- Sven Hassel
Sven Hassel (born
April 19 ,1917 ) is a Danish-bornsoldier andwriter who has writtenpseudo -autobiographical novel s based on his experiences inWorld War II .Biography
Hassel's biography is disputed (see below). He claims that he was born as Sven Pedersen at
Frederiksborg ,Zealand ,Denmark . He later adopted his mother's maiden name Hassel. At the age of 14 he joined a merchant navy as acabin boy and worked in ship until hismilitary service in 1936. In 1937, to escape theGreat Depression , the unemployed Hassel moved toGermany to join the army. In an interview in 1990, he said, "Germany happened to be closer thanEngland , I went to aWehrmacht 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 SeventhCavalry Regiment finally accepted me on the condition that I became a naturalized German." Later he served with the secondPanzer Division stationed atEisenach and in 1939 was a tank driver during the invasion of Poland.A year later he attempted to escape. ". . .I was quite simply exhausted. I did not return to my unit after a short leave.
Desertion they called it. I was transferred to aSonderabteilung , a penal unit manned by criminals anddissidents ."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 anIron Cross 1st and 2nd class. He surrendered to Soviet troops inBerlin in 1945 and spent the following years in variousPOW camp s. 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 metDorthe Jensen , whom he married in 1951. He went to work in a car factory, but his wife encouraged him 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 toBarcelona ,Spain , where, as of 2004, 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 ". [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0093546]Hassel's books
Hassel's books are written in the first person, with Hassel himself as the lead character. The books describe the exploits of a 27th (Penal) Panzer Regiment composed of expendable soldiers - sentenced criminals,
court-martial ed soldiers and political undesirables. In addition to Sven, they include Alfred Kalb, "Legionnaire" (ex-member ofFrench 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"; Julius Heide, a Nazi fanatic, Barcelona Blom, a veteran of both sides of theSpanish 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 NorthernFinland to theRussia n Front (more than once), Italy ("Monte Cassino "), Greece ("The Bloody Road to Death ") and the Balkans, and toNormandy ("Liquidate Paris ") during theNormandy Invasion . "Wheels of Terror " contains some moving chapters on the bombing of Hamburg by the RAF. "SS General " describes the Battle of Stalingrad in some detail and includes a description of a breakout of German troops from the encirclement led by the titular S.S General. "Reign of Hell " describes the destruction of Warsaw in the final months of the Second World War when the regiment appear to be fighting in Poland.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.Many sections of the books are based around the characters' reminiscences of pre-war life, both civilian and military, or of their exploits (mostly involving drunkenness, petty crime and whoring) when out of action. The later books are considerably less realistic than the earlier ones, with the characters involved in improbable criminal activity behind enemy lines. Although the violence is just as intense as the earlier novels, the plot of books such as 'The Commisar' owes more to the film "
Kelly's Heroes " than to any realistic account of wartime action, with a strong streak of black comedy.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. UnsympatheticPrussia n officers constantly threaten their men withcourts-martial and execute them with little provocation. Disgruntled soldiers occasionally kill their own officers to get rid of them.Even though Hassel's books are not taken seriously by historians or military professionals, many of the stories in them are well told, and - like much of fictional writing - some of their background material appears to be derived from authentic accounts.
They have brought a remarkable reading experience to many a reader, and are perhaps responsible for introducing readers to the subject of the
Second World War from an unfamiliar viewpoint.Critics
Erik Haaest , a self-styled Danish journalist, has spent many years trying to debunk Hassel's claims.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 occupiedDenmark and his knowledge of warfare comes second-hand from DanishWaffen 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.He also used to claim that Sven Hassel's wife was behind a huge ring of sleazy pornography.
Although Haaest's allegations are not generally accepted by Sven Hassel fans, they have focused attention on Hassel's description of his own past and provoked much discussion, particularly on
Internet newsgroups and discussion forums, on the validity of Hassel's claims.Far from being a mere debunking of Hassel's books, Haaest's charges amount to charges of treason against Sven Hassel. Eric Haaest supplies information that focuses on Sven Hassel's real activities during the period - information that seems to show that Pedersen/Hassel, was in fact a member of the
HIPO Corps or "Hilfspolizei", an auxiliary police force created by the Germans, consisting of collaborators.The charges are all the more serious for Hassel, since Hassel writes from an anti-Nazi perspective.
According to Haaest, Pedersen aka Hassel was actually put on trial in Denmark. However, due to his abilities as a story teller, he was able to avoid a death sentence - a fate that many HIPO members faced.
Hassel's book "Wheels of Terror" contains some detailed accounts about the German breakout from the
Korsun-Cherkassy Pocket . The fighting at Novaya Buda (which Hassel calls "Nova Buda"), as well as the breakout at Lysyanka, are dealt with from a survivor's point of view. "Wheels of Terror" also involves a battle for a railroad junction like that ofKovel . It so happens that the fighting in all of the above mentioned areas, involved DanishWaffen SS volunteers from the5th SS Panzer Division Wiking . Later scenes of fighting in "Wheels of Terror" resemble the Battle of Narva, which included DanishWaffen SS volunteers from the "Nordland".This lends further credence to Haaest's assertion that Pedersen aka Hassel, gleaned some of the material in his books from cellmates who were Danish
Waffen SS volunteers.While Haaest has proved instrumental in casting 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.For this reason, serious historical and military forums on the internet, such as Feldgrau.com and AxisHistory.com, do not treat any of Sven Hassel's works as authentic.
Hassel also used to claim that he served in Finland during the
continuation War , and received aMannerheim Cross , but Finnish military archives and the list of Mannerheim Cross recipients do not support either claim. The claim has since disappeared from his official biography.ven Hassel's fans
The readership for Sven Hassel has spread to many countries. Although the popularity of his novels peaked in the 1970s and early 1980s, the advent of the Internet has sparked a new interest - and an opportunity for older fans to exchange points of view.
Parodies of Sven Hassel
In 1988 a humour book called "The Book of Revelations" (Mark Leigh and Mike Lepine) printed a parody of both
Beatrix Potter 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 ofKenneth 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.
In the "Flood" episode of the 1980s BBC situation comedy "The Young Ones", Vyvyan admits to reading a comic entitled "SS Death Camp Criminal Battalion go to Monte Cassino for the Massacre".
Works
(English names)
*"The Legion of the Damned" (1953)
*"Wheels Of Terror " (1958)
*"Comrades of War " (1960)
*"March Battalion" (1962)
*"Assignment Gestapo " (1963)
*"Monte Cassino" ("The Beast Regiment") (1963)
*"Liquidate Paris " (1967)
*"SS-General " (1969)
*"Reign of Hell " (1971) ISBN 0304366900
*"Blitzfreeze " (1976)
*"The Bloody Road to Death " (1977)
*"Court Martial" (1979)
*"O.G.P.U. Prison " (1981)
*"The Commissar " (1985)External links
* [http://www.svenhassel.info "Porta’s Kitchen"] (a fan site with a large amount of information)
* [http://www.svenhassel.net "Sven Hassel web site"] (Author's site)
* [http://home.tiscali.dk/haaest/Hassel-Hazel/Texts/English/00table.htm "Erik Haaest's site"] (opposition site challenging Hassel's claims)
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