Survival in the Land of Dysentery: The World War II Experiences of a Red Cross Worker in India

by Baroness Katharine Harris Van Hogendorp, Patrick F. Gilbo (Foreword)

Book by Baroness Katharine Harris Van Hogendorp

Genres: Nonfiction

150 pages, Hardcover

First published October 28, 1998

Reviews

[Cheryl]

In her memoir, Katharine Harris van Hogendorp recounts her experiences as a Red Cross volunteer on an air force base located in a remote jungle in India during World War II. Despite the hardships associated with the posting, Katharine found that the personnel there became like family to each other. She was also able to spend some precious R&R time traveling to locations in the beautiful Himalayan mountains as well as in Kashmir and the Taj Mahal.

[Eden]

2023 bk 302. Katherine Harris was a trained classical musician, voice and piano. But when the United States entered WWII she had a choice - chair the music department at a university or volunteer her services to help. She chose volunteer and entered the Red Cross overseas moral program as a result of a friendship. Sent to the China-India-Burma Theater Katharine along with a few other women ended up on a Bomber airbase 200 miles from Calcutta, and honestly from any real town or village. Living in a hut was rough. I could not have handled the rats nor the scorpions. Her services in providing donuts and coffee/coco-cola and providing musical entertainment were much appreciated. She was able to organize a choir that received recognition from several sources. She did have some fun with leaves in the Kashmir and the opportunity to visit Mt. Everest - well one of the base camps where you could see the top if you were lucky. Dengue Fever did slow her down a bit, but she served her time until the war was over.

[Tia]

I really enjoyed this book. (And it only had one typo!) It was quite amazing to see how much the Red Cross has changed since the 40's. It was so official and military like. I can't imagine going through what she went through with the deplorable living conditions, diseases, and daily fear of air raids. Our mentality has sure changed since WWII. Such a big difference on how American's treat the war effort now.