Song of Survival: Women Interned

Song of Survival: Women Interned
by Helen Colijn

Song of Survival: Women Interned
List Price: $13.95
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions

Buy Song of Survival: Women Interned at Amazon.com
(Click here)
Buy this book at online book store in your country
Canada | UK | Germany | France

Book Summary Information

Author: Helen Colijn
Edition: 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.

General Books

Book Subjects
Most talked about in Holocaust Books
Thanks to My Mother ImageThanks to My Mother
by Schoschana Rabinovici
Puffin; Published: 2000-03-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $2.30
Price in other shops: $8.99
Eleanor's Story: An American Girl in Hitler's Germany ImageEleanor's Story: An American Girl in Hitler's Germany
by Eleanor Ramrath Garner
Peachtree Publishers; Published: 1999-08; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $6.85
Price in other shops: $15.95
My German Question: Growing Up in Nazi Berlin ImageMy German Question: Growing Up in Nazi Berlin
by Professor Peter Gay
Yale University Press; Published: 1999-11-10; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.99
Price in other shops: $17.00
A girl called Judith Strick ImageA girl called Judith Strick
by Judith Strick Dribben
Pyramid Books; Published: 1972; Mass Market Paperback; Book
When Life Calls Out to Us: The Love and Lifework of Viktor and Elly Frankl ImageWhen Life Calls Out to Us: The Love and Lifework of Viktor and Elly Frankl
by Haddon Klingberg Jr.
Doubleday; Published: 2001-10-16; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $43.95
Alicia ImageAlicia
by Alicia Appleman-Jurman
Bantam; Published: 1989-12-01; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $2.99
Price in other shops: $7.99
The Seamstress ImageThe Seamstress
by Sara Tuvel Bernstein, Louise Loots Thornton, Marlene bernst Samuels, Edgar M. Bronfman, Marlene Bernstein Samuels
Berkley Trade; Published: 1999-05-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.25
Price in other shops: $14.95
Nothing For Tears ImageNothing For Tears
by Lali Horstmann
Phoenix Press; Published: 2001-06-30; Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.75
Price in other shops: $16.95
Berlin Diaries, 1940-1945 ImageBerlin Diaries, 1940-1945
by Marie Vassiltchikov
Vintage; Published: 1988-06-12; Paperback; Book
Best price: $5.40
Price in other shops: $15.95
Song of Survival: Women Interned ImageSong of Survival: Women Interned
by Helen Colijn
White Cloud Press; Published: 1997-04-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $5.29
Price in other shops: $13.95
Similar Books and other products
In My Hands: Memories of a Holocaust Rescuer ImageIn My Hands: Memories of a Holocaust Rescuer
by Irene Opdyke
Laurel Leaf; Published: 2004-09-14; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.89
Price in other shops: $7.50
Resistance: Memoirs of Occupied France ImageResistance: Memoirs of Occupied France
by Agnes Humbert
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC; Published: 2009-07-06; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.06
Price in other shops: $14.40
Bread and Rice: An American Woman's Fight to Survive in the Jungles and Prison Camps of the WWII Philippines ImageBread and Rice: An American Woman's Fight to Survive in the Jungles and Prison Camps of the WWII Philippines
by Macauley Doris
The Lyons Press; Published: 2004-09-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.99
Price in other shops: $14.95
My Faraway Home: An American Family's WWII Tale of Adventure and Survival in the Jungles of the Philippines ImageMy Faraway Home: An American Family's WWII Tale of Adventure and Survival in the Jungles of the Philippines
by Mary McKay Maynard
The Lyons Press; Published: 2002-09-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.85
Price in other shops: $14.95
Song of Survival ImageSong of Survival
Release date: 2000-08-14; DVD
Best price: $24.95
All This Hell: U.S. Nurses Imprisoned by the Japanese ImageAll This Hell: U.S. Nurses Imprisoned by the Japanese
by Evelyn M. Monahan, Rosemary Neidel-Greenlee
The University Press of Kentucky; Published: 2003-07; Paperback; Book
Best price: $12.61
Price in other shops: $19.95
The Flamboya Tree: Memories of a Mother's Wartime Courage ImageThe Flamboya Tree: Memories of a Mother's Wartime Courage
by Clara Kelly
Random House Trade Paperbacks; Published: 2003-04-08; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.93
Price in other shops: $15.00
Paradise Road ImageOriginal Soundtrack - Paradise Road
Release date: 1997-04-08; Music CD
Best price: $39.49
We Band of Angels: The Untold Story of American Nurses Trapped on Bataan by the Japanese ImageWe Band of Angels: The Untold Story of American Nurses Trapped on Bataan by the Japanese
by Elizabeth M. Norman
Atria; Published: 2000-05-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.73
Price in other shops: $14.95
Paradise Road ImageParadise Road
Twentieth Century Fox; Release date: 2001-03-13; DVD
Best price: $5.11
Price in other shops: $9.98
Book store. Illustrated catalog of books on different categories