Czech
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“Man who nabbed most dangerous man in Europe dies” …
by Joanie Schirm on October 2, 2014 Permalinkhttp://www.suntimes.com/news/obituaries/30222106-418/paul-kraus-wwii-gi-who-nabbed-most-dangerous-man-in-europe-dies-at-95.html Imagine meeting someone through their seventy year-old letters – not addressed to you but to your father- who by the time you read the letters had passed away. Through the letter writer’s own intimate 1940’s words, you meet this person as a young man; a refugee from Nazi-occupied Prague in Shanghai, China.
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What’s up for your next path in life?
by Joanie Schirm on August 23, 2014 PermalinkWhat’s up for your next path in life? As an author who started to write books after six decades of ‘not’ writing books, I’m a good example to think about when you want to step off the sidewalk, turn a new corner, and follow your dreams. I’m proof that each day offers the opportunity to
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Fateful Choice – August 1940
by Joanie Schirm on August 10, 2014 PermalinkFateful 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
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Remembrance + Hope – A Common Cause for Humanity
by Joanie Schirm on January 25, 2014 PermalinkRemembrance + 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 31st would have little to do with one another. And yet during my father’s life, and now in my own daily writing,
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Things that are tough are what you remember.
by Joanie Schirm on January 8, 2014 PermalinkThings that are tough are what you remember. I was brought up on the view that if you wait patiently until the end of the story, the good people will live happily ever after. As a 1960’s child, “Treat others with respect and make the world better wherever you go” paraphrases the example
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Approaching this day in history: August 15, 1944: Allied armies invade Southern France
by Joanie Schirm on August 10, 2013 PermalinkFrom the historic Holzer World War II Letter Collection of 400 letters written to and from my dad by 78 Czech writers from 1939 – 1946: a letter from someone who found refuge in Southern France before war broke out. http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005470 Letter from cousin Rudolf “Rudla” Fischer in 1939 after he, his wife Erna, and son
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Honoring UN World Refugee Day – June 20th – 74 years hence, my dad’s journey as a refugee
by Joanie Schirm on June 19, 2013 PermalinkDocks in Hong Kong, June 24, 1939 – L to R: unidentified aide to Frantisek Urbana, Leo Lilling (Valdik’s “distant cousin), and Oswald “Valdik” Holzer, a stateless Czech citizen on his way to China after escaping his Nazi-occupied homeland (then the German Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia) According to the United Nations, every minute, 8 people
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Against all odds, life goes on – the proof of it all!
by Joanie Schirm on May 28, 2013 PermalinkThis Geni.com flow-chart image at the bottom of this blog accompanied an email from a newly found distant relative: The “You” that it’s drawing attention to is “Rafi Kornfeld” from Israel. The connection from him to me begins on his chart with Bertha Kantor who was sister to Ernestine (my great aunt) and sister to my grandmother: Olga (Orlik) Holzer.