Articles written by Joanie Schirm

Joanie Schirm|Apr 28, 2017

In the Czech language, Poslední prání translates to last wish. Seventy-five years ago today, in Nazi-occupied Bohemia my Jewish grandfather Arnošt Holzer sat down at his desk in Prague and wrote his Poslední prání in a letter to my father (the date was April 21, 1942). By then, my young physician Dad, Oswald “Valdik” Holzer had fled his native land in 1939 and become a stateless refugee in China. By 1942, he’d made his way to America. Four months before the message was written, the US declared war on Germany, barring father and son from letter...