INSPIRATION
HEALTH
Mona created a superb
one-woman show
dramatizing the events
in the book, and it has
also come out as a DVD.
It was terribly moving,
and she’s now going
around and presenting
this show and talks to
youth groups around
the country.
Unlike many, her parents saw the handwriting
on the wall, so you can imagine their emotions
as they put their child alone on a train to a dis-
tant country where she could barely speak the
language, desperately hoping that she would
just survive.
Anyway, she arrived in London and was placed
in a children’s hostel in Willesden Lane, along
with 30 other young refugees. They became her
surrogate family, as did the working class British
women in the East End garment factory where
she worked. Her passion for music sustained
her, and happily the owner of the hostel had a
piano. She allowed her, in fact, encouraged her
to play and made time within the schedule of
chores for her to practice. The music seemed to
have been a ray of light, not only for the children
in the hostel, but also for all the neighbors, who
would stop everything to come and listen at the
windows.
Her dream of becoming a concert pianist was
supported and adopted by everybody around
her. The ladies in the garment factory made her
an outfit so she could go on an audition to the
Royal Academy of Music. The kids took turns
drilling her on technique and theory. I don’t
40 | HAPI Guide
Pianist Mona Golaback
want to spoil the story, but it was so poignant
- you need a box of tissues to hand. Mona creat-
ed a superb one-woman show dramatizing the
events in the book, and it has also come out as
a DVD. It was terribly moving, and she’s now go-
ing around and presenting this show and talks
to youth groups around the country. ( More at
https://holdontoyourmusic.org). I think the idea
of communicating to people, particularly to the
younger generation, the reality of what it means
to be a refugee is probably one of the best ways of
encouraging, understanding and compassion.
The book was originally published in 2002, and
came out in 2016 as a reading group guide. I
warmly recommend this for anyone who wants to
do a study group. It’s immensely rewarding and,
ultimately, incredibly uplifting.
* The Kindertransport (German for «children's
transport») was an organized rescue effort by
British, Jewish and Quaker charities that saved
some 15,000 unaccompanied children ranging from
infants up to the age of 17 during the nine months
prior to the outbreak of the Second World War.
Reviewed by Miriam Knight