Wednesday, November 24, 2010

Happy to be part of oral history

The National Czech and Slovak Museum and Library (http://www.ncsml.org/), located in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, is the "center of gravity" of immigrants, and their descendants, from the former Czechoslovakia. The NCSML runs interesting programs throughout the year, has a great online gift shop, and its library is the depository of many valuable books and documents. Despite the fact that the library was destroyed a couple of years ago in Iowa's disastrous flood, the treasures were saved and the building has now been rebuilt.

The Museum's current major project consists of collecting oral histories of Czech and Slovak immigrants. I was lucky enough to be selected to participate, and I was interviewed during the summer. The result of the interview was posted just last week on the Museum's web site. You can access it directly on:

http://www.ncsml.org/Oral-History/Washington-DC/20101108/69/Heller-Charles.aspx

Alternately, you can go on YouTube, enter "Charles Heller," and view several of the clips from the interview. Thanks for your interest -- and welcome to my blog!