avg_rating: 4.32
name: Joanie Holzer Schirm
about: A three-book inspiring stand-alone series about a daughter's quest to understand her father's WWII history, revealed through a treasure trove of letters written by friends and family of her refugee father, thrust into the world or trapped behind by the Nazis. Adventurers Against Their Will (2013) - The author's global search to local seven of the letter writers or their descendantsMy Dear Boy: A World War II Story of Escape, Exile, and Revelation - UNL/Potomac Books 2019 Steadfast Ink: The Journey Within (2021) In this posthumous memoir, Schirm elegantly re-creates her Bohemian father’s youthful voice as he comes of age as a Jew in interwar Prague, escapes from a Nazi-held army unit, practices medicine in China’s war-ravaged interior, and s A three-book inspiring stand-alone series about a daughter's quest to understand her father's WWII history, revealed through a treasure trove of letters written by friends and family of her refugee father, thrust into the world or trapped behind by the Nazis. Adventurers Against Their Will (2013) - The author's global search to local seven of the letter writers or their descendantsMy Dear Boy: A World War II Story of Escape, Exile, and Revelation - UNL/Potomac Books 2019 Steadfast Ink: The Journey Within (2021) In this posthumous memoir, Schirm elegantly re-creates her Bohemian father’s youthful voice as he comes of age as a Jew in interwar Prague, escapes from a Nazi-held army unit, practices medicine in China’s war-ravaged interior, and settles in the United States to start a family. Introducing us to a diverse cast of characters ranging from the humorous to the menacing, Holzer’s life story is an inspirational account of survival during wartime, a cinematic epic spanning multiple continents, and ultimately a tale with a twist—a book that will move readers for generations to comeSteadfast Ink: The Journey Within - Personal Essays by the Author that inspire and motivate us all to understand the meaning of our family heritage-echoes for today that reveals the importance of teaching peace. Author recognizations -Winner: Best Biography: Global EBook Award for debut book: Adventurers Against Their Will: Extraordinary World War II Stories of Survival, Escape, and Connection - Unlike Any OthersMy Dear Boy: Memoir/Biography -Finalist for Indies Book of the Year by Foreword ReviewsCzech version by Triton Books, Prague, Czech Republic, 2015Joanie Holzer Schirm is an Orlando author, who spends each day exploring the secret gift her Czech-American father left behind after his 2000 death...400 WWII letters by 78 writers. Friends and relatives corresponded with her father across continents as he traveled the globe (Europe, China, South America, USA) seeking a haven after the Nazis occupied his Czech homeland in March 1939. Locating the letter writers or their descendants has been Schirm's mission for over a decade. WWII and the Holocaust were so big. How do you tell this story in a way that includes the context of history and is also intimately personal? Schirm has found a way to put a human face on history that shows the importance of examining our past and learning from it. She teaches us that we must not only care but care enough to act when we once again see hatred raise its ugly head. In this tumultuous world, we are the village. ...more