Holocaust
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Earned Title: Author
by Joanie Schirm on January 12, 2015 PermalinkEarned Title: Author Seven years ago, January 11, 2008, I sold my Orlando engineering company. Having left behind the lofty title of President, I entered my next life chapter with a goal: Published Author. It was a position title I had to earn. Befuddled as to how to describe my new endeavor, my husband Roger
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Inspiration for my fateful journey
by Joanie Schirm on December 1, 2014 PermalinkInspiration for my fateful journey When you’re an author of nonfiction, reader feedback inspires when you learn you’ve touched a personal chord within someone’s life. Lately, a couple of heartwarming book reviews of Adventurers Against Their Will, remind me the day-in, day-out grueling research and study is well worth this fateful writing journey. From Judith
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“Shout for Freedom”
by Joanie Schirm on November 20, 2014 Permalink“Shout for Freedom” A memory from the Velvet Revolution – Twenty-Five years ago – Czechoslovakia, November, 1989 I have a memory that embodies the emotions I felt when my dad’s native land, Czechoslovakia, recovered their freedom. After forty-one years of communist rule, in what is now known as the “Velvet Revolution,” a brave country shouted
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“Man who nabbed most dangerous man in Europe dies” …
by Joanie Schirm on October 2, 2014 Permalinkhttp://www.suntimes.com/news/obituaries/30222106-418/paul-kraus-wwii-gi-who-nabbed-most-dangerous-man-in-europe-dies-at-95.html Imagine meeting someone through their seventy year-old letters – not addressed to you but to your father- who by the time you read the letters had passed away. Through the letter writer’s own intimate 1940’s words, you meet this person as a young man; a refugee from Nazi-occupied Prague in Shanghai, China.
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What’s up for your next path in life?
by Joanie Schirm on August 23, 2014 PermalinkWhat’s up for your next path in life? As an author who started to write books after six decades of ‘not’ writing books, I’m a good example to think about when you want to step off the sidewalk, turn a new corner, and follow your dreams. I’m proof that each day offers the opportunity to
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Fateful Choice – August 1940
by Joanie Schirm on August 10, 2014 PermalinkFateful Choice – August 10, 1940 Czech refugee Osvald “Valdik” Holzer writes from Peking (Beijing) on August 20, 1940 to refugee friend Rudolf “Rudla” Rebhun in Shanghai. Valdik has unexpectedly been forced to leave his position as head physician at the American Brethren Hospital in Ping Ting Hsien, Shansi (Shanxi) Province in the Northern Central
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“Freedom means the supremacy of human rights everywhere.”
by Joanie Schirm on May 24, 2014 PermalinkRecently, I was a guest author at a local book club. The 13 attendees all had read Adventurers Against Their Will and came with questions and compliments that once again reminded me why I’m doing what I’m doing in this second chapter of my life. Clearly resonating with readers is the humanizing of history through
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How can we make peace in our world? One hopeful idea.
by Joanie Schirm on April 28, 2014 PermalinkHow can we make peace in our world? If we look to our past, there is one simple way for our shared humanity. As if foreordained, the Holocaust Remembrance Day of April 28, 2014 mirrors the time in which my paternal Czech grandparents, Arnost and Olga Holzer, began their journey to meet their fate