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Sisters in Captivity

Sister Betty Jeffrey OAM and the courageous story of Australian Army nurses in Sumatra, 1942–1945

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Sisters in Captivity

By: Colin Burgess
Narrated by: Arianwen Parkes-Lockwood
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About this listen

 The incredible account of Sister Betty Jeffrey OAM and the Australian war nurses who survived the bombing of evacuation ship SS Vyner Brooke in February 1942, and subsequently spent three years in Japanese prison camps in Sumatra.

During those perilous years surviving in squalid conditions, Sister Jeffrey kept a secret diary of day-to-day events which, after the war, was turned into a hugely successful book and radio serial: White Coolies. She would often write of the powerful sisterhood that evolved as the prisoners of war took strength from each other, even forming a vocal orchestra. White Coolies was a major inspiration for the 1997 film Paradise Road.

Sisters in Captivity builds on those diaries to not only re-live the years the nurses spent as POWs but also recounts the early life and influences that encouraged Betty Jeffrey into the field of nursing as a lifelong endeavour. A tireless advocate for returned nurses, she co-founded the Australian Nurses Memorial Centre with sole survivor of the Banka Island Massacre, fellow POW, and her longtime friend Vivian Bullwinkel.

Featuring 32 pages of photos including personal mementos of Betty Jeffrey, courtesy of her family, and her drawings from the prison camps, this is a powerful account of women’s resilience amidst the devastating brutality of war. Military Military & War Women World War II War Survival Resilience
All stars
Most relevant
Great in depth look into the life of nurses under the cruel Japanese of the time. I know it's said alot but this should be compulsory reading for Australian schoolchildren. What brave resilient women they were.

Great Narrator

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I was really impacted by her survival, optimism, endurance and extraordinary humility. I was also impacted by her energy despite all her illness and how she lived a life without bitterness with all the shocking cruelty she and the other nurses experienced at the hands of the Japanese.

A story of courage, triumph, resilience, strength and compassion.

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Hoped it was a story Told by the sisters themselves, not a history lesson very disappointed

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In the spirit of reconciliation, Audible acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of country throughout Australia and their connections to land, sea and community. We pay our respect to their elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples today.