverely curtailed because she married a Jew.

“For now,” he said the officer responded, “you’re allowedto live.”

Heller said 25 members of his family perished in Auschwitz,Treblinka and other concentration camps. His father escaped the Nazis andeventually joined the British army. Heller’s mother was taken to a slave laborcamp.

Heller said that he personally only survived because hismother hid him on a farm.

Both of Heller’s parents also survived the war, and thefamily immigrated to the United States in 1949 and resettled in Morristown,N.J.

Charles Ota Heller
Holocaust survivor Charles Ota Heller, of Annapolis, points out where he hid during the Holocaust as a child. (Photo by Steve Ruark)

After coming to this country, Heller said his fatherinsisted that he take the American-sounding name of Charles. “My father wanted me to become 100 percent American, toforget that I’d had a life on the other side of the ocean,” he said. “I learnedto speak without an accent. I played basketball in college.”

Heller helped create the aerospace engineering program at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis and went on to receive a doctorate from Catholic University of America.

Regardingthat traumatic day in 1945 when he thought he killed a Nazi, Heller saidhe and a couple of childhood friends had ventured out of hiding and founduniforms, weapons and other supplies discarded by German soldiers who desertedtheir posts because of the Allies’ imminent arrival. Heller said he picked up aWalther pistol from the side of a road, tucked it into his waistband and later shotthe man because of a dare from one of his young friends. They assumed he was aNazi.

“When I shot that man, I felt as ifI had singlehandedly won the war,” Heller said. “For most of my young life, I hadbeen running and hiding. Now finally, I had struck back.”

But while researching hisautobiography a decade ago, Heller said he learned that the man was not a Germansoldier but a Czech collaborator. He said he also discovered that his victimdid not die but escaped to Germany after recovering from his wound.

Now, almost 75 years later, Heller,who has a son and three grandchildren, said he believes that telling his story inpublic continues to be his revenge for what his family endured during the Holocaust.

On May 5, at 4:30 p.m., the Baltimore Jewish Council will present the annual community-wide Holocaust Remembrance Day program at Baltimore Hebrew Congregation, 7401 Park Heights Ave. The keynote speaker will be Gretchen Skidmore, director of civic and defense initiatives at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C. She will speak about “U.S. Efforts to Save Jews during the Holocaust.”

For information, call 410-542-4850 or visit baltjc.org.

For information about Charles Ota Heller, visit charlesoheller.com.

JonathanShorr is a Baltimore-based freelance writer.

You May Also Like
Sandra R. Berman Center for Humanity, Tolerance & Holocaust Education Dedicated at Towson University

The center's mission is to promote education on humanity, tolerance and the Shoah to highlight the dangers of bigotry and intolerance.

Orioles Sale to David Rubenstein Group Approved by Major League Baseball
David Rubenstein

The product of a blue-collar Jewish family, the Baltimore-born Rubenstein, 74, is a multi-billionaire lawyer, businessman and philanthropist.

Two Orthodox Men Attacked in Northwest Baltimore While Walking to Synagogue
Mt. Washington

Baltimore County Police and Shomrim are searching for a black Kia Optima with the license plate 4BA3705.

Mother-and-Daughter Artist Team Exhibited at Gordon Center’s Meyerhoff Art Gallery
Margy Feigelson and Laura Kellam

On display through May 1, “It’s All Relative: Dual Impressions of Nature" features the works of Margy Feigelson and Laura Kellam.