Have You a Tiger In Your Family?

Rank : Private

Army Number : 4860275

Unit : 2/5th Bn

Biography :

Enlisted 1939. Served with 2nd/5th Battalion The Leicestershire, with which he went to France with the BEF in 1940. He was captured on 25.5.1940 near Hautmont by the river Sambre, first being held at a POW camp was Silesia in Poland and secondly at Lamsdorf. Then he was transferred to Freiwaldau, an annex of Auschwitz, where he was liberated by the Russians on 24.5.1945 before being released to the Allies. He was the camp barber and was instrumental in obtaining parts for a secret camp radio. Released from Army as Class 'A' on 1.2.1946 and Class 'Z' (T) Army Reserve on 29.5.1946.

(Joseph) Horace Greasley wrote of his experiences of his life in captivity and his book, 'Do the Birds Still Sing in Hell?' was published shortly before his death. There was a famous photograph with Horace being viewed through the prison camp barbed wire by Heinrich Himmler published in the national press together and an obituary of his death aged 91 years with a report of the book.

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THE DAILY TELEGRAPH - Obituaries 2009

Horace Greasley

Horace Greasley, who died on February 4 aged 91, claimed a record unique among Second World War POWs - that of escaping from his camp more than 200 times only to creep back into captivity each time.

The reason for the frequency with which Greasley put his life in danger, he admitted with engaging good humour and frankness, was simple: he had embarked on a romance with a local German girl. Rosa Rouchbach was, if anything, running even greater risks than Greasley. A translator at the camp where he was imprisoned, she had concealed her Jewish roots from the Nazis. Discovery of their affair would almost certainly meant doom for them both.

Greasley recounted the almost incredible details of his war romance in the book 'Do the Birds Still Sin in Hell?' (2008), which he had been "thinking about and threatening to write" for almost 70 years. But while the book is described as an "autobiographical novel", the story was lagely confirmed at his debriefing by MI9 intelligence officers after the war.

Horace Joseph Greasley, nicknamed Jim, was one of twin boys born on Christmas Day 1918 at Ibstock, Leicestershire. He was 20 and a young hairdresser when Hitler invaded Czechoslovakia, and the Military Training Act 1939 made all men between the ages of 18 and 40 legally liable for call-up. Horace and his twin brother Harold were conscripted in the first draft.

A client whose hair he was cutting, offered, when Horace mentioned he was going into the Army, to get him a job as a fireman, a reserved occupation which would actually pay better than joining the services. Horace Greasley turned the offer down.

But his war proved a short one. After seven weeks' training with the 2nd/5th Battalion Leicestershire Regiment, he landed in France at the end of the "Phoney War" as one of the British Expeditionary Force; on May 25th 1940, during the retreat to Dunkirk, he was taken prisoner at Carvin, south of Lille.

There followed a 10-week forced march across France and Belgium to Holland and a three-day train journey to prison camps in Polish Silesia, then annexed as part of Germany. Many died on the way, and Greasley reckoned himself lucky to have survived.

In the second PoW camp to which he was assigned, near Lamsdorf, he encountered the 17 year old daughter of the director of the marble quarry to which the camp was attached. She was working as an interpreter for the Germans and, emaciated as he was, there was an undeniable and instant mutual attraction. Within a few weeks Greasley and Rosa were conducting their affair in broad daylight and virtually under the noses of the German guards - snatching meetings for trysts in the camp workshops and wherever else they could find. But at the end of a year, just as he was realising how much he cared for Rosa, Greasley was transferred to Freiwaldau, an annex of Auschwitz, some 40 miles away.

The only way to carry on the love affair was to break out of his camp. From Silesia, bordered by Germany and German-occupied countries, there was little hope of escaping back to Britain. The nearest neutral country was Sweden, 420 miles to the north. Perhaps this was the reason the guards were lax, and the Germans seem to consider that those trying to escape were effectively attempting suicide.

Greasley reckoned that short absences could be disguised or go unnoticed. Messages between him and Rosa were exchanged via members of outside work parties, who then handed hers on to Greasley, the camp barber, when thet came to have their hair cut. When, with the help of friends, he did make it under the wire for an assignation nearby, he would break back into camp again under cover of darkness to await his next opportunity.

Sometimes, Greasley reckoned, he made the return journey three or more times a week, depending on whether Rosa's duties among various camps brought her to his vicinity. His persistance in their love affair was not only testimony to his daring. A wartime photograph shows Heinrich Himmler, head of the SS, inspecting a prison camp and a shirtless skinny PoW close to the fence confronting him.

