Vaclav Havel, First President of the Czech Republic

As important today as ever, students can learn similarities and differences by bringing family histories to life in the classroom. With this history they become linked to one another in a unique manner.

The “old-new dangers” that President Havel refers to are cropping up all around us: on our streets, in our homes, workplaces, and neighborhoods, in our sports and politics, and in our schools. What’s up with this?  Hasn’t history taught us there are simple measures, morals, and ethics that we can adhere to that avoid the hazards of hatred, bullying, persecution and war?

Apparently, humanity hasn’t learned the lessons well enough. The old, young and in-between need refresher courses and what better place to start than in high school classrooms for Social Studies and English Language Arts learning that we are more alike than we realize.

The international diplomat Dag Hammarskjold once said “The longest journey is the journey inwards. Of him who has chosen his destiny, who has started upon his quest for the source of his being.” In an attempt to help students recognize and appreciate the unique journeys we all take in life, Dr. Phillips High School English teacher Nilam Patel of Orlando, Florida created an inspiring environment where students chose what aspects they would research to better understand their family pasts.

As a nonfiction author, Nilam invited me into her classroom to share WWII stories of my Czech father and his friends from my book, Adventurers Against Their Will. Described by former U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright as “a brilliant and compelling account of men and women caught in the turbulence of war,” the book uses revelations from a secret historical letter collection discovered after my dad’s death in 2000, to bring their tales to life. The correspondence is filled with the realities of endangered lives of refugees and people caught behind enemy lines. Their stories paint a picture from seventy years ago that echoes today’s migrants and refugees and the demons of hatred and evil that still stalk our world.

Here’s how Nilam described our remarkable learning experience together.

“I am a Center for International Studies Magnet English Teacher at Dr. Phillips High School. I work with freshman. This year we were fortunate enough to be introduced to a wonderful real-world and relevant research project through the inspiration of Joanie Schirm, author of Adventurers Against Their Will.

Mrs. Schirm met with the Media Specialist and me to provide customized lesson plans to make this unit of learning the best fit for our students. She offered a plethora of primary and secondary resources for teacher and student use to make this a personal and educational experience. Mrs. Schirm is entirely dedicated to impassioning young people to learn from their past, value it, and continue to grow and learn about themselves because of it.

She visited the students as we introduced their “Genealogy Projects” and shared her adventure in writing, researching, and communicating with a network of family, friends, and experts to paint a mosaic of incredible stories tied together by documented evidence and first-hand interviews.

As students conducted their research on an aspect of their family history, such as migration patterns, ancestry, health history, love stories, etc., they emailed Mrs. Schirm for guidance and received a response from her with a plethora of ideas and resources to explore. Students spent six months brainstorming, researching, interviewing, collecting artifacts and documents, and building a story to share with their classmates and other faculty and parents. Parents contacted me with appreciation on opening up dialogue in the family with grandparents, great grandparents and family members during the process that led to priceless moments that will be treasured.

Mrs. Schirm also visited our students on the last day of presentations to debrief them on continuing to dig deeper and appreciate the information they are uncovering today. Many students shared their enthusiasm, shock, tears, and curiosity throughout this experience and they look forward to building on this project in future years.

Mrs. Schirm’s commitment and passion have fueled a journey for myself, my students, and others at our school to implement parts of her book and process in their classes to make learning personal, real-world, and relevant. We cannot thank Mrs. Schirm enough for her mentorship of our youth.”

Nilam B. Patel, D English I and II Chair, Dr. Phillips High School Center for International Studies Magnet

As an author who cares deeply about the protection of human rights and dignity, there is no greater joy than seeing my subject matter help students realize how each of our backgrounds involves some form of displacement along the way.  Learning to cope with the trauma of change from different environments allows the students to see their life as a vital link to the future.  My hope is that through education and their understanding of their own family histories, students will not only care but care enough to act when they see others who need help and acceptance and sometimes protection from old-new dangers.

www.joanieschirm.com

Resource Book Examples

‘Literature Can Help Bring Forward Every Aspect of Human Life.’

