A sad story of separation

Joanie Schirm — Tue, 19 Jun 2018 15:33:58 +0000

With echoes of today’s turmoil around the world with ruthless separation of families, all trying to find a better and safe life, these letter excerpts from my father’s parents writing to him for his thirtieth birthday, are heartbreaking. By this time, torn apart by the Nazis, Dad and his parents had been separated for over two years.

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.

Ban of Refugees in America – Then and Now

Joanie Schirm — Mon, 06 Feb 2017 16:52:59 +0000

As the world stirs with anxiety and debate about US President Trump’s executive order that bans refugees from seven Muslim countries, as always, it is important to look to the past to best understand the context in which current affairs unfold.

Reprinted from PostBulletin.com – a wise letter from Susan Bailey

Jan. 27, 2017 was International Holocaust Remembrance Day. The White House took two actions.

First, it issued a statement which, unlike administration statements since 2005, mentioned only the “victims” of the Holocaust, but not the Nazis’ systematic extermination of 6 million Jews.

Second, the White House issued an executive order that bans refugees from seven Muslim countries. How is this relevant? America kept out Jewish refugees prior to the Holocaust.

In 1939, a bill that would have allowed 20,000 German Jewish children to escape to the U.S. was rejected by Congress. Almost 1,000 Jewish refugees on the ship the St. Louis were turned away and sent back to perish in Nazi Germany.

The liberation of Auschwitz in 1945 made a profound impression on the U.S. public. In 1948, Congress changed U. S. immigration policy, based on a recognition of adverse humanitarian consequences.

Now, it seems, U.S. immigration policy is returning to that of 1939, this time banning Muslims rather than Jews. Emma Lazarus’ words are on our Statue of Liberty: “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”

On International Holocaust Remembrance Day, our administration showed a lack of remembrance.

Susan Bailey

Rochester

Trump Administration; Immigration Ban; Refugee Ban – Joanie Schirm

A sad story of separation

Ban of Refugees in America – Then and Now