The prisoner has been identified as Horace Greasley, who said he did not know who Himmler was at the time, but realised that he was some superior officer. Greasley said that when the photo was taken he was demanding more food for the prisoners, having taken off his shirt to show how thin he was. Rations did not improve as a result.

Rosa repaid his attentions, he said, by providing small food parcels and pieces of equipment for him to take back into the camp, eventually including radio parts which enabled 3,000 prisoners to keep up with the news by listening to the BBC.

Greasley was held prisoner, working for the Germans in quarries and factories, for five years less one day, and was finally liberated on 24.5.1945. He still received letters from Rosa after the war's end, and was able to vouch for her when she applied to work as an interpreter for the Americans.

Not long after Greasley got back to Britain, however, he received news that Rosa had died in childbirth, with the infant perishing too. Horace Greasley said he never knew for certain whether or not the child was his.

After demobilisation he returned to Leicestershire, swearing that he would never take orders from anyone again. He ran a hairdressers', a taxi firm and a haulage company in Coalville, where he met his wife, Brenda, at a fancy dress party in 1970. They married in 1975, retiring to the Costa Blanca in Spain in 1988.

Greasley was delighted with the publication of his book and was to have undertaken a return visit to Silesia for a television company this spring, having, he said, been promised the company of "a very attractive 21-year-old female nurse for the entire journey". He died in his sleep before the offer could be made good.

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LEICESTER MERCURY 9th February 2009

Hollywood interest in tale of a man who escaped PoW camp 210 times to see his German sweetheart

by TOM PEGDEN

The remarkable story about a Leicestershire soldier who fell for a German girl in a PoW camp could soon be made into a Hollywood Blockbuster.

Oscar-winning director Ron Howard is said to be interested in the life of Horace Greasley – a Second World War soldier who risked his life time and time again for a German girl.

Horace, now 90, was a private with the 2nd/5th Leicestershire Regiment when he was captured on May 25, 1940, during the British retreat to Dunkirk.

He then spent five years in prisoner of war camps – malnourished, lice-ridden and often freezing, toiling away in quarries and factories for the enemy.

The Ibstock boy now lives on Spain's Costa Brava with his wife, Brenda.

He said the affair with Rosa Rauchbach began when he was being held in a marble quarry camp in Silesia, which was then part of eastern Germany.

Rosa was the quarry director's daughter and worked as a translator. Part-Jewish, she had hidden her background – and her hatred of the Nazis – from everyone outside her family.

Horace, who was known to his Army mates as Jim, said: "If ever we had been caught I would have been tortured and shot, but in her case they would have gone right through her family. She was risking 20 times more than me."

When Horace was transferred to a factory camp, Rosa was heartbroken. Eventually, she traced him, but had no access to the camp.

Instead, Horace managed to force the bars of his cell, and night-after-night would sneak past the guards to meet Rosa.

Their liaisons took place in an old chapel, and Horace would pick up supplies before sneaking back in.

He said: "We worked out that over two-and-a-half years, I escaped and got back in 210 times!"

He was liberated on 24.5.1945, and continued to receive letters from Rosa, by then a translator for the Americans.

However, the letters suddenly stopped. "Eventually I heard that she had died in childbirth, not long after I got home," said Horace.

"That was a bombshell. The child also died. It could have been mine – it's something I will never know."

Horace spent months telling his story to ghostwriter Ken Douglas – who writes under the name Ken Scott – and it has been published under the title Do The Birds Still Sing in Hell?

Mr Douglas said Ron Howard, director of major films including the Da Vinci Code and Frost/Nixon, was now interested.

"The book's had an awful lot of interest," said Mr Douglas. "Waterstones is planning to stock it and it looks like it could become a big seller.

"Hollywood talent agency Creative Artists have two copies, and Ron Howard's PA has said he's read the first two chapters and he's very, very interested."

Horace said: "I heard that a film could take two-and-a-half years. With Brenda's care and attention, I hope to be around for that."

Brenda, 77, said: "It's a lovely story. Over the years, he would come out with parts of it and I always said he should write it down."

Horace is donating five per cent of profits to The Royal British Legion.

Date of Birth : 25.12.1918

Place of Birth : Ibstock, Leicestershire

Date of Death : 4.2.2009

Place of Death : Costa Brava, Spain

Civil Occupation : Hairdresser

Period of Service : 1939-46

Conflicts : WW2

Places Served : France & Belgium, Germany