Excerpted from Arnošt Holzer’s June 20, 1941 letter from Prague, in Nazi-occupied German territory, to Long Beach, California to his only child, Osvald “Valdik” Holzer.

Valdik, the next month you will celebrate your thirtieth birthday. This is a milestone in everyone’s life. You will celebrate it away from us so our thoughts will be with you . . . Ruth will certainly remember the day nicely and will, at least in part, make up to you for what we cannot do for you.

Unfortunately, a bad fate forces us to spend several years of your life without you. You know how we loved being with you and that we now must miss what was the most beautiful thing in our life and, in fact, for so long the purpose of our lives. Only the hope that the day will come when we can hug you again gives us the strength to bear all the hardship that we must.

A note added to the letter by Valdik’s mother, Olga:

I read what your dad wrote, and it was as if he wrote my thoughts from my soul exactly. You know best what you mean to us, and with such a festive day coming, I am always with you in my mind. I join the wish of your father and wish you lots of good luck and all the success in life for your next thirty years.

One year later Valdik’s parents Arnošt and Olga perished in a Nazi death camp, likely Sobibor in Poland.

Joanie Holzer Schirm

www.joanieschirm.com

MY DEAR BOY publication by Potomac Books in early 2019.   Sign up www.joanieschirm.com for Author Alerts.

My ‘free’ time spent with family history research almost always uncovers some ‘a-ha’ moment.  About two years ago a man named James in Tennessee read my first book, Adventurers Against Their Will. While dabbling in his own family history, James discovered we shared a relative: Ferdinand William Breth.  For me, Ferdinand Breth lives eternally in my dad’s old WWII letter collection.  Known to my Bohemian father as “Uncle Bill,” Ferdinand Breth is for me a first cousin twice removed from the Czech lands of my paternal heritage. Or to paint a picture from my twisted tree:  Ferdinand’s mother Teresie was my great grandfather Alois’ sister.

Uncle Bill, a chemist, living in Pennsylvania in 1941, helped my dad both financially and emotionally when my father and mother arrived in America from China. Uncle Bill’s letters to my father during 1941, before the US entered World War II, were especially intriguing. They detail Uncle Bill’s contact with desperate Jewish relatives in the Czech lands and his attempts to pay monies to bring them to safety.  In all cases, he failed as the Nazis tightened their hold and began to deport them to concentration camps. Uncle Bill’s heartbreaking letters detail his suspicion that the Nazis were extorting the Jews of the money that U.S. relatives sent to facilitate escape. Sadly, none of the relatives Uncle Bill names in the letters were able to leave, and all perished in the Holocaust.

James’ niece Heather has the genealogy bug as I do and we’ve shared information. Over time, she and James have photocopied a meticulous diary kept by Uncle Bill. All entries involving people, places, photographs, or other noteworthy things are cross-referenced in ten-year indexes (Deciniums).  The document will be preserved by a museum in Baltimore.  Since several of the entries involved my father, James shared them with me including recently this one with a photo of my dad I’d never seen before from my parents’ time in California (1941-42).

Ferdinand Breth “Uncle Bill” October 1941 entry into his diary regarding Valdik Holzer

International Human Rights Day

For the past sixty-eight years, the world has celebrated the December 10^th 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 the Declaration text. It reads: “to cause it to be disseminated, displayed, read and expounded principally in schools and other educational institutions, without distinction based on the political status of countries or territories.” Now in 438 different languages and dialects, the document holds the Guinness World Record for being the most translated document in the world.

And yet, even with strong Constitutional protections in America, in a 2015 United Nations report, the American Civil Liberties Union pointed out cases of criminal justice, national security, immigration policy and social and economic rights violations. Compared to other liberal democracies, the ACLU reported the US has comparatively a “poor record of upholding basic rights.”

Human rights are not simply a privilege. As a human being, these are certain fundamental rights you should not be denied. Here are ten of the most well-known of the thirty universal rights contained in the UN document. They include the right to trial, the right to a nationality, the right to privacy, the right to peaceful public assembly, the right to own property, the right to education, freedom of expression, freedom from slavery, the right to seek asylum and the right to get married and start a family.

