Read Between The Lines

Last year I published a book that tells the story of a young girl, Martha Braun, who was sent to England with her younger sister on the rescue mission known as the Kindertransport. The story is heartbreaking; the girls were subject to mental abuse, and never received proper schooling. In 1946 the girls were traumatized after discovering their parents had been murdered and there was no longer a home to return to.

I came to write the story after interviewing Martha for more than five hours together with Yad Vashem colleagues; at the time Martha was ninety-five. Our introduction to her came from a friend in Israel whose mother had formed a close relationship with Martha when the two ladies were in their sixties.

Martha had married but was childless and after crying with her, laughing with her, and being captivated by her charm, humor, and at times terrible sadness, I knew her story had to be told. The problem I faced was that history does not happen within a vacuum; it is a process, a chain of events, one leading into the other. I realized that to tell Martha’s story I had to put it within the context of the events which finally crystallized into the moment she got on the train on the 21^st May 1939 not realizing she would never see her parents again.

Reading history can be a very boring experience so I had to come up with a style that would turn history into a story, that became the genesis for the book I named Read Between the Lines. The book has been well received and many readers have provided me with some positive reviews. A close friend Des Cohen referred the book to Trudy gold who was CEO of the London Jewish Cultural Centre and is now one of the key drivers behind Lockdown University. With the support of both Des and Trudy I was very privileged to be invited to participate in Jewish Book Week 2026 where I was interviewed by Trudy for one of the sessions.

We are living through very difficult and dangerous times and Jews in all communities are once more facing a barrage of antisemitism that is eroding the quality of Jewish life everywhere. It is an inconvenient truth that the hatred Martha and her family were forced to contend with, hatred that led to the demise of her family and millions of other families, is alive and thriving once again. Trudy and I discussed much of that history during the interview and I thought it would be valuable for you to hear what was discussed in the hope that from the lessons of the past we all will take the necessary steps to prevent a repetition of history.

If you are interested in viewing the interview here is the link

https://jewishliteraryfoundation.co.uk/videos/the-dark-side-of-the-kindertransport

Anyone still wishing to purchase the book it is available from Amazon in Kindle format or from Waterstones booksellers in England the link for which is below

https://www.waterstones.com/book/read-between-the-lines/leon-dwolatzky-duval/9789655971149