Criminal
12-20-2004, 11:28 PM
I have some questions to anyone who is familiar with his work. This is a Danish Writer who authored a series of books which some believe to be based on what is thought to be his own experience as an SS volunteer in WW 2. These are semi-commical and mostly decidely anti-war. They include such works as "Punishment Battalion", which was the basis of "The Misfit Brigade", a US produced movie.
In this article a noted Danish writer has attempted to debunk the widely believed beliefe that he served in the Freikrops Danmark.
http://home.tiscali.dk/haaest/Hassel-Hazel/Texts/English/00prefac.htm
According to the author Sven Hassel's real name is Børge Villy Redsted Pedersen, who never served on the Russian front and spent the entire war in Denmark. The author goes on to say that he was a member of the Nazi party and was a turncoat who spied on his fellow Danes. He was arrested and sentenced to death but freed in 1951.
http://home.tiscali.dk/haaest/Hassel-Hazel/Photos/06-legion-2.jpg
Partial list of Hassel's titles:
Legion of the Damned (1957, George Allen & Unwin Ltd.) translatted from Danish by Maurice Michael
Wheels of Terror (1959, Sluvenir Press Ltd.) translated by I.O'Hanlon
Comrades of War (1963, Dawcett Publications Inc.) translated by Sverre Lyngstad
Monte Cassino (1969m Transworld Publishers Ltd)
March Battalion (1970, Transworld Publishers Ltd) translated from French by Jean Ure
Liquidate Paris (1971, Transworld Publishers Ltd.) translated from french by Jean Ure
Assignment Gestapo (1971, Transworld Publishers Ltd.) translated from French by Jean Ure
SS-General (1972, Transworld Publishers Ltd) translated from French by Jean Ure
Reign of Hell (1973, Transworld Publishers Ltd)
Blitzfreeze (1973, Transworld Publishers Ltd) translated from Danish by Tim Bowie
The Bloody Road to Death (1977, Transworld Publishers Ltd) translated from Danish by Tim Bowie
Court Martial (1979, Transworld Publishers Ltd) translated from Danish by Tim Bowie
OGPU Prison (1982, Transworld Publishers Ltd) translated from Danish by Tim Bowie - dedicated to my friend the spanish poet Joaquin Buxo Montesinos]
The Commisar (1985, Transworld Publishers Ltd.) translated from Danish by Tom Bowie [dedicated to my old friend, the Scandinavien film producer Just Betzer who has thrown himself enthusiastically into the filming of my books]
I did find this other biography on the writer here...
May the 11th 1936 he became a private in the Bicycle Squadron in the Danish Army- and this is where he served until he was demobilized from the army on October the 6th 1939 as 'unsuitable for NCO training'.
He moved to the opposite side of the capital (Copenhagen) and took a job as a bicycle delivery boy for a grocer. Underneath his civilian overcoat he wore a homemade lieutenant’s uniform, which he had obtained by hire-purchase agreement from a second-hand shop. In a fancy-dress shop he also bought a variety of military equipment, among them a soldier's helmet, which looked very realistic but, on closer examination, turned out to be made from papier-mâché. Later it was revealed that the helmet had been used at The New Theatre by the actor Gerhard Jensen for his part in a performance of "All Quiet On The Western Front", a dramatised version of Erich Maria Remarque's novel.
Anyway little by little Pedersen had added more and more finery, medals and orders - even an aid-de-camp's braided cord.
Occasionally he would bump into friends or acquaintances while out on his rounds pedaling his 'Long John' delivery bike. Then he would throw the bike and the coat around the first corner and stroll proudly down the street - telling people that he was on his way to the Ministry of War or a local barracks or whatever else might be in the neighborhood. He had joined the Danish Nazi-party, DNSAP, using the name of 'Lieutenant Redsted' and claiming that he was serving at the Danish 'Kastellet' military headquarters. He then offered the DNSAP leaders no less than six bicycles, all painted in the party's brown colour. These bicycles finally led to his exposure as a fraud. The police had had several recent reports of stolen bicycles, and engraved numbers showed that every one of the six bikes offered to the DNSAP had been stolen. The charade was over.
So that is how “Børge Villy Redsted Pedersen”, alias 'Sven Hassel', ended his military career. Was he ever a German soldier, as he claimed to the world? The answer is quite clearly NO! But he tried. In 1941 he contacted the Waffen-SS 'Ersatzstelle Danemark', hoping to enrole in the SS, but he was not even called for an interview. The Germans, at that time, refused anyone with a criminal record - and Børge Villy had got his first conviction on November the 10th 1939.
