Stories from the Writing Journey

  • Building Peace in the Minds of Men and Women…UNESCO – International Holocaust Remembrance Day

    Building Peace in the Minds of Men and Women…UNESCO – International Holocaust Remembrance Day

    “Building Peace in the Minds of Men and Women”…UNESCO – International Holocaust Remembrance Day  Joanie Holzer Schirm  It wasn’t until I was in my 50’s that I learned there was an International Day of Commemoration in Memory of the Victims of the Holocaust, now commonly known as International Holocaust Remembrance Day. The day was created…

  • Wannsee Conference – What it Means for Today

    Wannsee Conference – What it Means for Today

    The 80th Anniversary of the Wannsee Conference …What it Means for Today     By Joanie Holzer Schirm  “For evil to flourish, it only requires good men to do nothing.”            —Simon Wiesenthal In late May 1942, train records indicate that my paternal Czech Bohemian grandparents, Arnost and Olga Holzer, perished at the hands of the Nazis…

  • Kindness is not an action most expect.

    Kindness is not an action most expect.

    My writing journey never disappoints—often reminding me of the kindhearted strangers who’ve entered my life when I just let them in. In 2018, I connected with a Chinese born gentleman, Jim Fang, now a Canadian citizen, who is planning a Toronto museum dedicated to previous Christian missionary work in China. Jim was born in Yochow…

  • 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.…