My Dear Boy, Joanie Holzer Schirm
My Dear Boy, Joanie Holzer Schirm
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My Dear Boy
A World War II Story of Escape, Exile, and Revelation

Author: Joanie Holzer Schirm

Narrator: Kate Mulligan, Traber Burns

Unabridged: 11 hr 46 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 03/01/2019

Synopsis

After the death of Joanie Holzer Schirm’s parents in 2000, she found hundreds of letters, held together by rusted paperclips and stamped with censor marks, sent from Czechoslovakia, Great Britain, China, and South and North America, along with journals, vintage film, taped interviews, and photographs. In working through these various materials documenting the life of her father, Oswald “Valdik” Holzer, she learned of her family history through his remarkable experiences of exile and loss, resilience and hope.In this posthumous memoir, Schirm elegantly re-creates her 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 come.

About Joanie Holzer Schirm

Joanie Holzer Schirm was the founding president of Geotechnical and Environmental Consultants, Inc., in Orlando, Florida, which she directed for seventeen years. She is now a full-time writer, speaker, and curator of the Holzer Collection, her father’s World War II legacy. Schirm is the author of Adventurers against Their Will: Extraordinary World War II Stories of Survival, Escape, and Connection—Unlike Any Others, winner of the Global Ebook Award for best biography.

About Kate Mulligan

Kate Mulligan has acted with the Oregon Shakespeare Festival for more than ten seasons in productions including Hairspray, Alice in Wonderland, and Sense and Sensibility. Her film and television work includes Being John Malkovich and It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia.

About Traber Burns

Traber Burns worked for thirty-five years in regional theater, including the New York, Oregon, and Alabama Shakespeare festivals. He also spent five years in Los Angeles appearing in many television productions and commercials, including Lost, Close to Home, Without a Trace, Boston Legal, Grey’s Anatomy, Cold Case, Gilmore Girls, and others.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Sher on March 07, 2022

Ever since finishing this book, I have tried to think what it must have been like for this author to find all this history of a parent in the letters and diaries he left behind. She must have had an idea what he went through, but much of it, I’m sure, was a great surprise to her, and probably made h......more

Goodreads review by Donna on April 15, 2022

This is an incredible resource for anyone studying or teaching World War II history. A powerful timely message for humanity woven from the true experiences of Dr. Oswald “Valdik” Hozler. It’s an inspiring story of love, despair, and triumph, a posthumous memoir of a wartime refugee and his survival......more

Goodreads review by Laura on May 19, 2022

This book is the wonderful story of a father's life written by his daughter after his death. The days of their parents early life together were unknown to her and her siblings until after their parents deaths. She discovered a wealth of letters, photos and journals created during World War II and du......more

Goodreads review by Mike on June 09, 2024

This is a very intimate and touching story of a Czechoslovakian Jew who grew up in the pre-WWII republic. It is told by the subject's daughter who was inspired by letters and notes she found in her father's possession after he died. It chronicles his life in the Czech army, his escape to China where......more

Quotes

“Educators will find no better book than My Dear Boy to provide the sweeping context of pre– and World War II multicontinental events.” William “Bill” Younglove, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Fellow

“Funny, sad, poignant, insightful, and spiritual, My Dear Boy is simply captivating and lovingly told.” P. R. Pinard, PhD, American historian

“This stunning tribute to Schirm’s father’s legacy of service reminds us that our examination of the human heart as individual characters should lead us to protect the dignity of all others, no matter the friction of our differences. Buddy Dyer, mayor of Orlando

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