The children of Willesden Lane: a true story of hope and survival during World War II by Mona Golabek and Lee Cohen
Allen and Unwin, 2017. ISBN 9781760630805
(Age: 13+) Highly recommended. In Austria, following the 1938
Kristallnacht (The night of the broken glass) Malka and Abraham
Jura, parents of Rosie, Lisa and Sonia made an indescribably painful
choice to save one of their daughters from the evil brutality of
Nazism.
Having secured only a single seat on the Kindertransport, these
loving parents chose their fourteen year old daughter Lisa, a
musical prodigy who dreamed of becoming a concert pianist. Lisa's
mother urged that she must 'hold on to her music and let it be her
best friend'.
The hearts of all family members were torn when she left on a train
via Holland to take refuge in England where Jewish children were
accepted if sponsored by a relative. Lisa feared for her family and
experienced natural distress caused by separation and feeling
displaced in an unfamiliar country. This was made worse when her
sponsoring relative essentially abandoned her at the railway station
and she found herself assigned as a maid to a wealthy family in the
country. Whilst shown kindness by staff, Lisa realised that she
could not respect her mother's wish to follow her dream if she
stagnated, so the plucky girl left and arranged her own transport to
London.
Life became more bearable for Lisa when she was given accommodation
at Bloomsbury House, a hostel for a large number of Jewish refugee
children of varying ages, run by the kindly Mrs. Cohen. All the
refugee children undertook paid work for their support and when
Great Britain declared war on Germany, they laboured for the war
effort as they anxiously watched Hitler's armies rolling through
Europe to threaten from across the Channel.
Reading historical biographies so often causes me to reflect on how
stoic and resilient previous generations have been under the most
impossible circumstances. I cannot imagine the sense of loss and
fear Lisa Jura must have felt during her early adolescence, yet she
endured mental and physical exhaustion from long days of demanding
work and lack of sleep from nightly bombing during the blitz.
This story centres on the courage and persistence of a child who
yearned to fulfil her musical dreams and quickly matured beyond her
years in a time of grave uncertainty.
I highly recommend this book for 13 years onwards.
Rob Welsh