Song of Survival: Women Interned

Colijn, Helen

ISBN 10: 1470888467 ISBN 13: 9781470888466

Publisher: Blackstone Audiobooks, 2013

Synopsis

Helen Colijn's account of her wartime experiences is a window into a largely overlooked dimension of World War II: the imprisonment of women and children in Southeast Asia by the Japanese and how these prisoners of war responded to their dire circumstances. The conditions were harsh, terrible. Food was scarce, medicine unavailable. Held in captivity for three and a half years, more than a third of the women in Helen's camp died of disease or starvation. Yet their courage, faith, resiliency, ingenuity, and camaraderie provide us with enduring lessons on living. Though the prisoners had no musical instruments, they had their voices, and from memory scored classical works for symphony and piano. The music that helped sustain them while in captivity is a lasting and precious gift of these women to a world that has witnessed far too much war. You can lean more about Song of Survival at White Cloud Press

About this title

Review:

Song of Survival provides a window into an often overlooked dimension of World War II--the imprisonment of women and children in Southeast Asia. It is Helen Colijn's memoir of the three and a half years she spent in a Japanese prison camp on the island of Java. Colijn and her family were living in the Dutch Indies when the Japanese army invaded. When her family's attempt to flee failed, Colijn ended up in one of the many Japanese internment camps for the duration of the war. The conditions were harsh, food was scarce, and medicine was unavailable, but the women who survived the starvation and disease somehow found the courage to persist. They found faith and resiliency in their comraderie with each other and in their voices. To help sustain them in their captivity, the women created music with lyrics expressing hope and the sentiment that the world has seen too much war. This moving account of extraordinary women inspired the film Paradise Road and should inspire its readers as well.

About the Author:

Helen Colijn is the author of two books on Holland (Of Dutch Ways and The Backroads of Holland) and was coproducer of the documentary film Song of Survival.

About this edition

• Publisher: Blackstone Audiobooks
• Publication date: 2013
• ISBN 10: 1470888467
• ISBN 13: 9781470888466
• Binding: Audio CD