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.
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Voices Needed for Decency – Don’t Stay Silent
Voices Needed for Decency and Peace—Don’t Stay Silent I was moved today by this excellent Opinion Column in the Orlando Sentinel. Written by Pam Kancher, Executive Director of the Holocaust Memorial Resource and Education Center of Florida, her words share a timeless reminder that we each carry a voice that must speak up when we…
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Celebrating Human Rights Day – December 10, 2016
For the past sixty-eight years, the world has celebrated the December 10th anniversary of the 1945 United Nations General Assembly’s adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. With the fresh recognition of what humans can do to one another following the horrific evidence of the Holocaust, the historic UN act promoted the publicizing of…
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Students learn of differences and similarities with others through family history research to “recognize the origins of old-new dangers.”
“Hopefully, education and knowledge of history linked together with pure compassion and humanity will let us recognize the origins of old-new dangers and tie down the demons of hatred and evil before they grow to overcome us again.” Vaclav Havel, First President of the Czech Republic As important today as ever, students can learn similarities…
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Freedom for Cuba
With the passing of Fidel Castro, I’m reminded of a time in the early 1960s when my parents offered to house a Cuban refugee family just after their escape from the tyranny of Castro’s regime. In our home in Indialantic came a small, very sad family who spoke little English and wished only to gain…
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Adventurers Against Their Will featured in Holocaust Education Book
‘Literature Can Help Bring Forward Every Aspect of Human Life.’ (from the book: Essentials of Holocaust Education: Fundamental Issues and Approaches) An author’s life is never dull. After almost nine years, I’ve nearly finished my second and third books (My Dear Boy and Steadfast Ink). As they go through final edits, I’ve entered the stage…
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Use History as Your Guide
October 2016 It’s always important to use history as a guide. If we can learn from the past, we might have a chance to avoid future catastrophes. The following excerpt is from my upcoming book, My Dear Boy, the detailed story of my Czech-American father’s life before, during and just after WWII. The passage depicts…
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I Love Book Clubs
I LOVE BOOK CLUBS As a non-fiction author, it’s particularly meaningful when you have a chance to connect live with readers who’ve had the experience to “meet” your real life characters. This opportunity recently happened for me when I got an email invitation to attend a long standing book club who’d read Adventurers Against Their…
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Sixty-eight years hence. Never forget.
Sixty-eight years ago, the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia seized power in a violent coup. At the time just after WWII, my parents were living in Long Island, NY in the hamlet of Sayville. Before the coup, they’d considered moving back to my dad’s Czech homeland where he wished to practice medicine. His interest in returning…
