Beijing – Joanie Schirm

Fateful Choice – August 1940

Joanie Schirm — Sun, 10 Aug 2014 14:33:29 +0000

Fateful Choice – August 10, 1940
Czech refugee Osvald “Valdik” Holzer writes from Peking (Beijing) on August 20, 1940 to refugee friend Rudolf “Rudla” Rebhun in Shanghai. Valdik has unexpectedly been forced to leave his position as head physician at the American Brethren Hospital in Ping Ting Hsien, Shansi (Shanxi) Province in the Northern Central Region of interior China. Since January 1940, Valdik has served his Chinese patients amidst raging typhus outbreaks and fierce battles between the armies of Japan and Chinese Communist.
Dear Rudla,
So I have decided to write to you after one month of silence in order for you not to feel lonely and to notify you of my new temporary address. A temporary one, as it will be decided in a few days if I go as a university assistant to Tsinan-Chilu (Shantung Province) or if I’m going to stay at Peking Union Medical College, where I work now in the Dermatology Department. If I stay here, I would be able to move into the hospital where I have an assigned apartment already, but I don’t want to haul my things there if it is not for a longer term, and thus I am awaiting the final decision.
So I have been again very lucky as just after I left Shansi, contrary to my plan one week early, there have been enormous troubles as far as you perhaps were able to read in Shanghai papers. Therefore, our “settlement of young dreams” fell into hands of “red hordes” three days after my strategic escape, now not only ours, but surrounding regions as well as damaged by a “a red catastrophe”. If I had stayed there, I could have experienced various things, so I even don’t know if I had luck or nothing. So far, I have suffered damage only with my correspondence which is sent to Shansi now, meaning that it is waiting somewhere along the way, and so I hope that I will get in three months. I have been therefore with no news from home for more than a month.”
I am sending you cordial greetings, Yours, Valdik
Background: The Chinese Communist Army launched a series of offensives against the Japanese in 1940 from mid-summer to December. In a major offensive on August 20 about 40,000 men of the Communist Eighth Route Army attacked the major railways and roads in northern China where Valdik had been working. In a fateful decision just before the event, he traveled to Peking for hospital supplies and was stranded there. Three months later, the Communist army killed or wounded 20,000 Japanese troops and 18,000 collaborating Chinese soldiers. Japanese counter-attacks had orders to “kill all, burn all, destroy all,” and destroyed entire villages in the area Valdik had just left.
Source: China at War – 1937 – 1939 by Sanderson Beck
From the author of the 2013 Global Ebook Award for Best Biography: Adventurers Against Their Will www.joanieschirm.local

Remembrance + Hope – A Common Cause for Humanity

Joanie Schirm — Sat, 25 Jan 2014 21:14:37 +0000

Remembrance + Hope – A Common Cause for Humanity

It would seem to most that the United Nations-sanctioned International Holocaust Remembrance Day on January 27 and Chinese New Year this January 31^st would have little to do with one another. And yet during my father’s life, and now in my own daily writing, they hold a key to a common cause for humanity.

Over the past six years as I’ve uncovered my father Oswald Holzer’s lost past within a treasure trove of his WWII letters, I’ve reconstructed aspects of the daily lives of Czech family and friends as they dealt with an unfolding Holocaust they did not foresee. These magnificent primary sources, written by seventy-eight people, tell of a storied Czech past suddenly engulfed with Nazi hate. They detail Nazi intolerance for those of different ethnic origins, religious or political beliefs, or physical and mental infirmities. The genocide that followed the hate included forty-four of my relatives. Among them were my paternal grandparents, Arnost and Olga Holzer, and great-grandmother Marie (nee Porges) Holzer.

So how does this story relate to Chinese New Year? What most people don’t know is that from 1938 to 1941, Shanghai, China became a haven for some 20,000 threatened European Jews who made their way to Shanghai’s free seaport to escape Nazi-persecution. In Shanghai in1939 when my dad arrived, there was no Chinese government. The Japanese had ousted the Nationalist government in 1937, so there was no authority at the seaport to exercise passport control or immigration. As a result, for a short period, anyone could land without having to show entry papers.