When I think of the importance of protecting human dignity for the whole human family, my mind always plays the lyrics from John Lennon’s song: Imagine.  Look up the words and see how you feel about it. This shouldn’t be such a tough challenge, but injustices continue to play out in America and around the world.

By telling true stories from my family history which includes injustices that caused the loss of life of family and friends, property, and homeland, I’ll never stop working for the protection of human dignity and rights. The path to the goal is education – of the young and old.

Learn more about the Universal Declaration of Human Rights:

http://www.ohchr.org/EN/UDHR/Documents/UDHR_Translations/eng.pdf

http://www.un.org/en/udhrbook/pdf/udhr_booklet_en_web.pdf

For more about what’s happening around the world about deterioration of Human Rights:

http://www.voanews.com/a/alarming-deterioration-of-human-rights-worldwide/3617235.html

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 Will.  I was in the midst of completing the manuscript for my second book, My Dear Boy, so we scheduled the meeting for two months hence.  That night arrived in March 2016. Here’s the email feedback I received following the evening.  It turns out it was as magical a night for me as it apparently was for them!

Dear Joanie,

…Words can’t even begin to express how special you made our book club gathering.  I know the rest of the ladies were as awed as I was that you brought your Dad’s pants that he was wearing when he escaped.  They bring such a reality to the discussion of your great book.  I get “chills” every time I think of all the “synchronicities” that happened and still happen as you bring “The Adventurers” stories to more and more people.

I have received so many emails from the Book Club ladies and believe me when I say they are still ecstatic about your presentation last evening.  Your genuineness in sharing and all the visuals you presented added an extra layer of understanding to the complexities and realities of “The Adventurers” lives.  The ladies will be talking about this for a long, long time.  As many of them have mentioned, this was the highlight of our 14 years together as a book club.  And, needless to say, we are all looking forward to the release of your next book.

And, I must tell you, I was flooded with many happy memories as I collected and made the recipes for the Czech dishes that I so enjoyed throughout my childhood.  Traditions are what connect us to our heritage.  How blessed we are that we can make this happen.

Thank you again for a very special evening for all of us.

Fondly, Fran

The Discovery of a Lifetime

From the moment I read the last letter that my grandfather Arnošt wrote to my dad, I knew it held meaning beyond the four walls of my writing room. Dated April 21, 1942, just three days before Arnošt and my grandmother Olga Holzer were taken from Prague on a Nazi transport to their deaths, the letter introduced me to a grandfather I never had a chance to meet. Now I know the lessons revealed during my seven-year writing journey has led me to this moment of sharing a gift unlike any other.  Discovery, research, and understanding of the past has presented me with an opportunity to change the future.

The news of today is filled with stories of forcibly displaced persons seeking safe haven.  As desperate men, women, and children travel across dangerous water bodies in overloaded rafts, if we listen, we hear echoes from another time in the late 1930s. Chased from their native land because of oppression, prejudice, and hate, today almost daily we hear of refugees who drowned while the world debates what it should do for humanity. We must learn from our past.

In grave danger, these innocents of today reflect what’s revealed in the hundreds of WWII letters my Czech father hid away some seven decades earlier when his refugee status came to an end in America.  From his old letters, correspondents made up of friends and relatives caught in the turmoil of war, desperate human faces emerge.  They cling to the cold WWII statistics from which we teach our children history. Their voices hold great promise today for building empathy among students who will then understand why we must protect human rights and dignity.

There’s a reason why nonfiction stories resonate and help us learn.  The real people of the letters, portrayed in my book Adventurers Against Their Will, speak to us in a different way than fiction characters.  While the actual letter writers describe tumultuous circumstances, we look for ourselves or our loved ones in the images they create.  From their authenticity, we walk in their shoes and understand their pain and dreams for a better future.

