My Dear Boy

A World War II Story of Escape, Exile, and Revelation

by Joanie Holzer Schirm

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Pub Date Mar 01 2019 | Archive Date Mar 29 2019

University of Nebraska Press | Potomac Books

Biographies & Memoirs | Nonfiction (Adult)

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Description

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.
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Advance Praise

“A personal story of the triumph of the human spirit and the universal quest for peace, Joanie Holzer Schirm’s My Dear Boy takes us on a journey around much of the world, traversing history as well as geography. It is a timeless and moving World War II story told by the author through the words of her refugee father.”—Nina Streich, executive director, Global Peace Collaborative

“Educators will find no better book than My Dear Boy to provide the sweeping context of pre– and World War II multi-continental events during the late 1930s early 1940s.”—William “Bill” Younglove, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Fellow

Available Editions

EDITION	Other Format
ISBN	9781640120723
PRICE	$34.95 (USD)
PAGES	352

Additional Information

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Featured Reviews

Greville W, Reviewer

A must read for aficionados of the holocaust as a child rediscovers her family's history through her father's letters which tell of his escape from the Nazis and subsequent travels and travails.

Inspiring and humorous in turn, as well as chilling in parts the book highlights a triumph of the human spirit and a deep determination to survive.

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Janilyn K, Reviewer

My Dear Boy is a touching tribute to the author's father and his incredible story. In early 2000, Joanie Schirm and her two older siblings lost both parents within a day of each other. As they sorted through their parents' belongs they stumbled across a collection of letters from. WWII that none of,them had seen. Schirm undertook the research and the writing to tell her father's story. It's a rich tale: his childhood in Bohemia, medical training, escape from Nazi Germany, meeting and marrying his wife in China, move to the US and subsequent career moves to South American and Around the US. She highlights his painful realization of what happened to his parents in 1942. This is a loving testament to. Man who lived several lifetimes and had a plethora of experiences.