For my young Jewish father in this far away world, he emerged from the darkness of his Nazi-occupied Czech lands into this far east land of light, engaged in its own turmoil of Chinese versus Japanese soldiers fighting for control. When Dad arrived, he had no idea of the destruction that lay ahead back home for family and friends.

Trying to fit in, Dad embraced the Chinese culture, learned the language, and as a physician cared for their sick. In Peking (Beijing) in September 1940, he met and fell instantly in love with my American missionary mother, Ruth Alice Lequear. They quickly married and eventually found permanent refuge in Florida where they lived out their sixty year love affair. In recognition of the hope and inspiration it provides, my parents always celebrated Chinese New Year.

The UN resolution which established International Holocaust Remembrance Day urges every member nation to honor the memory of Holocaust victims. On January 27, I will read aloud the forty-four names of family members who perished. The personal register I will read from I call “Valdik’s List” as my dad typed it in 1993 when the movie Schindler’s List premiered. It was only then that my brother, sister, and I knew the extent of loss in our own family.

And soon after this important day of remembrance, I will turn my attention to how Chinese New Year, known as the spring festival, reminds us to cherish life through its colorful activities and hopes for the advent of spring.

Celebrating life should always be accompanied by remembrance of the people, places, and events that define our past. It is essential if we are to learn lessons from the past. Without this memory and continuity, we will have no sense of purpose to support our common cause for humanity to bring about a better, more peaceful, future for all.

It’s Mother’s Day and I find myself wondering…

Joanie Schirm — Sun, 12 May 2013 17:46:16 +0000

Today is Mother’s Day. Although I think I’ve been a fairly good mom to Kelly and Derick, I don’t think there’s ever been a better mom than mine: Ruth Alice (nee Lequear) Holzer. Filled with grace, patience, and an inspiration to her family and friends, she was a great lover of literature. Born in China of American missionary parents, my mom always spoke of her treasured books of youth. On this special commemorative day, as I think of my mom’s gentle nature and encouragement to read, I find myself wondering:

What would my mother have written as a review of my debut non-fiction book had she been alive today? Sadly, I’ll never know as she passed away in January 2000, just six years before Amazon sold its first online book. What I do know is that Mom never had the chance to offer book reviews as they appear today. She regularly read the reviews in our local newspaper. On a few occasions, she submitted her own; mostly dealing with books that referred to her birthplace of China. There was no parent I knew that had as much knowledge about ancient China as my mom. http://www.ebeijing.gov.cn/

She would find today’s online book reviews perfect for our modern world. She loved a good book. She loved talking about the author and what may have driven them to the hard work it takes to produce a book. My writing compulsion came from wanting to tell my dad and her story – of their falling in love in China and marrying there on a crisp, autumn day in Peking (Beijing). My parents’ love affair lasted sixty years. They died within two days of each other. Hard on their children. Great for them.

Today, on my Mom’s honored day, just in case for some reason her internet connection isn’t working in heaven, I’ve decided to share with my mom a few of the reviews I’ve received on Amazon thus far. It’s been six weeks since my book debut. It may appear that I’m being selfish on this day that really belongs to her…but the truth is, like every Mom, she was very proud of me. She would be glowing when she read them! I love you Mom.

5.0 out of 5 stars “Adventurers”: affectingly told stories, and unexpected connections, May 7, 2013

Carol K Provisor –

This review is from: Adventurers Against Their Will: Extraordinary World War II Stories of Survival, Escape, and Connection-Unlike Any Others (Paperback)

After a fruitless years-long Internet search for a distant Czech cousin, I was stunned to read about his history and wartime experiences in Joanie’s Schirm’s “Adventurers Against Their Will.”

My family has lived in the U.S. for several generations. Except for inheriting a faded, sad 1939 letter from a cousin in Prague pleading for a sponsor to bring his wife and two young children to America, I had no other known relatives living in Europe in the 20th century.

In 2011, the Internet at last yielded up my relative’s name in a short article written by Joanie Schirm. I contacted her immediately, and finally learned what happened to my cousin and his family during the horror of WWII.

Joanie asked for permission to use my name in a book she was writing. “Adventurers” was the surprising result.

