Author Biography

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6931201-passage

Passage

by John Jr. Schissler

Every family has its own story to tell. Be it tragic, heartbreaking, or triumphant, each tale forms part of a clan's history and defines its identity. Author John Schissler, Jr. started with an autobiographical essay in his history class in 1964, but didn't really give it much thought. Recently, through his brother's urging, he felt somewhat obliged to reveal their storied past. After a painstaking research, he now comes up with a book that narrates the fascinating history of his family entitled Passage: The Making of an American Family.

What started as a school requirement now developed into a detailed memoir of a family's story that impacts the lives of many. Passage chronicles the humble beginnings of John Schissler's family and its struggles to weather the storms of life. Thinking he already had the skeleton of the story, Schissler looked for ways to make the pieces of the tale fall into place. Through the help of his parents, relatives, and friends, he looked for connections, photos, and other evidences to corroborate the existing story he already had.

Author Schissler traces his family's roots and finds out that their relatives came from Donaueschingen. Germany, where there are two streams that come together to form the source of the Donau (Danube) river. He believes it is only fitting that his family, who were Donauschwaben, eventually ended up in Wisconsin, which in Native American language means "gathering" or "meeting of the waters."

Passage is not merely a story of a clan who survived the horrors of the world war against the innocent; it also serves as a memorial to all the forgotten souls and unsung heroes murdered by Stalin, victims of the "final solution", and other nameless ones who were dumped indiscriminately into mass graves.

Accompany John Schissler, Jr. as he revisits family's and his own unforgettable voyage to survival in this remarkable, imagery-filled memoir. Follow their exploits as they sought refuge in a foreign soil that embraced them as if they were its own. Join them as they celebrate diversity in their newfound land, their new home called Amerca. Witness the bonds they formed, the friendships and families they built, the failures that brought forth success, and life's challenges that made them what they are today.

According to author Schissler, "War crimes don't necessarily end with the war. This is a true story about an ordinary, World War II European family, who was forced to embark on an extraordinary odyssey fraught with danger, disease, and death to reach the shores of the 'Promised Land'. Shot at by British planes, imprisoned by the Russians, and forced to work in the peat bogs of East Germany, we finally escaped to West Germany where we found temporary asylum until we completed our pilgrimage to Ellis Island. The saga continues with my family's physical, emotional, and social struggles to get a piece of that American Dream and our eventual assimilation into that cultural diversity of that melting pot which is America."

http://www.expressmilwaukee.com/article-15575-john-schissler-jrs-long-path-to-america.html

John Schissler Jr.'s Long Path to America

 Book Review:  By Jenni Herrick

Every family has a history worth chronicling, and John Schissler Jr., a self-published author and retired Milwaukee Public Schools teacher, has spent decades researching his clan's narrative during and after World War II, culminating in the autobiography Passage: The Making of an American Family. Passage is not merely a story of surviving the horrors of war but is also a memorial to the forgotten and unsung heroes of every war and blends together one family's unforgettable journey with a staunch anti-war message.

Schissler spent his early years as a WWII refugee after his family was forced to flee their native Yugoslavia following the outbreak of war in Europe. Among their many trials, the family survived nine months in a Russian labor camp and homesteading in West Germany before eventually making their way to Wisconsin. Even though they abandoned their homeland before John was three years old, he still remembers when the train they were escaping on came under attack by British aircraft and how his newborn sister nearly died in crowded, unsanitary concentration camp facilities, accounts he shares in detail in the book. In addition to following this German family's odyssey from war-torn Europe to Ellis Island, Passage also traces the family's struggles to assimilate into American society after relocating here in the 1950s.

John Schissler Jr. graduated from UW-Milwaukee and taught for five decades at John Marshall High School.