Recently, I participated as a guest author at the Florida Council for the Social Studies (FCSS) and Florida Association for Media in Education (FAME). Soon, I’ll appear at the upcoming Annual Conference of the National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS) sharing lesson plans tied to real life stories from past and present.  I’m confident the purpose of my writing journey is unfolding just as it was meant to through shared experiences that matter for today. The Florida Department of Education chose my book for their Recommended Reading List, Grades 9-12. The International Tracing Service (ITS) in Germany is distributing Lesson Plans to German and Austrian educators. American teachers are requesting the lesson plans (prepared by A Pass Education Group) that accompany Adventurers Against Their Will or creating they’re own (Orlando’s Dr. Phillips High School Center for International Studies Program).

From what they experience, feel, and learn in their studies, high school students may become the peacemakers of the future. A true story tells it best.

What does a Shuttle astronaut, an honorary Brevard County Historian, the wife of a Florida former poet laureate and Joanie Holzer Schirm have in common?  Nothing that I, Joanie, can figure out until February 20, 2015 comes around.  That’s when we, along with some other illustrious authors will read from our books or poems at a Florida Institute of Technology hosted evening event at Evans Library in Melbourne, Florida.

Normally, the life of a writer is a solitary one. At least for me it is as I need total silence to place my words correctly on the computer screen that later produces the word doc that turns into my books.  I’m not one of those writers who has a jazz playing in the background or allows my husband to spend much time in my writing room. I need peace and quiet.

But when an occasion comes up with a willing audience on hand for me to read aloud what I wrote while in hibernation, it feels darn good.  Why? Because as a writer I suffer constant self-doubt. This style event becomes an indicator that someone cares about my work or some tiny piece of it. Just the invitation proves the work must be acceptable beyond the four corners of my writing room. Right?

FIT is a special place for me…it’s where my father, Oswald A. Holzer, MD donated ten years of his life as the Campus Doctor after he retired from his private medical practice.  He built the Student Health program from scratch, donated his salary and time, and then, to top it off;  he and my Mom, Ruth Alice Lequear Holzer established the Holzer-Lequear Endowment for FIT to help students gain their education. It is only fitting that on February 20th  I would speak about the star of my books – my dad. I’ll provide a tiny bit about the backstory of his life before FIT from some readings from my book, Adventurers Against Their Will.

So if you want to help build confidence in a writer (Andrew Aberdein, Ben Brotemarkle, Weona Cleveland, Marcia Denius, Joddy Murray, Winston Scott, Louise Skellings, Scott Tilley, and me), please share your time on February 20, 2015 – 6 – 9 pm at FIT’s Evans Library.  It’s free, and there will be refreshments.

Ann Scott, Florida First Lady with Joanie Schirm

January 26, 2015: On a perfect sunny day, with music, dance, drama, and book character impersonations, students, staff and dignitaries from Orange County, Florida’s Timber Creek High School kicked off Celebrate Literacy Week, Florida!  Florida Department of Education’s annual event celebrates the tremendous success Florida’s students have accomplished over the past decade. Recognizing “reading accelerates success”, FDOE’s Just Read Florida staff created an environment of magic when hundreds of students in attendance silently read from their books as the Timber Creek Orchestra performed. Their five minute reading was all a part of the Million Minute Marathon goal of 36 million minutes of reading statewide!   As a part of the FDOE 2015 Celebrate Literacy Week Recommended Reading List for Grades 9-12, Adventurers Against Their Will is now in the hands of Florida’s First Lady, Mrs. Ann Scott.

Celebrate Literacy Week, Florida! is a week-long celebration from Jan. 26 – 30, 2015, geared toward raising awareness for literacy programs and projects offered by the Department of Education’s Just Read, Florida! office, and its partner agencies and organizations. The week’s events are made possible by these participating sponsors: Florida Lottery; National Geographic; Dairy Council of Florida, a Division of Florida Dairy Farmers; Scholastic; Florida Department of Health; Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles and the Kennedy Space Center. The Department of Education actively works with community groups and volunteers throughout the state to make reading a priority in students’ lives. For more information about Just Read, Florida!, visit www.justreadflorida.com.