Even though I am mentioned in Joanie’s book, and my cousin’s journey–one of several–is so movingly told, I can (nearly) objectively state that Joanie’s writing style is stellar, the historical context woven throughout is fascinating, and the emotional wallop the stories pack is undeniable. A truly compelling read from a talented writer.

5.0 out of 5 stars Adventurers against their will, April 22, 2013

Jan Schoenbaum – See all my reviews

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This review is from: Adventurers Against Their Will: Extraordinary World War II Stories of Survival, Escape, and Connection-Unlike Any Others (Paperback)

We are indebted to Joanie Schirm, the daughter of Valdik Holzer (the focal `adventurer’), for sharing the wonderfully rich letters of her father and his friends with us. The book is more than a story of a group of friends, of their trials and survivals (or deaths): Joanie has created a micro-history of a time when Czech Jews and Gentiles were caught up in the expansion of the Third Reich, first into Sudetenland in October 1938 (with the agreement of France and Britain), then followed by the invasion and occupation of Bohemia and Moravia in March 1939. The Nuremberg laws limiting what Jews could do, or own, were applied progressively in the `Protectorate’. How hard it must have been for those at threat (my parents included) to understand the murderous intent, and the ruthless efficiency with which it would be implemented. Who could have thought, who even now can comprehend, that organized theft would be followed by confinement, slave labour, and the gas chambers? Joanie’s work, and it was work, involving unravelling the many threads that wound through more than four hundred letters of her father and the other `adventurers’, has resulted in a gripping tale of intertwined lives. The reader is helped through this complex of life stories by Dramatis Personae at the beginning of each chapter, and by Biographies and Timelines at the end of the book. We are moved and touched by the opportunities of escape seized or missed, and by the many photos of the protagonists and their families. A wonderful book. Thank you Joanie!

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5.0 out of 5 stars Holocaust Comes to Life, April 13, 2013

Nathan H. Chitty (Orlando, FL USA) – See all my reviews

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This review is from: Adventurers Against Their Will: Extraordinary World War II Stories of Survival, Escape, and Connection-Unlike Any Others (Paperback)

Adventurers Against Their Will alternates between letters and providing context for the letters of the Author’s Czech father and relatives during World War II. Europe, China, South America, America are all visited. Great work.

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5.0 out of 5 stars A new approach to learning about the history of the Holocaust., April 8, 2013

Saundra – See all my reviews

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This review is from: Adventurers Against Their Will: Extraordinary World War II Stories of Survival, Escape, and Connection-Unlike Any Others (Paperback)

A thoughtful way to introduce us to the horrors of the Holocaust. Joanie Schirm is a talented writer, bringing alive the old letters of her father and his friends. Saundra Gray

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5.0 out of 5 stars Well researched and beautifully written, April 1, 2013

ANN C. MATYAS – See all my reviews

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This review is from: Adventurers Against Their Will: Extraordinary World War II Stories of Survival, Escape, and Connection-Unlike Any Others (Kindle Edition)

This is well researched and beautifully written book that provides a clear picture of how ordinary people reacted to the changes in their lives brought on by WWII. Joanie Schirm brillantly weaves the story of her father, his family and his friends between excerpts of letters between them. These letters highlight their feelings not only about their personal situations and relationships, but also about the broader political events around them.
I had trouble putting it down.

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5.0 out of 5 stars Awe-inspiring, March 31, 2013

Lauren L. – See all my reviews

This review is from: Adventurers Against Their Will: Extraordinary World War II Stories of Survival, Escape, and Connection-Unlike Any Others (Paperback)

Adventurers Against Their Will is an amazing story about survival, loss, hope and the importance of carrying on the message of generations as they pass. It made me want to run to my parents and grandparents and capture their own life stories before it’s too late. Schirm does a beautiful job portraying the seven letter writers in this book, as they individually travel through the uncertainties of life as a Jew in Europe during WW2. Not only does the reader finish the book feeling as though they’ve learned more about that period in time, but he/she also catches a very real glimpse into the lives of men and women — just like you and me– who lived through that tumultuous time with such grace and dignity.