Mona Golabek’s book recounts the experiences of her mother (Lisa Jura) escaping from Vienna at the start of WW2, after witnessing the horrors of Nazi persecution of European Jews during Kristallnacht (or the Night of Broken Glass) in 1938.

Fourteen year old Lisa is a gifted pianist who takes the final advice from her mother - before evacuating Vienna without her parents-to keep the music close to her heart as a form of comfort : 

 “Hold on to your music. It will be your best friend“.

Lisa arrives and thrives in a hostel for child refugees in London - eventually starting a music career.

It’s a captivating story of the world being turned upside down - but the touchstone of music and how it can heal and comfort.

Lisa’s parents would perish in Auschwitz in 1942.

Lisa moved to America after the war.

Its a raw and emotional book of will and survival - and a tonic for the times - as our present world still lurches from conflict to conflict, expansionism and dictatorship.

Check it out here:

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/680913.The_Children_of_Willesden_Lane_Beyond_the_Kindertransport