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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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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.…
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MY DEAR BOY book launch reminds me why I do what I do.
March 1, 2019, was the launch of my new book, MY DEAR BOY: A World War II Story of Escape, Exile, and Revelation. MY DEAR BOY’s World War II story of escape, exile, and revelation is an inspirational account of my Czech dad’s survival during wartime, a cinematic epic spanning multiple continents, a love story,…
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100 Years Ago – December 1918 – Tomas Masaryk on return from Exile
https://youtu.be/MZgf8l56tQg In this video from 1918, at about 8:10 minutes, the Mayor of Benesov, my dad’s Czech hometown, greets Tomas M. Masaryk returning from exile during WWI to become the president of the newly former Czechoslovakia. At the time my dad was six years old. My father’s aunt Valda was married to Jaroslav Marik, the…
Steadfast Ink: The Journey Within
MY DEAR BOY: A World War II Story of Escape, Exile, and Revelation
Adventurers Against Their Will
