Sven Hassel Dies

[peterwulfhund]

Sven Hassel died aged 95 in Barcelona on Sept 21st...
.. hugely influential writer of WW2 adventure stories from the German perspective.
...RIP Kamerad

[Peiper]

Yes RIP, i always enjoyed the Hassel books,
there is a website somewhere called "Porta's
kitchen which has supppsidly pics of Sven and
the gang, there are also pics of the bar that
they hung out in when in Hamburg which was
called "windforce 11" and ran by "Aunt Dora"
apparantly it was a real place but was featured
in one of the Sven books, yes old Sven and his
books will be missed
Pipes

[Crazy Feldgendarme]

RIP, great books and a real charactor to the end no doubt.

Here is the supposed truth.

SVEN HASSEL
The Hans Christian Anderson of WW11

The amazing link between the HIPO and Europes post war premier fiction writer

Sven Hassell has entertained several generations of readers with his fictionalized description of Germans fighting during the second World W. Although his readers have speculated that his fictional stories were based on fact not many know that hew is neither a German nor was he ever in the Germaqn military.
He is in fact a Dane who has spent his middle age and twilight years living and writing in Barcelona, Spain about a subject that he never experienced first hand.
His story dates back to the early twenties, when he was an informer for the German SD and Gestapo in Copenhagen. One day the HIPO leader Jorgen Lorenzo who headed one of two plainclothes undercover HIPO units went into a local cafe called "Tosca" for a drink. This local Copenhagen watering hole was frequented by Germans and Danish Collaberators. There he found a young man in a fantastically decorated uniform complete with numerous war decorations and ribbons.
Lorenzen who was an ex veteran of the Freikorps Danmark had seen action in Russia and therfore was intimately familiar with German as well as Danish SS uniforms, was supprised to see this young man wearing a mixture of several pieces of attire non of which seemed to match militarily to any particular unit.

The young man had the insignia of a "Leutnant" and called himself Larsen. He had a large number of civilians around him who were listening to descriptions of his actions in battle and hanging on every word. Obersturnfuher Lorenzen could not believe his eyes. He left the Cafe and went to his girlfriend Anna Lund. They returned to the Cafe and found Leutnant Larsen still blazing away with his stories and graphic tales of war Lorenzen already knew this Leutnant Larsen since the man was a Gestapo informer and he had already arrestecd him a week before for impersonating an SS Sergeant in another Cafe. Because the man was a Gestapo informer he knew the layout of the building where the Gestapo HQ was located (it had been the Shell Oil Companyt building in Copenhagen). That week "Leutnant Larsen" escaped the gaol through a bathroom window.
The second time Lorenzen saw the "Leutnant" he held him while his mgirlfriend called the Gestapo, who promptly picked him up and placed him back in Vestre Fangsel gaol. Larsen whose real name was gestapo informer Borge Villy Redsted Pederson ended the war in gaol with fellow Danes some of whom he had most likely fingered to the Germans as resistance fighters.
At the end of the war the Vestre Fansel gaol was opened and the Danes held there were released- all except one the so called Larsen (A.K.A. Borge Villy Redsted Pederson). upon seeing who they had shared the gaol with the resistance fighters simply laughted and closed the cell door back on Pederson. He most likely spent some time in gaol before finaly being released.

After the war 200-300 HIPO men were sentenced to death for brutality, killings and torture. About 46 were actually executed between 1946 and 1950 by police firing sqads Anna Lunh reeived a 13 year sentanceand after her release was expelled from Denmark and sent to live in Germany. her boyfriend Obersturmfuher Lorewnzen had been executed.
One day while walking through a German street she found herself in front of a bookshop and saw a photo of a man she recognised on the back cover of a book. She immediatly recognised him as the old informer and tale teller Borge Villy redstat Pederson only now he called himself SVEN HASSELL!. it had been decades since the end of the war but it still amused her to see that this inexhaustable talker (he never shut up once when she saw him that day in the Cafe) and prolific story-teller still weaving hie war stories only now for all to read.

So a bit of a "Walter Mitty character then! Not to mention the first Axis reenactor and a Farb to boot.

Stiil that dont mean he was anything but a great author entertainer.

Sad loss.

[peterwulfhund]

..Great story ! ..tho' I suspect we'll never know the whole truth..Sven would make an excellent book/film subject himself !
..another pic of him ( supposedly ! )

[Bill Medland]

No one will ever know the truth..........however, it was Sven Hassel books that got me interested in the Wehrmacht in the 70s
and hence involved with this hobby. My first ever Sven Hassel book was "Liquidate Paris".

Cheers, Bill.

[peterwulfhund]

..Ditto ! My first was Monte Cassino lent by a mate at school...I was 11 ( then made a point of blagging everything else by him )

[Peiper]

His story dates back to the early twenties, when he was an informer for the German SD and Gestapo in Copenhagen[

Intresting Feldgendarme, did they have SD in the twenties in Denmark?

Although i have heard similar things about him myself, that he was
indeed an informer of sorts, working for what side i dont know, his
stories were taken from soldiers he shared cells with hence the
mixture in content, i did read his wife wrote the stories and he
embelished them, one of those things we will never know, my first
Sven book was "Wheels of Terror" which lay in my Dads drawer for
years until one day when i was old enough to read it lol after that
i was hooked and since then had read them all lol
Cheers Peiper

[Mattias Sieger]

His story dates back to the early twenties, when he was an informer for the German SD and Gestapo in Copenhagen[

Intresting Feldgendarme, did they have SD in the twenties in Denmark?

Did they have SD in Germany in the twenties?

[peterwulfhund]

There's a Sven Hassel official website , well worth a look!...http://www.svenhassel.net/index.html
..Some of the more dodgy alleged dealings are denied there btw ( as ever, the truth probably lies somewhere in the middle )
..Loved ''Porta's recepies'' section on Sven's site ..must try the mashed potatoes with diced pork..mmmm

[Jaws]

I loved the books

Regards,

Gary.

[Peiper]

Heres a pic supposed to be of Porta lol

Porta.jpg (61.16 KiB) Viewed 4623 times

Pipes