“They called it Tea” …Overcoming Indifference that Enables Hate to Flourish

January 27, 2015 marks the 70^th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau.  This year’s United Nations Holocaust Memorial Day theme “Liberty, Life, and the Legacy of the Holocaust Survivors,”  reminds me of the importance of recording the words of the few remaining Holocaust survivors alive today.

Over the past seven years, as an author I’ve delved into a family past scarred by the Holocaust. On my paternal side, in the Holzer family line, we lost forty-four relatives in the Holocaust. Through my communication outreach for my debut book, Adventurers Against Their Will, I’ve connected with many people who choose to share their timeless words as eyewitnesses to this horrific period of history.  Their only hope is to transform memory into action to overcome the indifference that enables the hate to flourish.  In honor of Holocaust Memorial Day, 27th January 2015, I’d like to share the story of John Freund, Toronto, Canada.

My virtual relationship with John Freund began on April 28, 2014 after I sent a mass email through the electronic mail service tied to my author website. The assembled email list is from various sources that show interest in my book or its subject matter. The title of that day’s missive:  “How can we make peace in our world? One hopeful idea.”   Soon after it took wings, I received John’s first note.

Hello jschirm,

My name is John Freund; I am a Holocaust survivor. My hometown was C.Budejovice (Budweis) in Czechoslovakia.

My earliest “girlfriend” was Rita Holzer. If you happen to be related to the Holzer family of my hometown, let me know and I will send you a book (The Underground Reporters) that has several photos of the Holzer daughters.

John Freund in Toronto.    

I responded to John with information that I had not thus far identified a relative with the name “Rita Holzer” nor a family link to the village Budweis.  I included extensive family tree information that I’d compiled on Geni.com.

John responded with a list of Holzer’s in his hometown, but none of the names seemed to connect us.  He told me all of them had perished in the Holocaust. John pointed out there was a Chief Fireman named Leo Holzer in Terezin, (Theresienstadt), the Nazi concentration camp in northeast Bohemia where in early WWII, as a child  John was held captive. It was where most of my Holzer relatives had been sent, including my grandparents and great-grandmother. My grandmother died there. The rest of the forty-three relatives had been sent on to the ‘east’ to Poland, where they perished in one of the Nazi’s concentration or death camps.   My great uncle Leo Holzer was at Terezin at the identical time as the Leo Holzer that John mentioned, but he was not the same person.

Through that connection we determined John was at Terezin at the same time as my great Uncle Leo’s son, Hanus Holzer. John remembered that he and Hanus were in different rooms in the Terezin “skola” (school).   As life would have it, these two ‘boys’ would meet again in 2014 in Prague, after watching a documentary by Czech schoolboy filmmaker Matouš Bičák about Holocaust survivor Toman Brod.

As our Florida to Canada email relationship blossomed, we wrote each other several emails talking about our backgrounds and my growing awareness of 1930’s and 40’s life in the Czech lands. I was very intrigued to learn about what happened to Holocaust survivors as they recreated their lives post-WWII.

August 20, 2014:

 Hello Joanie,

Thanks for your lovely letter. I did not mean to insult you by the religious bit. I also grew up, like your father in an agnostic (or very liberal) Jewish family in Czechoslovakia.

I wish that my father (a Medical Doctor) was as smart as yours. Instead, we (four in our family, I was the youngest) ended in hell. I was the only one that survived (not fifteen yet).

I also wrote about my “adventures” in Terezin, Auschwitz and death marches.  

I also understand that some survivors wanted to hide their religion. I did not and I met a lovely Jewish girl, born in Czechoslovakia. We now have three daughters and ten grandchildren.  

Your life story is different.

John Freund

In late 2014, John sent me the book he wrote, “Spring’s End”   Then, in early January 2015 after one of my mass emails sharing book progress news, John sent me a note. He pointed out that when I referred to my father as a refugee in the email, I had not used the word Jewish to describe his plight.  Clearly, it was because of that reason – declared an undesirable by Hitler – Dad was by mid-1939 in Shanghai, China seeking refuge.

The next day John sent me a speech he’d just delivered about his Holocaust experience.

