The Children of Willesden Lane
Beyond the Kindertransport: A Memoir of Music, Love, and Survival
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Narrated by:
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Mona Golabek
About this listen
Based on the true story of her mother, Mona Golabek describes the inspirational story of Lisa Jura's escape from Nazi-controlled Austria to England on the famed Kindertransport.
Jewish musical prodigy Lisa Jura has a wonderful life in Vienna. But when the Nazis start closing in on the city, life changes irreversibly. Although he has three daughters, Lisa's father is only able to secure one berth on the Kindertransport. The family decides to send Lisa to London so that she may pursue her dreams of a career as a concert pianist.
Separated from her beloved family, Lisa bravely endures the trip and a disastrous posting outside London before finding her way to the Willesden Lane Orphanage. It is in this orphanage that Lisa's story truly comes to life. Her music inspires the other orphanage children, and they, in turn, cheer her on in her efforts to make good on her promise to her family to realize her musical potential. Through hard work and sheer pluck, Lisa wins a scholarship to study piano at the Royal Academy.
As she supports herself and studies, she makes a new life for herself and dreams of reconnecting with the family she was forced to leave behind. The resulting tale delivers a message of the power of music to uplift the human spirit and to grant the individual soul endurance, patience, and peace.
PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying reference material will be available in your My Library section along with the audio.
©2016 Mona Golabek and Lee Cohen (P)2016 Hachette AudioListeners also enjoyed...
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Set at the end of World War II, in a crumbling Bavarian castle that once played host to all of German high society, a powerful and propulsive story of three widows whose lives and fates become intertwined - an affecting, shocking, and ultimately redemptive novel from the author of the New York Times notable book The Hazards of Good Breeding.
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Skating On The Thin Ice Of Life
- By Sara on 04-29-17
By: Jessica Shattuck
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Anne Frank Remembered
- By: Miep Gies, Alison Leslie Gold
- Narrated by: Barbara Rosenblat
- Length: 9 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
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For more than two years, Miep Gies and her husband helped hide the Franks from the Nazis. Like thousands of unsung heroes of the Holocaust, they risked their lives each day to bring food, news, and emotional support to the victims. From her own remarkable childhood as a World War I refugee to the moment she places a small, red-orange, checkered diary -- Anne's legacy -- in Otto Frank's hands, Miep Gies remembers her days with simple honesty and shattering clarity.
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A Fast Reading Could-Not-Put-It-Down book
- By Starlet on 03-07-10
By: Miep Gies, and others
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The Girl from the Savoy
- A Novel
- By: Hazel Gaynor
- Narrated by: Jennifer Jones, Lucy Rayner, Paul Fox
- Length: 14 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
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Dolly Lane is a dreamer, a downtrodden maid who longs to dance on the London stage, but her life has been fractured by the Great War. Memories of the soldier she loved, of secret shame and profound loss, by turns pull her back and spur her on to make a better life. When she finds employment as a chambermaid at London's grandest hotel, The Savoy, Dolly takes a step closer to the glittering lives of the Bright Young Things who thrive on champagne, jazz, and rebellion.
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WONDERFUL‼️❤️❤️❤️
- By Leslie Gail Mnich on 12-05-19
By: Hazel Gaynor
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Golden Earrings
- By: Belinda Alexandra
- Narrated by: Caroline Lee
- Length: 20 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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Catalina, grand-daughter of Spanish refugees, is a disciplined student with the School of the Paris Opera Ballet. Little gets inthe way of her career until the visit of an otherworldly being, who leaves her a mysterious pair of golden earrings. Given a quest, Catalina realises she must explore her own Spanish heritage and makes the connection between the visitor and ‘La Rusa’, a young Andalusian flamenco star. La Rusa died in exile in Paris in 1952, her death ruled as suicide. But as Catalina begins to discover, there were those in the community, who had good reason for wanting La Rusa dead.
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Fabulous story
- By Paddington on 10-19-12
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Hum If You Don't Know the Words
- By: Bianca Marais
- Narrated by: Katharine Lee McEwan, Bahni Turpin
- Length: 14 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
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Life under Apartheid has created a secure future for Robin Conrad, a 10-year-old white girl living with her parents in 1970s Johannesburg. In the same nation but worlds apart, Beauty Mbali, a Xhosa woman in a rural village in the Bantu homeland of the Transkei, struggles to raise her children alone after her husband's death. Both lives have been built upon the division of race, and their meeting should never have occurred...until the Soweto Uprising.
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Completely wrong accents
- By Debbie on 02-12-22
By: Bianca Marais
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Nocturne
- By: Diane Armstrong
- Narrated by: Deidre Rubenstein
- Length: 16 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
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It is Warsaw, 1939, and Elzunia is an indulged teenager who longs for a heroic life filled with romance. But the outbreak of war shatters all her dreams. As bombs fall, she meets Adam, a taciturn airman whose fate becomes entwined with hers. In despair over the occupation, Adam joins the Polish resistance, then flies bombers for the RAF.
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Blech
- By Caroline H. on 02-20-11
By: Diane Armstrong
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Mosaic
- By: Diane Armstrong
- Narrated by: Deidre Rubenstein
- Length: 19 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
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>i>Mosaic is compelling storytelling at its best - from the fascinating details of Polish-Jewish culture and the rivalries and dramas of family life, to its moving account of lives torn apart by war and persecution, this an extraordinary true story of a family, and of one woman's journey to reclaim her heritage.
