Sven Hassel
Encyclopedia
Sven Hassel is a Danish
-born soldier
and writer
who has written pseudo
-autobiographical novel
s based on his experiences in World War II
.
, Zealand, Denmark
and later adopted his mother's maiden name, Hassel. At the age of 14 he joined a merchant navy as a cabin boy
and worked in ship until his military service
in 1936. In 1937, to escape the Great Depression
, the unemployed Hassel moved to Germany to join the army. In an interview in 1990, he said, "Germany happened to be closer than England, I went to a Wehrmacht
recruiting office to enlist, but it wasn't as easy as I had thought. Only German citizens could serve. After six months of trying to join up, the Seventh Cavalry
Regiment finally accepted me on the condition that I became a naturalized German." Later he served with the 2nd Panzer Division stationed at Eisenach
and in 1939 was a tank driver during the invasion of Poland
.
A year later he attempted to escape. He served with the 2nd Cavalry Regiment and later the 11th and 27th Panzer Regiments (6th Panzer Division) on all fronts except North Africa
and was wounded several times. Eventually he reached the rank of lieutenant and received an Iron Cross
1st and 2nd class. He surrendered to Soviet troops in Berlin
in 1945 and spent the following years in various POW camps. He began to write his first book, Legion of the Damned while he was interned.
He was released in 1949, and was planning to join the French Foreign Legion
when he met Dorthe Jensen, whom he married in 1951. He went to work in a car factory, but his wife encouraged him to continue to write about his experiences. De Fordømtes Legion (Legion of the Damned) was published in 1953. In 1957 Sven Hassel suffered from an attack of a sickness caught during the war and was paralyzed for almost two years. After recovery, he began to write more books. In 1964 he moved to Barcelona
, Spain, where, as of 2011, he still lives. In total he has published fourteen novels which have been translated into eighteen languages. In 1987 his book Døden på larvefødder (Wheels of Terror) was made into a film with the title The Misfit Brigade.
ed soldiers and political undesirables. In addition to Sven, they include Alfred Kalb, "Legionnaire" (ex-member of French Foreign Legion
); Wolfgang Creutzfeldt, a giant of a man ironically named Tiny (variously Little John in some of the books); barracks fixer and shrewd thief Joseph Porta; older sergeant Willie Beier, "Old Un" or "Old Man"; Julius Heide, an ex-waffen SS officer and Nazi fanatic, Barcelona Blom, a veteran of both sides of the Spanish Civil War
, Gregor Martin, who was a removals man before the war, Chief Mechanic Wolf, and Staff Sergeant Hoffman, a typical German NCO of the period. They serve on most fronts from Northern Finland
to the Russia
n Front (more than once), Italy (Monte Cassino
), Greece (The Bloody Road to Death) and the Balkans, and to Normandy
(Liquidate Paris) during the Normandy Invasion. Whilst most of the action appears to occur in Russia, a quick chronological analysis of the activities described in the books appears to show that the regiment depicted in the books fought in several places, hundreds of miles apart, at the same time. In some of the books the 27th Regiment does guard duty for the Gestapo in Hamburg (Assignment Gestapo) and also at the military prison at Torgau (March Battalion
). Hassel states that the characters are based on real people and events are related to historical events.
Hassel's view of war is brutal. In his books, soldiers fight only to survive, the Geneva Convention being a dead letter to all sides. People are killed by chance or with very little reason. Occasional pleasant events and peaceful meetings are brutally cut short. Unsympathetic Prussia
n officers constantly threaten their men with courts-martial and execute them with little provocation. Disgruntled soldiers occasionally kill their own officers to get rid of them. By graphically portraying war as violent and hopeless in such manner, Sven Hassel's books have been said to contain an anti-war
message. His first book Legion of the Damned
has been compared to a much grislier, darker more terrifying version of Erich Maria Remarque
's All Quiet on the Western Front
.
has been disputing Hassel's claims for many years.