The photos that appear on the covers of almost all first time released Hassel books are supposed evidence of his service in the German army. The pictures are just another forgery. They do not show 'Mr.Hassel', but in fact, young Michael Arbing, the couple's only son, how was photographed in the late 1960'es, when he was still a teenager. This photo is not present on later released versions.
The first book “The Legion of the Damned” (org: De fordømtes legion) is written by Georg Gjedde, he says: (this from an interview from the 70ties)
-I wish I could forget that so called 'scr1pt'. First and foremost it was so big. I would estimate 1,000 pages of scr1pt. But all in an incredible mess. Obviously, the man could neither read nor write - and he definately couldn't organize! I fought my way through it and told the publisher that, IF they paid me well, I should be able to turn it into a book - assuming that I didn't have to keep too close to his original version. They accepted and I began. It had to be reduced to no more than 300 pages of scr1pt.
When, at long last, the work was done - and it took damned long time - a contract was set up between 'the man' and myself. I can't use his name, because I can't actually recall the name he used.
- You didn't know him as 'Sven Hassel'?
- Not at all. That pen-name came much later. I think he'd given himself a French name.
- Who invented the pen-name 'Sven Hassel'? You have used other pen-names with the initials SH - Sverre Holm for example.
- Yes, I did. He had used some common surname. Sven Jensen, Svend Nielsen or some other common Danish family name.
- Have you ever been a soldier yourself?
- No. I have never been a soldier. Never been to any front - not even the home front. I am, and was, against every kind of ' -ism' (fascism, communism, religionism, racism etc.) I made most soldiers - Russians as well as Germans - into war-criminals in that dirty book. I therefore had to make the novel's 'heroes' into anti-war-warriors.
- Like Mr 'Hassel' still does in his books?
- He took that idea from me. His notes showed the total opposite: Mr 'What-ever-his-name-is', according to his notes, was dirty in every way, talking again and again of bloodshed, murdering and false heroism among the nazis.
- Did you get any feeling of anti-nazi sentiment from 'Hassel's' notes.
- The oppposite. On the few occasions when I looked at his notes, I felt like vomiting. If I had not already spent so much time on the book, I would never have finished it. That man to me is nothing more than a repulsive bastard!
- Did you believe that this story was about his own experiences?
- Never! And he himself didn't either. His characters were always referred to in the third person (he, they etc). It was me, not him, who changed the whole idea into a man's personal life-story. I got the feeling that it would sound better, giving more familiarity to the readers. I have never read any of his later novels, but I have been told that he followed my idea and wrote all his other books in the first person.
http://feldgrau.net/Messages/29534.html
In this article a noted Danish writer has attempted to debunk the widely believed beliefe that he served in the Freikrops Danmark.
http://home.tiscali.dk/haaest/Hassel-Hazel/Texts/English/00prefac.htm
According to the author Sven Hassel's real name is Børge Villy Redsted Pedersen, who never served on the Russian front and spent the entire war in Denmark. The author goes on to say that he was a member of the Nazi party and was a turncoat who spied on his fellow Danes. He was arrested and sentenced to death but freed in 1951.
http://home.tiscali.dk/haaest/Hassel-Hazel/Photos/06-legion-2.jpg
Partial list of Hassel's titles:
Legion of the Damned (1957, George Allen & Unwin Ltd.) translatted from Danish by Maurice Michael
Wheels of Terror (1959, Sluvenir Press Ltd.) translated by I.O'Hanlon
Comrades of War (1963, Dawcett Publications Inc.) translated by Sverre Lyngstad
Monte Cassino (1969m Transworld Publishers Ltd)
March Battalion (1970, Transworld Publishers Ltd) translated from French by Jean Ure
Liquidate Paris (1971, Transworld Publishers Ltd.) translated from french by Jean Ure
Assignment Gestapo (1971, Transworld Publishers Ltd.) translated from French by Jean Ure
SS-General (1972, Transworld Publishers Ltd) translated from French by Jean Ure
Reign of Hell (1973, Transworld Publishers Ltd)
Blitzfreeze (1973, Transworld Publishers Ltd) translated from Danish by Tim Bowie
The Bloody Road to Death (1977, Transworld Publishers Ltd) translated from Danish by Tim Bowie
Court Martial (1979, Transworld Publishers Ltd) translated from Danish by Tim Bowie
OGPU Prison (1982, Transworld Publishers Ltd) translated from Danish by Tim Bowie - dedicated to my friend the spanish poet Joaquin Buxo Montesinos]
The Commisar (1985, Transworld Publishers Ltd.) translated from Danish by Tom Bowie [dedicated to my old friend, the Scandinavien film producer Just Betzer who has thrown himself enthusiastically into the filming of my books]
I did find this other biography on the writer here...