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Absolutely excellent!
- By Roberta on 09-22-11
By: Diane Armstrong
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The Cut Out Girl
- A Story of War and Family, Lost and Found
- By: Bart van Es
- Narrated by: Bart van Es
- Length: 8 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
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Bart van Es left Holland for England many years ago, but one story from his Dutch childhood never left him. It was a mystery of sorts: A young Jewish girl named Lientje had been taken in during the war by relatives and hidden from the Nazis, handed over by her parents. The girl had been raised by her foster family as one of their own, but then, well after the war, they were no longer in touch. What was the girl's side of the story, Bart wondered? What really happened during the war and after? So began an investigation that would consume Bart van Es's life and change it.
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a powerful & unique work on the Holocaust
- By D. Littman on 03-06-19
By: Bart van Es
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My Brother's Voice
- How a Young Hungarian Boy Survived the Holocaust: A True Story
- By: Stephen Nasser, Sherry Rosenthal
- Narrated by: Maxwell Glick
- Length: 9 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
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Stephen 'Pista' Nasser was 13 years old when the Nazis whisked him and his family away from their home in Hungary to Auschwitz. His memories of that terrifying experience are still vivid, and his love for his brother Andris still brings a husky tone to his voice when he remembers the terrible ordeal they endured together. Stephen's account of the Holocaust, told in the refreshingly direct and optimistic language of a young boy, will help every listener to understand that the Holocaust was real.
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my favorite I've read it 5 times
- By Anonymous User on 04-15-18
By: Stephen Nasser, and others
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The Gown
- A Novel of the Royal Wedding
- By: Jennifer Robson
- Narrated by: Marisa Calin
- Length: 12 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
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From the internationally best-selling author of Somewhere in France comes an enthralling historical novel about one of the most famous wedding dresses of the 20th century - Queen Elizabeth’s wedding gown - and the fascinating women who made it.
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Such a disappointment...
- By Cynthia in NoCO on 05-12-19
By: Jennifer Robson
What listeners say about The Children of Willesden Lane
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- Derek F Gasser
- 02-20-24
The strength of the human spirit when faced with tragedy and heartache.
Beautiful and touching story. Brought me to tears many times. I was inspired by the strength of the human spirit.
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- Andrea
- 03-12-22
Read this
It’s a beautiful story ….It was obviously a work of love that has resulted in a worthy book of history.
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- K.A.
- 10-16-19
Wow
This book is AMAZING!! I loved it! I’m speechless! It’s just so incredible! The music was incredible and so beautiful! Just wow.
-SEA age 11
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- Daryl
- 12-27-16
Of Music and Loving and Longing
I have been fascinated by the Kindertransport ever since I first heard about it years ago. I was taught classical piano and a child and teenager, though I was not the caliber of player that Lisa was. That being said, I loved this book.
It neither bogs down with unnecessary musical information nor leaves behind readers who are not familiar with musical terms.
Lisa comes of age during WWII. She witnesses the Night of Broken Glass in Vienna and is sent to England on the Kindertransport, but her sisters and parents remain behind. After things don't turn out the way she hopes, she winds up at a Jewish boarding home for other refugee children and continues her musical studies through hours and hours of practices, even recklessly practicing during air raids.
Lisa's daughter both wrote and performed this book, and it is clear that she oved her mother deeply. Her words are easily accessible, her performance (though unpolished and with slightly flat dialogue) is pleasant to listen to. The recordings of important political speeches, or the songs that Lisa was playing, were much more enhancing to the story than the background of a crowded train station early in the book.
Overall, this book is important if you are interested in learning about coming of age during WWII, how love and loss and forces outside of your control change you. How music can transcend language and culture and tragedy, but also be a cruel taskmaster.
Well worth your time and credit.
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- Cliente de Amazon
- 09-02-17
Beautiful!!!
So inspiring! I cried a lot while I was listening to the story. Lisa was such an incredible woman. The story is very well conveyed, one can easily picture the various scenarios, places, people around Lisa.
Thanks to the author for writing and sharing this amazing story.
I highly recommend this book!
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- CHARMAINE
- 05-10-20
Thank you
A very deep bow of gratitude for sharing your mother's story with so much tenderness 🙏🙏
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1 person found this helpful
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- Lissa Goldman
- 11-19-21
Inspiring and beautifully done
Although this could have been categorized as YA it was inspiring and so well done. The PDF accompanying the book is well worth the credit!
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- sharon
- 04-28-16
A Beautiful Memoir
I really loved this memoir! It was well written,and had a great narrator. It was a very touching story about a Jewish girl rescued from the Nazis in Austria. She was one of the more than 10,000 children of the Kinder transport in 1939. The book told of her courageous journey to become a concert pianist in London. Memorable Characters and a real historical feel for the Blitz and
WW2 England. The addition of the sound effects and the insertion of the classical music.at key points really enhanced my listening experience. It would make a WONDERFUL movie!
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4 people found this helpful
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- Amazon Customer
- 04-28-16
Amazing Performance
This is not just a beautifully told story but a performance you will never forget.
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2 people found this helpful
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- Sefra
- 03-23-16
Best Audio Book I've ever listened to.
The story alone is moving, but the extra touches added to this audio book and the performance was spot on. I was brought to tears. A MUST read if the ever was one.
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2 people found this helpful