By Ruth Schwarzenholz (Marshall)
My name is Ruth Schwarzenholz, and I live in Altona, Melbourne, where I’ve worked as a photographer for many years. Many people here know me through my work, capturing everyday life and people. But this story is more personal. It’s about my father, Klaus Schwarzenholz, and the books he left behind.
He died on the 13th of November, 2023, after years of living with Parkinson’s. It was a long and difficult illness, one that he carried with quiet strength. His loss has left a deep space in our family, but in the months since, something meaningful has taken shape: the release of his debut historical novel, And Silently Falls the Snow.
My father finished writing two novels, he wasn’t able to promote them properly, his health simply didn’t allow for it, but now his words are finding their way into the world. And Silently Falls the Snow has recently gained attention and has become a bestseller on Amazon. It’s an accomplishment that would have meant so much to him, and to us all.
The novel is based on true events from our own family history, telling the story of a father and his two daughters fleeing Silesia during the final months of World War II. He claimed the characters—Elli, Ruth, and their father, Rolf — are fictional, but their journey is drawn from real accounts: letters, memories, and details my father held onto over many years. He did actually have a mother called Ruth (I was named after) and an aunty called Elli, also a wonderful Grandfather he ended up living with called Rolf.
As the Red Army advances and German families are forced to flee, the story follows their desperate attempt to cross the frozen River Neisse—a crossing that many refugees made in real life, often at enormous cost.
It’s a powerful story, not just about war, but about resilience, survival, and what families endure when everything else is taken away. What makes the book especially timely is that 2025 marks the 80th anniversary of the end of WWII. In that context, my father’s book offers a rare and deeply human perspective on an often-overlooked part of history: the displacement of German civilians in the war’s final stages. These stories are less commonly told in English, and yet they’re part of the shared history of that time.
My father, Klaus M. Schwarzenholz was born in Hamburg, Germany. He migrated to Australia in 1972, earned a psychology degree from the University of Tasmania, and worked in the field until his retirement in 1998. He had a gift for listening, he was one of those people strangers seemed to be drawn to, who could get to the heart of a story with just a few thoughtful questions. Writing came later in life, but it was a natural extension of who he was. He completed a diploma in professional writing and editing in Melbourne, and over time, those long-held family stories started taking shape as fiction.
After he passed, we discovered an old suitcase. Inside were letters, sheet music, theatre programs—all belonging to his grandfather, Rolf. It felt like opening a time capsule. The letters, written to his wife and daughters during the war, revealed a whole other side of the man we’d only known through stories. Rolf, we learned, had been a well-known ventriloquist who toured across Europe with a cockatoo named Coco. His performances took him through variety theatres in Germany and throughout Europe. It struck me deeply, as I live now in Altona; two places, worlds apart, somehow connected through time and family. What started as research became something more, a link between generations, between past and present.
My father didn’t get the chance to launch his books in person. But we’re planning a local launch now, the one he always hoped for. In the meantime, it’s been incredibly moving to see people connect with the story. Readers have reached out, some with their own family histories of war and displacement, and I think that’s what he would have valued most: the connection, the conversation.
My daughter, Kira, was very close to him. Just days before he died, she was sitting by his side, reading him her own stories. She’s young, but the love of storytelling clearly runs deep. That moment, her sharing her words with him, stayed with me. It’s not dramatic, not cinematic. Just a quiet exchange between a grandfather and granddaughter. But that’s what legacy is, in the end. Not just what we leave behind, but what we pass on.
And alongside that legacy is the love he carried with him every day, especially in his final days. Having the love of his life, Robyn, by his side until the very end brought him peace, and gave all of us comfort. In the end, that kind of love is what truly matters.
I never expected to be helping publish a book after losing my father. But somehow, the process has helped make sense of the grief. Sharing his work feels like a way of keeping him present, not just in our family, but in the wider world. He believed in compassion, in understanding people, and in telling stories that matter. That’s what I hope readers take from his work.
Thank you for reading, and for making space for stories like his.
For those who are interested, And Silently Falls the Snow is available now on Amazon and also stocked in selected bookshops and will be in libraries soon. You can learn more at www.klausschwarzenholz.com or follow his books journey on Instagram at @klausschwarzenholzauthor