Haaest writes that Sven Hassel is actually Børge Villy Redsted Pedersen, a Danish Nazi
who never served on the Russia
n front. According to Haaest, the author spent the majority of World War II in occupied Denmark
and his knowledge of warfare comes second-hand from Danish Waffen SS veterans whom he met after the end of the war. Haaest also alleges that Hassel's first novel was ghostwritten
and when it became a success, he employed his wife to write the rest of his books.
In 2007 the Danish Arts Council was criticized for providing funding to Haaest for research into Danes who served in the SS, on the grounds that Haaest had stated that the concentration camp gas chambers never existed and that the Diary of Anne Frank was a forgery.
Haaest claims that during the war period, Pedersen/Hassel, was in fact a member of the HIPO Corps
or Hilfspolizei, an auxiliary Danish police force created by the Gestapo
, consisting of collaborators. According to Haaest, Pedersen aka Hassel was actually put on trial in Denmark, but avoided a death sentence – a fate that many HIPO members faced.
While Haaest has been instrumental in casting public doubt on Sven Hassel's stories, they were never taken seriously by military or history professionals to begin with. For example, there was a 27th regiment in the German Army, but it was not penal. Tiger I
tanks were in short supply, and were organized in special battalions, directly under Corps command, but attached to a few elite divisions; they certainly were not given to any penal formation as shown in Hassel's books.
and Sven Hassel entitled "Peter Rabbit - Tank Killer" - lampooning the fashion of the period for unscrupulous publishers and literary estates to draft in famous authors to pen "continuations" of their most successful characters and series (the most notorious being that of William Horwood
's much criticised continuation of Kenneth Grahame
's Wind in the Willows). Although the book is out of print, copies of Peter Rabbit - Tank Killer are still to be found all over the net - particularly any sites concerning computer games based on World War Two and the various war re-enactment societies. The occasional T-Shirt of the book's "cover" also turns up at re-enactment events.
Denmark
Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...
-born soldier
Soldier
A soldier is a member of the land component of national armed forces; whereas a soldier hired for service in a foreign army would be termed a mercenary...
and writer
Writer
A writer is a person who produces literature, such as novels, short stories, plays, screenplays, poetry, or other literary art. Skilled writers are able to use language to portray ideas and images....
who has written pseudo
Pseudo
The prefix pseudo- is used to mark something as false, fraudulent, or pretending to be something it is not.-See also:*Falsehood*Pseudorealism*Deception*Mimicry*Pseudo.com*Pseudo: Blood of Our Own...
-autobiographical novel
Novel
A novel is a book of long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....
s based on his experiences in World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
.
Biography
Hassel's biography is disputed (see below). He claims that he was born as Sven Pedersen at FrederiksborgFrederiksborg
Frederiksborg is a Danish placename that can refer to:* Frederiksborg Palace* Frederiksborg County* Frederiksborg horse...
, Zealand, Denmark
Denmark
Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...
and later adopted his mother's maiden name, Hassel. At the age of 14 he joined a merchant navy as a cabin boy
Cabin boy
A Cabin boy or ship's boy is a boy who waits on the officers and passengers of a ship, especially running errands for the captain....
and worked in ship until his military service
Military service
Military service, in its simplest sense, is service by an individual or group in an army or other militia, whether as a chosen job or as a result of an involuntary draft . Some nations require a specific amount of military service from every citizen...
in 1936. In 1937, to escape the Great Depression
Great Depression
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...
, the unemployed Hassel moved to Germany to join the army. In an interview in 1990, he said, "Germany happened to be closer than England, I went to a Wehrmacht
Wehrmacht
The Wehrmacht – from , to defend and , the might/power) were the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1945. It consisted of the Heer , the Kriegsmarine and the Luftwaffe .-Origin and use of the term:...
recruiting office to enlist, but it wasn't as easy as I had thought. Only German citizens could serve. After six months of trying to join up, the Seventh Cavalry
Cavalry
Cavalry or horsemen were soldiers or warriors who fought mounted on horseback. Cavalry were historically the third oldest and the most mobile of the combat arms...
