Song of Survival: Women Interned
by Helen Colijn
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Book Summary Information
Author: Helen ColijnEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Unknown); English (Published)
Published: 1997-04-01
ISBN: 1883991145
Number of pages: 216
Publisher: White Cloud Press
Book Reviews of Song of Survival: Women Interned
Book Review: Inspiring story
Summary: 5 Stars
I was born in 1944 so have only heard about WWII. It is Inspiring to me to hear of the accomplishments of these women who made music in the middle of a hellish situation. Highly recommend.
Summary of Song of Survival: Women Interned
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. Held in captivity for nearly four 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 they had no musical instruments, the women 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.Helen Colijn was a 20-year-old Dutch woman living with her parents on a small island near Borneo when the Japanese invaded in 1941. Shipwrecked, she and her two younger sisters were captured by Japanese soldiers and shuffled from concentration camp to concentration camp for the duration of World War II. This book chronicles their personal travails and the horrible sufferings of the British and Dutch women with whom they were interned. Perhaps more significantly, it tells the remarkable story of Margaret Dryburgh, a Presbyterian missionary who gave her fellow prisoners a means to survive spiritually: the vocal orchestra. Working from memory, she reconstructed the "Largo" from Dvorak's Symphony No. 9 in E minor, and works by Tchaikovsky, Beethoven, Ravel, and Grainger--and taught them to a chorus of prisoners. Even the often-brutal Japanese guards were moved by the concerts, Colijn reports. Although this book often glosses over the horrors, it is a moving account of some remarkable women and the music that sustained them.
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