(from the book: Essentials of Holocaust Education: Fundamental Issues and Approaches)

An author’s life is never dull.  After almost nine years, I’ve nearly finished my second and third books (My Dear Boy and Steadfast Ink). As they go through final edits, I’ve entered the stage of wonderment in the modern age of publishing which asks: how can these books best meet their appropriate readership?

In the midst of the new, I haven’t forgotten the ‘old,’ the leader of the trilogy, Adventurers Against Their Will.  Published in 2013, the Global Ebook Award Winner still shares with audiences young and old important messages about working for peace by respecting others and protecting human rights.  Adventurers Against Their Will is recommended reading at various places that care about educating future generations such as the National World War II Museum, Holocaust Memorial & Education Center of Florida, and more.

So imagine my surprise and joy when I stumbled on a prestigious book — Essentials of Holocaust Education: Fundamental Issues and Approaches—edited by Samuel Totten and Stephen Feinberg and published in April 2016 that features a recommendation of Adventurers Against Their Will under their section of “Memoirs”:

“Another memoir teachers may wish to consider using in class is Adventurers Against Their Will by Joanie Holzer Schirm. Schirm had had some information out her father’s experiences in World War II but had not realized the extent of what he experienced until after both of her parents died, and she discovered several letters containing revelatory information. She based her book on letters from family and friends to her father. She learned that her father had worked as a doctor in the Jewish ghetto in Shanghai. “Why didn’t the Jews leave Germany?” is answered in several of the letters, where we read how some of Dr. Holzer’s friends tried to relocate to other countries and were unable to do so because of governmental restrictions and/or financial issues. Sponsors were necessary for entry to the United States, and no matter where the Jews tried to move, it was often incredibly expensive to do so. For example, a friend of Dr. Holzer writes on March 6, 2939, asking for an introduction to a cousin of Valdik Holzer who lives in the United States, hoping this cousin will vouch for him and provide him with an “affidavit of support.” Another friend writes him on March 2, 1940, stating that “the visas they {the US} are issuing now are for people who registered at the beginning of May,” and that it will take about two years before they “are called.”  Students who are studying the Holocaust know that those two years will see the implementation of the Nazis plan to murder the Jews of Europe. By reading such letters, students will also learn of the optimism, the pessimism, and the frustration felt by Jews as governments made decisions that impacted their lives in the most profound ways possible.”

Having Adventurers Against Their Will referenced in the same section with books such as Elie Wiesel’s Night, Gerda Weissman Klein’s All But My Life, and Primo Levi’s Survival in Auschwitz, is an incredible honor. I’ve never doubted that the WWII letters my father preserved and the stories he told me in interviews about his life as a forcibly displaced person, bring great value to understanding the history of the Holocaust. They also have significant relevance for today as we find the world trying to help millions of people displaced by war and persecution.

More from Essentials of Holocaust Education:

“Literature is ‘capable of challenging students to examine their own lived lives and world’ (Totten, 2001, p. 32). It also provides students with the opportunity to probe how individuals and groups acted, reacted, and interacted in a world that was turned upside down by the evil endeavors of the Nazis and their collaborators. That said, a cautionary note is called for here: teaching a book, a short story, a poem, or a play in isolation, without placing the work within a historical context, is problematic.  Those who wish to incorporate literature into a study of the Holocaust must choose wisely when selecting such literature. It should be high-quality literature that is thought-provoking, germane to the history being taught, and highly engaging.”

I know my father—Dr. Oswald Holzer—who saved his secret collection of WWII letters to be discovered after his death, would be proud that their thought-provoking and engaging words can help students better understand the past. Hopefully, this awareness will inspire us all to care enough to take action as creating a peaceful and respectful world takes diligent hard work.

Peace.

Joanie Holzer Schirm