On use for this 2015 day of Remembrance for those who perished in the Holocaust, John gave me permission to share his speech and a family photo from the 1930s and John’s 2014 photo:

Speech by John Freund in Toronto, January 11, 2015, Holy Blossom Temple (a Reform Jewish Synagogue)

They Named it Tea
“I was born in 1930 in a small town named Ceske Budejovice in Czechoslovakia.  It is better known by its German name, Budweis, because of the famous Budweiser Beer.  The town is just about 50 km from Austria, which had been occupied by the aggressive German forces, led by one of the greatest dictators in history-Adolf Hitler. His crazy claim to conquer all Europe and wipe out all the Jews and other undesirables was clearly expressed in his public policy.

In Budweis, the entire population of fifty thousand included about one thousand Jews. They spoke Czech and many also spoke German. They lived in the town, like all citizens, according to their economic position.

In March 1939, German forces invaded our country and instituted the Nuremberg anti-Jewish laws.  In September of the same year, they invaded Poland and the Second World War began. I was nine years old.

It was in April 1942 that the one thousand Jewish people were taken by train from our   home town to a town, named Terezin. This fortress town built in the eighteenth century by the Austrian Emperor was intended as a military establishment; it was named after his mother Empress Maria Teresa. In German it is called Theresienstadt.

I was then not yet twelve years old.

The Jewish population of the Czech lands (Bohemia and Moravia) were to spend the war years in the large barracks and small homes in this town used as a Ghetto. Like everything else the German Nazis did it was a false mirage.

We were happy to be near our home towns; Terezin was just about 100 km north of Prague, the Capital of the country.

Soon, however the Nazi lie became apparent.

I was thirteen years old in Terezin and had a short Bar Mitzvah there. The 12 to 14-year-old boys lived together in a converted school and were able to meet their parents for about an hour each week.

The worst of the life in Terezin was the fear of transportation north east by train to Poland and beyond. There were about two thousand people at a time in each such transport. They included children, old people, the sick and complete families crowded into a cattle train for the trip.

No news ever was heard from those deported. They were either killed on arrival or put into some terrible concentration camp, where they died from starvation or illness.

My father was a children’s doctor and that kept us in Terezin a few months longer. But our time came in December 1943. Two cattle trains full of people with only a small  container for the toilet duties were dispatched to the unknown. The journey lasted eighteen hours with many stops-no one could leave the train on the way.

We were dislodged late at night in a place surrounded by armed SS men in their green uniforms. Dogs were howling and threatening anyone stepping out of line. Barbed wire fences, electrically charged, enclosed the large town full of wooden barracks.

Inmates wearing pajama like clothing told us that we were in Auschwitz Concentration Camp. To us this was like a summons to death.

Exhausted, hungry and filthy, we were led into a barrack where we were told to undress, go under a cold shower and drop all our possessions. Thus I lost the lovely Bar Mitzvah gifts from my parents:  A pendant watch and fountain pen. We were then tattooed, by a number on the left forearm and given very thin clothing. Then we were led-men separately from women into a large wooden barrack that was filled with three tier bunk beds. Six people were on each bed, just enough room for our bodies. I was thirteen and a half and was bedded with my father and three year older brother.

Up at 5:30, AM, early morning we were told to line up in rows of five for counting. Those who had died, and there were many old people there, were collected for burning.

This was done every day. Then we were given a pot of warm water; they named it tea. At noon we were given a pot of soup and a slice of black bread. In the evening again a tea and nothing else.

During the day, we were required to walk around in the cold weather and the stronger men were paving the narrow road between the thirty two wooden barracks.

There was a similar camp on the left side of our camp and another on the right side. But no others had women and men in the same camp, nor any children. Only our camp had families.

Enormously large factory buildings- there were four of those- on the side of the entire camp clearly visible by all. To our surprise, we found in our camp, people who were sent from Ghetto Terezin here a few months earlier. They spoke Czech, just like we did. They told us that we were in the Family Camp for Czech Jews deported from Terezin.

