I finally received the last book from 2012 through the NYU
Interlibrary Loan! Do the Birds Still Sing in Hell? by Horace Greasley is the true
story of his early life as an English POW in Nazi concentration camps during
World War II. The most interesting part
of the story is how it was eventually told, during the waning days of the
author’s life when he met up with a ghost writer who interviewed him and
finally his story came to life. Horace
and his twin were called to serve and Horace was offered a chance to be excused
from service by being employed as a firefighter for his town, but he decides to
serve as he knows his brother will need the guidance to make it through the
war. The bad news… when Horace returns
home having made that decision, his brother shares his exemption from service
for serving as in a religious mission.
Horace goes to war. But before he
does we learn of his torrid sexual tryst with his girlfriend, pretty graphic
detail, this lays the foundation for the future… Horace leaves for duty and within a short
period of time is captured with his fellow English comrades. Horace shares the hate and horrific experiences
that the Nazi’s created while holding the POWs.
The extermination of Jews, homosexuals, and anyone who stood in their
way of attempting to create a “superior” one-dimensional race of people – it
reminded me much of Man’s Search for
Meaning, a wonderfully written memoir of hatred and death in a
concentration camp. The difference was what happened to Horace… his sexual
relationship with the commanding officer’s daughter. If it wasn’t written as a true story, this
was hard to believe… having sex under the noses of the guards and other
captured POWs. Then after transferring
camps, Horace would escape 57 times to have sex in a nearby run-down
church. Horace left nothing to the
reader’s imagination as he and Rose would engage in relations regularly. After a time, Horace let the story out and he
and Rose started to help the POWs by bringing food back to the camp, and later
parts to build a radio so they could hear English news updates on the collapse
of the German stronghold during the war. All in all, Horace was captured for
five years. Of course there were
complications in the affair, Rose and her family were not in fact Germans, but
concealed their identities as Jews so that they would not be killed. The end of the love story is bittersweet, which
I actually really enjoyed – so I won’t give it away to you. A really interesting tale of how one man was
able to use love as a way to create hope for his fellow POWs. Horace, aged 80 at the time of the writing,
certainly had a healthy sex life and wasn’t afraid to “bare all”… Interspersing the horrific life of Nazi
Germany and unabated sex into one story makes for interesting transitions… It was so hard to get this book, so if you
can find it, pick it up. It took me
three months to get a copy.