Regiment finally accepted me on the condition that I became a naturalized German." Later he served with the 2nd Panzer Division stationed at Eisenach
Eisenach
Eisenach is a city in Thuringia, Germany. It is situated between the northern foothills of the Thuringian Forest and the Hainich National Park. Its population in 2006 was 43,626.-History:...
and in 1939 was a tank driver during the invasion of Poland
Invasion of Poland (1939)
The Invasion of Poland, also known as the September Campaign or 1939 Defensive War in Poland and the Poland Campaign in Germany, was an invasion of Poland by Germany, the Soviet Union, and a small Slovak contingent that marked the start of World War II in Europe...
.
A year later he attempted to escape. He served with the 2nd Cavalry Regiment and later the 11th and 27th Panzer Regiments (6th Panzer Division) on all fronts except North Africa
North African campaign
During the Second World War, the North African Campaign took place in North Africa from 10 June 1940 to 13 May 1943. It included campaigns fought in the Libyan and Egyptian deserts and in Morocco and Algeria and Tunisia .The campaign was fought between the Allies and Axis powers, many of whom had...
and was wounded several times. Eventually he reached the rank of lieutenant and received an Iron Cross
Iron Cross
The Iron Cross is a cross symbol typically in black with a white or silver outline that originated after 1219 when the Kingdom of Jerusalem granted the Teutonic Order the right to combine the Teutonic Black Cross placed above a silver Cross of Jerusalem....
1st and 2nd class. He surrendered to Soviet troops in Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
in 1945 and spent the following years in various POW camps. He began to write his first book, Legion of the Damned while he was interned.
He was released in 1949, and was planning to join the French Foreign Legion
French Foreign Legion
The French Foreign Legion is a unique military service wing of the French Army established in 1831. The foreign legion was exclusively created for foreign nationals willing to serve in the French Armed Forces...
when he met Dorthe Jensen, whom he married in 1951. He went to work in a car factory, but his wife encouraged him to continue to write about his experiences. De Fordømtes Legion (Legion of the Damned) was published in 1953. In 1957 Sven Hassel suffered from an attack of a sickness caught during the war and was paralyzed for almost two years. After recovery, he began to write more books. In 1964 he moved to Barcelona
Barcelona
Barcelona is the second largest city in Spain after Madrid, and the capital of Catalonia, with a population of 1,621,537 within its administrative limits on a land area of...
, Spain, where, as of 2011, he still lives. In total he has published fourteen novels which have been translated into eighteen languages. In 1987 his book Døden på larvefødder (Wheels of Terror) was made into a film with the title The Misfit Brigade.
Works
Hassel's books are written in the first person, with Hassel himself as a character, though not necessarily the lead character. The books describe the exploits of a 27th (Penal) Panzer Regiment composed of expendable soldiers - sentenced criminals, court-martialCourt-martial
A court-martial is a military court. A court-martial is empowered to determine the guilt of members of the armed forces subject to military law, and, if the defendant is found guilty, to decide upon punishment.Most militaries maintain a court-martial system to try cases in which a breach of...
ed soldiers and political undesirables. In addition to Sven, they include Alfred Kalb, "Legionnaire" (ex-member of French Foreign Legion
French Foreign Legion
The French Foreign Legion is a unique military service wing of the French Army established in 1831. The foreign legion was exclusively created for foreign nationals willing to serve in the French Armed Forces...
); Wolfgang Creutzfeldt, a giant of a man ironically named Tiny (variously Little John in some of the books); barracks fixer and shrewd thief Joseph Porta; older sergeant Willie Beier, "Old Un" or "Old Man"; Julius Heide, an ex-waffen SS officer and Nazi fanatic, Barcelona Blom, a veteran of both sides of the Spanish Civil War
Spanish Civil War
The Spanish Civil WarAlso known as The Crusade among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War among Carlists, and The Rebellion or Uprising among Republicans. was a major conflict fought in Spain from 17 July 1936 to 1 April 1939...
