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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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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…
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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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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…
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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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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
