 | |
| Author | Mona Golabek Lee Cohen |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Genre | Memoir |
| Publisher | Hachette Book Group |
| ISBN | 978-0-446-69027-0 |
The Children of Willesden Lane is a memoir by Mona Golabek, documenting the life of her mother, Lisa, from the time she left Vienna, Austria to the end of World War II. It has been adapted into a film and an organization formed in honor of the book, that is dedicated to empowering people with the arts.
Lisa Jura was a prodigy who hoped to become a pianist during pre-World War II Vienna. As Nazi attacks on Jews continue in her home country, her parents send her on the Kindertransport to London, England. Several days after arrival, she became a servant at a manor. Sometime later, though, she leaves the manor. Lisa then resides in a hostel for Jewish children on Willesden Lane, where she makes new friends. Continuing her interest in piano, she plays music, inspiring the other children through their problems. It's a story of kindness and love and compassion. [1] [2]
Joanna H. Kraus from Common Sense Media rated The Children of Willesden Lane five stars. [3] BookTrust described the book as "eye-opening". [4]
In 2018 the book was translated into Polish and published as Dzieci z Willesden Lane by Wydawnictwo Austeria. [5] [6]
The children's edition is a 2018 Sydney Taylor Book Award Notable Book for Older Readers. [7]
A theater adaptation of the book, The Pianist of Willesden Lane, was adapted and directed by Hershey Felder. [8] [9] [10]
BBC Films and Empire of the Sun producer Robert Shapiro produced a movie version of the book released in 2016.
Janusz Korczak, the pen name of Henryk Goldszmit, was a Polish Jewish pediatrician, educator, children's author and pedagogue known as Pan Doktor or Stary Doktor. He was an early children's rights advocate, in 1919 drafting a children's constitution.
Władysław Szpilman was a Polish Jewish pianist, classical composer and Holocaust survivor. Szpilman is widely known as the central figure in the 2002 Roman Polanski film The Pianist, which was based on his autobiographical account of how he survived the German occupation of Warsaw. In the film, he is portrayed by American actor Adrien Brody.
Irena Stanisława Sendler (née Krzyżanowska), also referred to as Irena Sendlerowa in Poland, nom de guerreJolanta, was a Polish humanitarian, social worker, and nurse who served in the Polish Underground Resistance during World War II in German-occupied Warsaw. From October 1943 she was head of the children's section of Żegota, the Polish Council to Aid Jews.
The Kindertransport was an organised rescue effort of children from Nazi-controlled territory that took place in 1938–1939 during the nine months prior to the outbreak of the Second World War. The United Kingdom took in nearly 10,000 children, most of them Jewish, from Germany, Austria, Czechoslovakia, Poland, and the Free City of Danzig. The children were placed in British foster homes, hostels, schools, and farms. Often they were the only members of their families who survived the Holocaust. The programme was supported, publicised, and encouraged by the British government, which waived the visa immigration requirements that were not within the ability of the British Jewish community to fulfil. The British government placed no numerical limit on the programme; it was the start of the Second World War that brought it to an end, by which time about 10,000 kindertransport children had been brought to the country.
The Pianist is a 2002 biographical film produced and directed by Roman Polanski, with a script by Ronald Harwood, and starring Adrien Brody. It is based on the autobiographical book The Pianist (1946), a memoir by the Polish-Jewish pianist, composer and Holocaust survivor Władysław Szpilman. The film was a co-production by France, the United Kingdom, Germany and Poland.
Monika Kinga Mrozowska is a film and television actresses. She is best known for her role as Maja Kwiatkowska in television series Rodzina zastępcza (1999–2009).
Lili Kraus was a Hungarian-born pianist.
Dzierżąznapronounced[d͡ʑerˈʐɔ̃zna] is a village in the administrative district of Gmina Zgierz, within Zgierz County, Łódź Voivodeship, in central Poland. It lies approximately 8 kilometres (5 mi) north of Zgierz and 16 km (10 mi) north of the regional capital Łódź.
Hershey Felder is a pianist, actor, and playwright known for his portrayals of classical and American composers on the theatrical stage.
Maria Kownacka (1894–1982) was a Polish writer, translator and editor, specializing in children's literature. She was a long-time writer of Płomyk. Her best-known work is the series of books about "Plastuś", that began with Plastusiowy pamiętnik (1936).
Mona Golabek is an American concert pianist, author, and radio host. She has appeared with many leading orchestras and made numerous recordings. Golabek co-wrote a book entitled The Children of Willesden Lane that chronicles her mother's experience with the Kindertransport which was published in 2002. A play titled The Pianist of Willesden Lane, based on the book, adapted and directed by Hershey Felder, and in which Golabek appeared in a one-woman show, opened at the Geffen Playhouse in Los Angeles in April 2012. The play opened in London at the St James Theatre in January 2016.
Gertrud Kraus was an Israeli pioneer of modern dance in Israel.
Andrzej Bogucki was a Polish television, stage and film actor, as well as operetta singer and songwriter, sometimes referred to as "The Polish Chevalier".
Joanna Kulig is a Polish actress and singer. Noted for performing in different languages, she has worked in film, television and radio as well as on stage. She is the recipient of a European Film Award and two Polish Film Awards, and her work has been recognised at various film festivals. In 2018, Polish magazine Wprost included her among the 50 most influential Poles for her contributions to the cinema of Poland.
Agata Kulesza is a Polish actress who has appeared on film, television, and stage. She made her film debut playing the leading role in the 1993 comedy-drama Czlowiek z... and later appeared in films Poznań '56 (1996), The Spring to Come (2001), Moje pieczone kurczaki (2002), Expecting Love (2008) and Suicide Room (2011), for which she received Złota Kaczka Award for Best Actress.
Anna Bikont is a Polish journalist for the Gazeta Wyborcza newspaper in Warsaw. She is the author of several books, including My z Jedwabnego (2004) about the 1941 Jedwabne pogrom, which was published in English as The Crime and the Silence: Confronting the Massacre of Jews in Wartime Jedwabne (2015). The French edition, Le crime et le silence, won the European Book Prize in 2011.
Ewa Kurek is a Polish historian specializing in Polish-Jewish history during World War II. She has been associated with the far-right, and her revisionist views regarding the Holocaust in Poland have been widely categorized as indicative of antisemitism and Holocaust denial.
Janina Strzembosz was a Polish dancer, choreographer, teacher, publicist, pianist, conductor and director, and one of the most acclaimed personas in Polish dance of the 20th century. A pupil of Isadora Duncan, Strzembosz herself taught several generations of dancers, choreographers and dance instructors.
Aleksandra Halina Lelywa-Kupistynska was a Polish physicist, professor at the University of Warsaw. In 2018–2022, she was President of the Society for Children of the Holocaust (SDH).
The Troubles of a Gnome is a children's book by Zofia Kossak-Szczucka. First published in 1926, the novel is set in Cieszyn Silesia and features the titular gnome, Kacperek. According to some literary scholars, it is considered "one of the most beautiful Polish fairy tales". It has been included in compulsory reading lists for younger children since 2021.