On Borrowed Time: George Heller's Memoirs

Nagypapa often described his life after WWII as borrowed time.

Donations in memory of George Heller to the JFCS Holocaust Center (2150 Post Street, San Francisco, CA 94115) will be directed to Holocaust education.

April 2013: Nagypapa's memorial service was on 24 April 2013, and he was lovingly remembered.

• Rabbi Daniel Feder of Peninsula Temple Shalom read a psalm.
• Rabbi Andy Strauss of Temple Sinai shared memories and a poem.
• Rabbi Nathaniel Ezray of Congregation Beth Jacob gave the eulogy.
• Neil shared his thoughts.
• Debbie (CA) shared her thoughts.
• Becca shared her thoughts.
• Nina shared a letter to Nagypapa.
• Erika shared a letter to Nagypapa.
• Steve read three letters he recently sent to Nagypapa.
  • - 24 March 2013 - Letter for Dad
  • - 30 March 2013 - Passover Greetings
  • - 20 April 2013 - Your Eternal Dream

Written by Nagypapa

• "Organizing a Local Program in Computing Education" Datamation 9, no. 1, (1963): 57-61.
• Passover 1945
• Yom HaShoah 2005
• Fifty Years on a Single Page: A letter to Rabbi Goldman (no longer available online)
• 15 October 2001: A New Approach to Desktop Publishing - an invited talk by George Heller, reviewed by Hal Hosfeldt, meeting of the Mountain View (CA) IBM PC Club
• May 2006: A eulogy for Lee Benton
• October 2006: A eulogy for Floyd Dade
• Nagypapa is quoted in the Bay Area Holocaust Oral History Project's Winter 2006 Newsletter in a section entitled: What Our Interviewees Are Saying
  • I certainly don't expect to "save the world" single-handed, but if each of your recordings could just inspire one person, the total of oral history recordings could surely make a significant difference. What you have accomplished helping me, surely makes a big difference. Thank you, thank you, thank you ... .
  • After being interveiwed by the Bay Area Holocaust Oral History Project, Nagypapa and Nagymama honored and rememberd Rabbi Erwin Zimet z'l and Lilli Zimet.
• 25 February 2007: A eulogy for Paul des Jardins
• 3 March 2007: A second bar mitzvah speech
  Published in the April 2007 Voice of Temple Beth Jacob, on pages ten and fifteen.
• 29 April 2007: Nagypapa and Nagymama were the featured speakers of the plenary opening session of the Day of Learning 2007, an annual event of the Holocaust Center of Northern California in San Francisco.
• 20 May 2007: Nagymama and Nagypapa passed the torch at Shalhevet Graduation.
• June 2007: A eulogy for "Big Sister" Evelyn Siegel.
• August 2007: "The Top of the Wall," a Holocaust story by Nagypapa, was originally published by Common Ties (an online blog at the time).
• 12 August 2007: Nagypapa invited the Shalhevet graduates to a Strudel Party, and subsequently composed the story: The Strudel Party.
• October 2007: Hatred ... A Brief Response
• May 2008: At the 50th Wedding Anniversary Celebration of Vera and Hy Burstyn, Linda read this message, sent to them by Nagypapa and Nagymama.
• May 1, 2011: Nagypapa spoke at a Temple Beth Torah (Fremont) Yom HaShoah Holocaust Remembrance Service: Have Faith in a Time of Peril. Neil did the introduction.
• Summer 2011: Julia McLellan was Nagypapa's Mentor at MIT - see the letter to the editor in the July/August 2011 issue of Technology Review. Look for the heading "Letters," and then look for "An MIT Mentor."
• September 2013: Holocaust Garden with Holocaust Stone. Nagypapa composed the inscription engraved on the stone.