, Gregor Martin, who was a removals man before the war, Chief Mechanic Wolf, and Staff Sergeant Hoffman, a typical German NCO of the period. They serve on most fronts from Northern Finland
Finland
Finland , officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of Northern Europe. It is bordered by Sweden in the west, Norway in the north and Russia in the east, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland.Around 5.4 million people reside...
to the Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
n Front (more than once), Italy (Monte Cassino
Monte Cassino
Monte Cassino is a rocky hill about southeast of Rome, Italy, c. to the west of the town of Cassino and altitude. St. Benedict of Nursia established his first monastery, the source of the Benedictine Order, here around 529. It was the site of Battle of Monte Cassino in 1944...
), Greece (The Bloody Road to Death) and the Balkans, and to Normandy
Normandy
Normandy is a geographical region corresponding to the former Duchy of Normandy. It is in France.The continental territory covers 30,627 km² and forms the preponderant part of Normandy and roughly 5% of the territory of France. It is divided for administrative purposes into two régions:...
(Liquidate Paris) during the Normandy Invasion. Whilst most of the action appears to occur in Russia, a quick chronological analysis of the activities described in the books appears to show that the regiment depicted in the books fought in several places, hundreds of miles apart, at the same time. In some of the books the 27th Regiment does guard duty for the Gestapo in Hamburg (Assignment Gestapo) and also at the military prison at Torgau (March Battalion
March battalion
A march battalion is a battalion-sized military unit formed of all the rear-echelon units of an infantry regiment. It usually includes all the tabors, field kitchen staff, reserve soldiers, military police, commander's reserves, guards, aides, and raw recruits who did not arrive at the...
). Hassel states that the characters are based on real people and events are related to historical events.
Hassel's view of war is brutal. In his books, soldiers fight only to survive, the Geneva Convention being a dead letter to all sides. People are killed by chance or with very little reason. Occasional pleasant events and peaceful meetings are brutally cut short. Unsympathetic Prussia
Prussia
Prussia was a German kingdom and historic state originating out of the Duchy of Prussia and the Margraviate of Brandenburg. For centuries, the House of Hohenzollern ruled Prussia, successfully expanding its size by way of an unusually well-organized and effective army. Prussia shaped the history...
n officers constantly threaten their men with courts-martial and execute them with little provocation. Disgruntled soldiers occasionally kill their own officers to get rid of them. By graphically portraying war as violent and hopeless in such manner, Sven Hassel's books have been said to contain an anti-war
Anti-war
An anti-war movement is a social movement, usually in opposition to a particular nation's decision to start or carry on an armed conflict, unconditional of a maybe-existing just cause. The term can also refer to pacifism, which is the opposition to all use of military force during conflicts. Many...
message. His first book Legion of the Damned
The Legion of the Damned (novel)
Legion of the Damned is the first of 14 World War II novels written by author Sven Hassel. The book covers a chronological period of a number of years, starting with the author's arrest and time in German concentration camps, and ending with his being an officer and company commander on the...
has been compared to a much grislier, darker more terrifying version of Erich Maria Remarque
Erich Maria Remarque
Erich Maria Remarque was a German author, best known for his novel All Quiet on the Western Front.-Life and work:...
's All Quiet on the Western Front
All Quiet on the Western Front
All Quiet on the Western Front is a novel by Erich Maria Remarque, a German veteran of World War I. The book describes the German soldiers' extreme physical and mental stress during the war, and the detachment from civilian life felt by many of these soldiers upon returning home from the front.The...
.
Critics
The Danish writer Erik HaaestErik Haaest
Erik Haaest is a controversial Danish journalist.Haaest's father was an active member of the Danish resistance. After the war, his father refused to accept any awards from Denmark's post-war government, because many officials who had collaborated with the Germans, were still unpunished, in...
has been disputing Hassel's claims for many years.
Haaest writes that Sven Hassel is actually Børge Villy Redsted Pedersen, a Danish Nazi
Nazism
Nazism, the common short form name of National Socialism was the ideology and practice of the Nazi Party and of Nazi Germany...
who never served on the Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
n front. According to Haaest, the author spent the majority of World War II in occupied Denmark
Denmark
Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...
and his knowledge of warfare comes second-hand from Danish Waffen SS veterans whom he met after the end of the war. Haaest also alleges that Hassel's first novel was ghostwritten
Ghostwriter
A ghostwriter is a professional writer who is paid to write books, articles, stories, reports, or other texts that are officially credited to another person. Celebrities, executives, and political leaders often hire ghostwriters to draft or edit autobiographies, magazine articles, or other written...
and when it became a success, he employed his wife to write the rest of his books.
