Read Online The Children of Willesden Lane: Beyond The Kindertransport: A Memoir of Music, Love, and Survival by Mona Golabek, Lee Cohen - Free Book Online

Hitler had annexed Austria and six months since he had taken over Sudetenland. In the three months since Lisa had been in England, she had heard nothing to ease her worry.
    Lisa was tidying up the new office of the Home Guard (which had taken over the billiards room) when she heard loud voices coming from the captain’s study next door.
    “I told you this is what it would come to!” a man’s voice shouted.
    “What were we supposed to do!”
    “Stop the bastard, that’s what.”
    “It has nothing to do with us!”
    When the voices quieted, Lisa could hear the frightening voice that made her shiver with fear. The voice of the Führer echoed through the manor house:
“Ein Volk, ein Reich, ein Führer!”
    She walked closer to the room where the men were gathered and stood in the hall listening, terrified by the voice of the man she so hated.
    The captain was shouting. “Can you believe that madman has just marched into Czechoslovakia without a shot being fired?”
    He walked into the hall, waving his arms in disgust, and caught sight of Lisa. “Aha! Come here, we need you.”
    He took her arm gently and led her into the room, where five uniformed men were scattered on chairs in front of the radio.
    “What is this maniac saying now?” he asked.
“Ausrottung, es ist nichts unmöglich!”
came the bone-chilling voice of Hitler.
    “Extermination . . . nothing is impossible,” Lisa translated slowly, growing more upset with each word.
    An officer, seeing her distress, exclaimed: “Have a heart, don’t make the poor girl listen to this.”
    “All right, dear, that’s enough. Thank you,” the Captain said.
    A young girl shouldn’t hear it? Lisa asked herself. I have lived it, I have seen it! She thought of Kristallnacht and saw her father on the ground, naked and humiliated, an image she could not erase from her mind. Suddenly, she was overwhelmed with a desire to be with others like her. Yes, Monty was friendly, Gladys meant well, and the lady was kind, too; she had enough to eat and she was safe; it should be enough, she told herself, but it wasn’t.
    It was hard to get back to the routine of her job, but Lisa dutifully laid out the mistress’s outfits and matched the shoes to the purse and the skirt to the jacket. As always, the lady was very pleased.
    “A wonderful choice, Lisa.”
    “Thank you, ma’am,” Lisa said. Her heart had been heavy with guilt. She needed to ask the most important question, and she’d been putting it off. “Madam? May I ask you something?”
    “Certainly, what is it?”
    “I have a sister in Vienna. She’s very sweet and she could work in the kitchen. We very much need someone to sponsor her so she can get on the kinder train, and if there’s any—”
    The lady looked at her, interrupting. “How old is she?” “Twelve.”
    The lady frowned.
    “She’ll be thirteen in a week,” Lisa added, exaggerating. “I’d take care of her on my time off. She’d be no trouble, I promise. She’s very well behaved. . . .”
    The lady gave her a sad smile. “I wish I could make these kinds of decisions on my own . . . but I promise I’ll ask my husband. You’ve got nerve, I like that.”
    Sunday morning came and Gladys came into Lisa’s room as usual. “Are you certain I can’t coax you to church? There’s a lot of young boys there! Might be fun. It’d get you out of the house.”
    “No, thank you,” Lisa said politely. She couldn’t imagine the idea of going to church. She listened to Gladys and Monty’s laughter echo through the hall, as they made their way out the kitchen door and into the pickup. She lay on her bed and listened to the wind rustling through the leaves out the window.
    She missed her family so. Closing her eyes she pictured the ceramic tailor of Dresden on the sideboard of the living room and scanned the pictures on the wall in her mind’s eye. This was her ritual; she was determined not to forget a thing. She imagined she could hear her parents