Written about Nagypapa

• Nagypapa taught a class at the Walter Johnson HS in Montgomery County Maryland during the spring of 1961. Forty-four years later, nagypapa was acknowledged as having introduced CMU Dean & Computer Science Professor Mary Shaw to computers. (also here)
  International Business Machines (IBM) employee named George Heller from the Washington area participated in an after-school program which taught students about computers; he arranged for the students to visit an IBM facility and run a program on an IBM 709 computer. This was Shaw's introduction to computers.
• 1983: The George B. Morgan Award was presented to George G. Heller
• 16 May 2003: Holocaust Survivor Speaks to Students, San Mateo Daily Journal
• September 2004: Celebrating Fifty Years of Married Bliss
• 24 April 2006: Holocaust survivors gathered in Sacramento CA as part of the 2006 California Holocaust Memorial Week program. State Representative Rebecca Cohn and Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger were present. Nagymama and Nagypapa participated. Rebecca Cohn's office published a book of survivor stories. Nagypapa was interviewed by Jeff Weiss.
• December 2007: The Shalhevet 2008 flyer includes a picture of Nagymama and Nagypapa walking in the Majdanek Concentration Camp during their Shalhevet 2007 trip in March 2007.
• January 2008: Yadeinu Winter 2008 (see page two): summary of and reference to the recent Common Ties article "The Top of the Wall," by nagypapa.
• 28 April 2008. Nagypapa participated in the Holocaust Memorial Ceremony of the California State Assembly in Sacramento. Here he appears with his two interviewers, following the ceremony outside the California State Capitol building. The California State Assembly designated the week of April 28 - May 4, 2008 as California Holocaust Memorial Week. The ceremony was attended by Holocaust survivors from many of the Assembly districts of the State of California. Nagypapa was among the survivors honored on this occasion. His story, written by two students from Summit Preparatory Charter High School is featured on pages 7-8 (or 15-16, depending on how you count) of the 236 page volume prepared for the occasion telling the stories of the survivors attending the ceremony.
• 20 May 2008 Nagypapa was interviewed by Adnan Alam, a student of Dr. Victoria Harrison's Holocaust Literature course at San Jose State University, as reported in Alam's paper, It's Possible and the corresponding presentation.
• August 2008: How Wonderful That: A D'var Torah for Parshat Eikev: At a temple meeting on 20 August 2008, Neil gave this Dvar Torah.
• 26 April 2009: At Congregation Beth Jacob, as Nagymama and Nagypapa were presented the Chesed Award, Neil spoke on Tikkun Olam as a Way of Life
• June 2010: "Choosing to Climb" is the title of Nagypapa's life story, the feature article in the July/August Issue of Technology Review, online. See also an additional picture story.
• 18 October 2010: A blog about nagypapa entitled "George Heller --- The Most Interesting Man In The Room" was posted including this YouTube video
• December 2010: From the online version of the January 2011 issue of Technology Review: An Inspiring Story: I read with great interest the recent profile of George Heller '59 ("Choosing to Climb," July/August 2010). Against seemingly insurmountable odds, Heller was able to gather the strength to persevere, pursue his dreams, and affect the lives of so many others in such a positive way. I am inspired by his story. Thank you for highlighting his incredible experience. Alex Padilla '94, California State Senator, 20th District
• February 2011: Nagypapa was interviewed by the Almanac after addressing Menlo-Atherton High School students about his Holocaust experience.
• 1 April 2012: Nagypapa is mentioned in this press release - Quanta in the Press - In hunt for low-energy computing, QRC rediscovers Napier's Bones
• July 2012: Nagypapa's Thursday computer group has a new website: Friends of George.
• April 2013: Nagypapa's memorial service was on 24 April 2013, and he was lovingly remembered.
  • Rabbi Daniel Feder of Peninsula Temple Shalom read a psalm.
  • Rabbi Andy Strauss of Temple Sinai shared memories and a poem.
  • Rabbi Nathaniel Ezray of Congregation Beth Jacob gave the eulogy.
  • Neil shared his thoughts.
  • Debbie (CA) shared her thoughts.
  • Becca shared her thoughts.
  • Nina shared a letter to Nagypapa.
  • Erika shared a letter to Nagypapa.
  • Steve read three letters he recently sent to Nagypapa.
    • 24 March 2013 - Letter for Dad
    • 30 March 2013 - Passover Greetings
    • 20 April 2013 - Your Eternal Dream
• 19 May 2013 - At The Next Chapter's graduation ceremony, Jacob Koen gave a speech entitled: It's Possible: A Tribute to George Heller Z'L. And, here's a video of Jacob's talk followed by Neil remarks.

Recommended Reading

• These two articles are accounts of American soldiers entering the Gunskirchen Concentration Camp as the was was ending. The accounts are quite graphic, realistic, and difficult reading. The articles are similar, with the first longer than the second.
  • The Liberation of Gunskirchen Lager: The seventy-First came ... to Gunskirchen Lager, by Willard G. Wyman, Major General, USA. This pamphlet was produced by the U.S. Army after they liberated Gunskirchen Lager.
  • Gunskirchen Extermination Camp, by Wiebe van IJken, KZ Gusen Memorial Committee.

• Nagymama and Nagypapa accompanied the Shalhevet 2007 trip to Poland and Israel as the two Holocaust survivors.

Young George, his sister Kat�, and Grandma.	Medium George.

Nagypapa lived with Sari neni and Uncle George from 1946 until 1954.

September 89: Uncly Hy, Nagymama, Vera-neni, & Nagypapa in Chicago.

Climbing with Nagypapa
Spring 2005: 81st Birthday Climb	Spring 2006: 82nd Birthday Climb	Spring 2007: 83rd Birthday Climb
Spring 2008: 84rd Birthday Climb	Spring 2009: 85th Birthday Climb	Spring 2010: 86th Birthday Climb
Spring 2011: 87th Birthday Climb	Spring 2003	Winter 2006

George (far left) simultaneously translating at a Displaced Person's camp in Linz,
Austria in 1946.

Bindermichl Community Jewish Settler front and back of card

Demonstration/protest at DP camp in 1946

1946: Miss Sheriff at DP Camp
		Miss Sheriff visited us in Bethesda and played "ladies ride" with both Karen and Steve, the ladies ride we did with our children in the past and still do with our grandchildren to this day. Miss Sheriff was the Principal Welfare Officer of the UNRRA Team in Bindermichel, a wonderful person from Edingborough, Scotland.

A "Certificate of Special Congressional Recognition" and a personal letter "proud to honor your dedication to academic excellence and achievement in our schools" by Glen W. Thoman, Secretary of Education of the State of California, both dated April 26, 2009 were presented to Nagypapa at the Peninsula Temple Sholom religious school dedication of the new Holocaust Memorial Garden created by the seventh grade students. Nagypapa was one of three Holocaust Survivors honored this way at this special celebration.

March 9, 2011: Nagypapa was the guest luncheon speaker of the Menlo Park, California Rotary Club. He spoke about his experiences as a slave laborer and a Concentration Camp inmate during World War II, and how he rebuilt his life in the United States and his work as a computer scientist.