In 2007 the Danish Arts Council was criticized for providing funding to Haaest for research into Danes who served in the SS, on the grounds that Haaest had stated that the concentration camp gas chambers never existed and that the Diary of Anne Frank was a forgery.
Haaest claims that during the war period, Pedersen/Hassel, was in fact a member of the HIPO Corps
HIPO Corps
The HIPO Corps was a Danish auxiliary police corps, established in 1944 by the German Gestapo when the Danish police was disbanded and most of the regular policemen on September 19, 1944 were arrested and sent to concentration camps in Germany. Most members were recruited among Danish collaborators...
or Hilfspolizei, an auxiliary Danish police force created by the Gestapo
Gestapo
The Gestapo was the official secret police of Nazi Germany. Beginning on 20 April 1934, it was under the administration of the SS leader Heinrich Himmler in his position as Chief of German Police...
, consisting of collaborators. According to Haaest, Pedersen aka Hassel was actually put on trial in Denmark, but avoided a death sentence – a fate that many HIPO members faced.
While Haaest has been instrumental in casting public doubt on Sven Hassel's stories, they were never taken seriously by military or history professionals to begin with. For example, there was a 27th regiment in the German Army, but it was not penal. Tiger I
Tiger I
Tiger I is the common name of a German heavy tank developed in 1942 and used in World War II. The final official German designation was Panzerkampfwagen Tiger Ausf. E, often shortened to Tiger. It was an answer to the unexpectedly formidable Soviet armour encountered in the initial months of...
tanks were in short supply, and were organized in special battalions, directly under Corps command, but attached to a few elite divisions; they certainly were not given to any penal formation as shown in Hassel's books.
Parodies of Sven Hassel
In 1988 a humorous book called The Book of Revelations (Mark Leigh and Mike Lepine) printed a parody of both Beatrix PotterBeatrix Potter
Helen Beatrix Potter was an English author, illustrator, natural scientist and conservationist best known for her imaginative children’s books featuring animals such as those in The Tale of Peter Rabbit which celebrated the British landscape and country life.Born into a privileged Unitarian...
and Sven Hassel entitled "Peter Rabbit - Tank Killer" - lampooning the fashion of the period for unscrupulous publishers and literary estates to draft in famous authors to pen "continuations" of their most successful characters and series (the most notorious being that of William Horwood
William Horwood (novelist)
William Horwood is an English novelist. He grew up on the East Kent coast, primarily in Deal, within a model modern family—fractious with "parental separation, secret illegitimacy, alcoholism and genteel poverty"....
's much criticised continuation of Kenneth Grahame
Kenneth Grahame
Kenneth Grahame was a Scottish writer, most famous for The Wind in the Willows , one of the classics of children's literature. He also wrote The Reluctant Dragon; both books were later adapted into Disney films....
's Wind in the Willows). Although the book is out of print, copies of Peter Rabbit - Tank Killer are still to be found all over the net - particularly any sites concerning computer games based on World War Two and the various war re-enactment societies. The occasional T-Shirt of the book's "cover" also turns up at re-enactment events.
Works
(English names)- Legion of the Damned
- Wheels Of TerrorWheels of TerrorWheels of Terror is a 1990 television movie, directed by Christopher Cain, starring Joanna Cassidy and Marcie Leeds. The film originally debuted on the USA Network in 1990...
- Comrades of War
- March Battalion
- Assignment Gestapo
- Monte Cassino (The Beast Regiment)
- Liquidate Paris
- SS-GeneralSS-GeneralSS General is a novel by the Danish writer Sven Hassel. It was first published in 1960 and has been translated in many languages.-Plot introduction:...
- Reign of Hell ISBN 0304366900
- Blitzfreeze
- The Bloody Road to Death
- Court Martial
- O.G.P.U. Prison
- The Commissar
External links
- Sven Hassel web site (Author's site)