My Dear Girl

Join us for this performance and commemorative programming to honor the victims of this watershed moment in Holocaust history.

The play, written and produced by local artists John Mark Jernigan and Chris Crawford of Intrepid Studios.

“No one leaves home unless home is the mouth of a shark.” – Warsan Shire

At a time when the number of displaced persons across the world has reached an all-time high, we take the opportunity tonight to explore one man’s journey through his own displacement. At the same time, we immerse ourselves in his daughter’s courage to not only tell his story, but her struggle with how to part ways with his personal effects knowing that sharing his tale will create a better world.

Joanie Holzer Schirm spent a lifetime knowing that her father lived through the Holocaust, escaping from his homeland and spending time in China, but at the time of his death a whole new world was unlocked to her. Through the exploration of over four hundred letters she met over seventy-eight people through their own words and writings – among these, for the first time, her grandparents who had perished at Terazin in 1942. These letters also allowed Joanie the chance to begin to know her father in a completely different way, a way hidden from her for years – through love, and triumph, and despair.

My Dear Girl will explore parallels between Joanie and Dr. Oswald Holzer as she learns how to say goodbye and share a story that is no longer just between the two of them.