Joanie Schirm

Joanie Schirm

Joanie Schirm won the 2013 Global Ebook Award for Best Biography for her book: Adventurers Against Their Will. Potomac Books will publish the second book, her father’s epic WWII tale, My Dear Boy: A World War II Story of Escape, Exile, and Revelation on March 1, 2019. Joanie is an award-winning writer, photographer, community activist, and retired Orlando, Florida businesswoman. The daughter of Dr. and Mrs. Oswald Holzer, she grew up on a sandy barrier island on the Space Coast of Florida, a place where extraordinary memories are made and pelicans soar. A sought after public speaker, she is internationally known for her highly successful leadership role in Orlando’s hosting of FIFA’s 1994 World Cup USA 1994. She is the proud parent of two adult children, Kelly and Derick, and lives in Orlando with her husband, Roger Neiswender. Her books can be purchased here.

  • Secret History: The O. A. Holzer Medical Center

    Secret History: The O. A. Holzer Medical Center

    In a world where caring for our one human family matters more than ever, Gordon Patterson, Florida Institute of Technology History Professor, captures the spirit of my dad’s meaningful life in a short article written for the Florida Tech “Secret Histories” series:   The O. A. Holzer Medical Center. https://adastra.fit.edu/blog/campus/secret-history/secret-history-the-oswald-holzer-medical-center/ Driven by his father’s last wish…

  • A Last Goodbye – 80 years ago

    A Last Goodbye – 80 years ago

    Learn from the past. Change the future. On this day 80 years ago, May 21, 1939, my twenty-seven-year-old Czech Jewish father, Oswald “Valdik” Holzer said his last good-bye to his parents at the Prague railway station. After Nazi-occupation and persecution, dad was driven from his native land. His 1st port of refuge was Shanghai, China.…

  • World War I begins for USA, April 6, 1917 – My Bohemian Czech Grandfather Arnost Holzer already serving on the Russian front

    World War I begins for USA, April 6, 1917 – My Bohemian Czech Grandfather Arnost Holzer already serving on the Russian front

    April 6, 1917 – The USA entered ‘the great war,’ later named World War I.  By then, my Bohemian Czech grandfather Arnošt Holzer was already embroiled having joined in 1915 the infantry regiment #102 in his Bohemian town of Benešov where he was sent by the Austro-Hungarian army to the eastern front. Arnošt became a prisoner…