May the 11th 1936 he became a private in the Bicycle Squadron in the Danish Army- and this is where he served until he was demobilized from the army on October the 6th 1939 as 'unsuitable for NCO training'.
He moved to the opposite side of the capital (Copenhagen) and took a job as a bicycle delivery boy for a grocer. Underneath his civilian overcoat he wore a homemade lieutenant’s uniform, which he had obtained by hire-purchase agreement from a second-hand shop. In a fancy-dress shop he also bought a variety of military equipment, among them a soldier's helmet, which looked very realistic but, on closer examination, turned out to be made from papier-mâché. Later it was revealed that the helmet had been used at The New Theatre by the actor Gerhard Jensen for his part in a performance of "All Quiet On The Western Front", a dramatised version of Erich Maria Remarque's novel.
Anyway little by little Pedersen had added more and more finery, medals and orders - even an aid-de-camp's braided cord.
Occasionally he would bump into friends or acquaintances while out on his rounds pedaling his 'Long John' delivery bike. Then he would throw the bike and the coat around the first corner and stroll proudly down the street - telling people that he was on his way to the Ministry of War or a local barracks or whatever else might be in the neighborhood. He had joined the Danish Nazi-party, DNSAP, using the name of 'Lieutenant Redsted' and claiming that he was serving at the Danish 'Kastellet' military headquarters. He then offered the DNSAP leaders no less than six bicycles, all painted in the party's brown colour. These bicycles finally led to his exposure as a fraud. The police had had several recent reports of stolen bicycles, and engraved numbers showed that every one of the six bikes offered to the DNSAP had been stolen. The charade was over.
So that is how “Børge Villy Redsted Pedersen”, alias 'Sven Hassel', ended his military career. Was he ever a German soldier, as he claimed to the world? The answer is quite clearly NO! But he tried. In 1941 he contacted the Waffen-SS 'Ersatzstelle Danemark', hoping to enrole in the SS, but he was not even called for an interview. The Germans, at that time, refused anyone with a criminal record - and Børge Villy had got his first conviction on November the 10th 1939.
The photos that appear on the covers of almost all first time released Hassel books are supposed evidence of his service in the German army. The pictures are just another forgery. They do not show 'Mr.Hassel', but in fact, young Michael Arbing, the couple's only son, how was photographed in the late 1960'es, when he was still a teenager. This photo is not present on later released versions.
The first book “The Legion of the Damned” (org: De fordømtes legion) is written by Georg Gjedde, he says: (this from an interview from the 70ties)
-I wish I could forget that so called 'scr1pt'. First and foremost it was so big. I would estimate 1,000 pages of scr1pt. But all in an incredible mess. Obviously, the man could neither read nor write - and he definately couldn't organize! I fought my way through it and told the publisher that, IF they paid me well, I should be able to turn it into a book - assuming that I didn't have to keep too close to his original version. They accepted and I began. It had to be reduced to no more than 300 pages of scr1pt.
When, at long last, the work was done - and it took damned long time - a contract was set up between 'the man' and myself. I can't use his name, because I can't actually recall the name he used.
- You didn't know him as 'Sven Hassel'?
- Not at all. That pen-name came much later. I think he'd given himself a French name.
- Who invented the pen-name 'Sven Hassel'? You have used other pen-names with the initials SH - Sverre Holm for example.
- Yes, I did. He had used some common surname. Sven Jensen, Svend Nielsen or some other common Danish family name.
- Have you ever been a soldier yourself?
- No. I have never been a soldier. Never been to any front - not even the home front. I am, and was, against every kind of ' -ism' (fascism, communism, religionism, racism etc.) I made most soldiers - Russians as well as Germans - into war-criminals in that dirty book. I therefore had to make the novel's 'heroes' into anti-war-warriors.
- Like Mr 'Hassel' still does in his books?
- He took that idea from me. His notes showed the total opposite: Mr 'What-ever-his-name-is', according to his notes, was dirty in every way, talking again and again of bloodshed, murdering and false heroism among the nazis.
- Did you get any feeling of anti-nazi sentiment from 'Hassel's' notes.
- The oppposite. On the few occasions when I looked at his notes, I felt like vomiting. If I had not already spent so much time on the book, I would never have finished it. That man to me is nothing more than a repulsive bastard!
- Did you believe that this story was about his own experiences?
- Never! And he himself didn't either. His characters were always referred to in the third person (he, they etc). It was me, not him, who changed the whole idea into a man's personal life-story. I got the feeling that it would sound better, giving more familiarity to the readers. I have never read any of his later novels, but I have been told that he followed my idea and wrote all his other books in the first person.
http://feldgrau.net/Messages/29534.html