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My Road to Truth
As I watch the endless news stories about the Ukrainian people driven from their homeland by a ruthless tyrant, I think of my journey to understand my father’s refugee years and how what I learned changed the trajectory of my life and my view of the world. I look at the face of a refugee…
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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…
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I’m one of the lucky ones.
It is often said that digging into family history can transform us. Findings have the power to alter who we are. I’m one of those lucky people. Two decades ago, after my parent’s deaths in January 2000, I chose as my inheritance a secret collection of World War II letters, documents, vintage photographs, and film,…
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RARE EYEWITNESS ACCOUNT IN OLD LETTER DETAILS SHANGHAI ARRIVAL 80 YEARS AGO
RARE EYEWITNESS ACCOUNT IN OLD LETTER DETAILS MY FATHER’S ARRIVAL IN SHANGHAI, CHINA 80 YEARS AGO – JULY 5, 1939 After escaping Hitler’s growing threat in his occupied Czech homeland, and traveling nearly 10,000 nautical miles from Marseille, France, Oswald “Valdik” Holzer, on July 5, 1939, reached Shanghai. My father was a 28-year-old physician in a…
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Setting the Voices Free – Part Two – Tom Weiss
Setting the Voices Free Part 2 in the Series As the years slipped away during the writing of My Dear Boy, one thing became crystal clear. My journey of research and writing was dramatically enhanced by the people who often serendipitously came aboard for the ride and then remained my friends to the journey’s end.…
Steadfast Ink: The Journey Within
MY DEAR BOY: A World War II Story of Escape, Exile, and Revelation
Adventurers Against Their Will
