A Teacher’s Resource to The Children of Willesden Lane

This resource, funded by the Milken Foundation, provides a meaningful but flexible structure for examining the story of Lisa Jura told in The Children of Willesden Lane and for relating it to historical and current events. It is designed for use with middle and high school students in English, social studies, music, and/or interdisciplinary studies.

In early 1938, Lisa Jura, a young Jewish girl in Vienna, dreamed that one day she would become a concert pianist. In March, her dreams were shattered. She became a refugee, one of about 10,000 children brought to England before World War II as part of the Kindertransport--a mission to rescue children threatened by the Nazis. Her daughter Mona Golabek and poet Lee Cohen tell her story in The Children of Willesden Lane.