“What are these large buildings; do they produce bricks or are they large bakeries? “

Constant dark smoke was coming out of the very large chimneys. Day and night transports from all over Europe were arriving and right at the station selections by SS men chose only the strong to work in German factories and mines. The rest, all the older people, children and the sick were then killed.

To our disbelief, those were “gas chambers”. Most people – all Jews and some Gypsies were killed there and their bodies were burnt in the crematoria; that’s the black smoke.

Only those in the Family Camp were exempted from such a treatment.

Only later we founded why.

I was in that camp for 7 months from December 1943 to July 1944.

In March 1944- all those still alive in the Family Camp who had come on the transport in September 1943- were killed in the gas chambers. Just the day before that terrible murder, everyone in the camp was handed a post card which we were to address to our family or friends in Terezin or our friends in our home towns. The message, strictly censored was “we are well and healthy and with our family”. The return address was “Birkenau bei (on) Beroun”. NO SUCH ADDRESS could be found on any atlas or map.

The Birkenau camp was a section of Auschwitz Concentration Camp. Approximately one and a half million Jews were killed there in the Gas chambers.

Why the different treatment in the Family Camp?

In June 1944 an order came from Berlin to liquidate the Family Camp.

Selections for strong men and women were begun who were then sent to do hard work in Germany. The rest of those in the Family Camp and that included my mother, my 85 year grandmother, an aunt and   all the children with their mothers, sick people —all together three thousand people—were killed by gas in the middle of July 1944.^.

Only a few of those sent to work survived the hard work and the death marches.  Neither my seventeen-year-old brother, nor my forty-five year old father survived.

Where was I?  Expecting the inevitable………..and then, on July 6^th , one month after my 14^th birthday, all fourteen to sixteen year old boys in the Family Camp were ordered to line up, in the nude for the Dr. Mengele who played God by choosing who shall live and who shall die.

Ninety boys out of the few hundred were selected for life. The rest were gassed with the rest of the camp.

Of the ninety boys of July 6^th, only about one half lived till the end of the war.

Now, what was the reason for the creation by the murderous Nazis of the one and only Family Camp?

Back in Ghetto Terezin, where I had spent 18 months before being sent to Auschwitz- Birkenau, the Germans agreed to a single visit by the Danish Red Cross and possibly another visit to a “labour camp”.

The Family Camp was created for the possibility of a further visit. Of course that would not be to Auschwitz Birkenau, where the gas chambers were so clearly visible, but the inmates of this camp could be located in many other places.

The other lie was the mailing of postcards to family members and friends … with the lie: We are healthy and with our family.

In October 1944, an armed revolt by the Jewish workers in the gas chambers took place.

This ended by the death of most of those who took up arms in the revolt.   Those that survived the massacre were then commanded to take down, brick by brick, the installation of the gas chambers and the crematoria.

Gun battles now raged near the Auschwitz camps. The Russian were battling the German forces.

On January 17^th 1945, almost exactly seventy years ago today the camps were liberated by the Russians.  But I was no longer there.

The Nazis did not want to allow survivors. And so between December 1944 and April 1945, I was on death marches, transports in roofless coal trains and another Concentration Camp.

Struggling every day for four months, I survived till being liberated by the American forces in eastern Germany.

As I suspected no one in my family was alive in May 1945, the end of the Second World War.

Of the one thousand Jewish people in my hometown, only 28 were alive and I was the youngest, not yet fifteen years old.

In March of 1948 I came to Canada.”

Sadly, this day of Holocaust remembrance also coincides with the 20^th anniversary of the Genocide in Srebrenica, Bosnia – one of many genocides brought on by hate.  Regardless of our differences, without distinction of any kind such as race, ethnicity, religion or other status, will we ever realize we are one?  What kind of world will future generations inherit if we don’t remember our shared past and take action to ensure a better future?

Earned Title:  Author

Seven years ago, January 11, 2008, I sold my Orlando engineering company.  Having left behind the lofty title of President, I entered my next life chapter with a goal: Published Author. It was a position title I had to earn.

Befuddled as to how to describe my new endeavor, my husband Roger suggested: “Freed Spirit/Writer.”   As I unleashed my creativity, the title inspired me on as an author-in-the-making.  Soon, in a treasure trove of my dad’s secret WWII letter collection, I discovered real life characters with extraordinary stories of survival, escape, and connection. The life-changing experiences of these Czech refugees was brought on by modern history’s most brutal demagogue, Adolf Hitler. Within 5 years, my dad’s correspondents’ tales filled the pages of my first nonfiction book: Adventurers Against Their Will.

In my most contemplative and creative moments as a rookie, I could never have imagined what lay ahead as I earned the title:  Author.  Here are just a few memorable milestones along the way:

2008 – As I researched and began writing my father’s epic WWII tale in a yet to be published book, I uncovered a few correspondents from dad’s letter collection still alive. Old friends from the youth of my late father, I traveled to meet them and delivered copies of their 70-year old letters.  All were stunned and very appreciative. Scattered worldwide in places like New Zealand, Canada, Great Britain, Czech Republic, and the USA, I found descendants of the letter writers.  As time was of the essence to locate these people and discover our commonalities, I turned my attention away from writing my dad’s epic WWII story and wrote what became my debut book: Adventurers Against Their Will. 

December 2012:  After reading advance chapters from the book, Former U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, provides a cover quote.   “A brilliant and compelling account of men and women caught in the turbulence of war. Part insightful history, and part family drama…it leads readers on a journey into the past.”  Her letter arrived on my birthday.

April 2013 – The book launch for Adventurers Against Their Will is held with Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer and other friends at Orlando City Hall. The celebration of print and EBook versions includes donation of 100 books to Central Florida libraries.  Harvey Massey and Massey Services sponsor the book distribution.

October 2013 – Adventurers Against Their Will wins the 2013 Global EBook Award for Best Biography and Best Book Trailer. The powerful storytelling video book trailer is made possible by Bolder Media.

2013/2014 – Numerous Author speaking engagements include: Palm Beach County Public Schools’ annual Social Studies Teacher Symposium; Scottsdale, Arizona keynote, Educators Conference on the Holocaust, Yom HaShoah Keynote at Holocaust  Memorial Resource & Education Center of Florida.

September 2014:  Prague, Czech Republic: TRITON books publishes Adventurers Against Their Will in the Czech language: Dobrodruzi proti své vůli.   Media blitz includes Schirm interviews with leading Czech TV and Radio Praha programs along with other print and e-zine media. After speaking at the US Embassy in Prague (American Center), Schirm gives a lecture about the book at Prague’s Gymnázium Špitálská (high school).

September 2014: Frankfurt, Germany:  The International Tracing Service (ITS), Bad Arolsen, includes the story of Joanie’s father, Dr. Oswald “Valdik” Holzer, in German exhibit. Recounting the stories of Displaced Persons after WWII, Dr. Holzer is the only featured biography wiht a Czech background and one of only 3 American citizens. Joanie and husband Roger Neiswender proudly attend the Exhibit opening at Frankfurt’s Anne Frank Educational Center.

January 2015:  Florida Department of Education chooses Adventurers Against Their Will for 2015 FDOE Recommended Reading list for grades 9-12 as part of Celebrate Literacy week and Just Read, Florida! summer reading.  Alongside classics like To Kill a Mockingbird and A Separate Peace, Orlando author Joanie Holzer Schirm’s book is the only nonfiction set in WWII on the FDOE list and the only native Floridian author!

Adventurers‘ stories prepare students to be compassionate and active citizens, through gained awareness of the importance of protecting human rights. Using primary souce material, students build their research skills and reflect on their own lived experiences as it relates to building a more just world honoring our shared humanity.

What’s next? February 2015:  For Teachers:  Lesson Plans to accompany Adventurers Against Their Will (prepared by APass Educational Group). Free download coming soon on www.joanieschirm.local

2015 Goal: Complete manuscript for book 2:  My Dear Boy – The Discovery of a Lifetime

May your 2015 be filled with unleashed creativity and accomplishments under whatever life title you hold!  

Regards,   Joanie Holzer Schirm