Who wrote the books?
Con-men anger their victims and, at the same time, will often make the rest of us laugh. The 18th century Baron von Munchausen must look down with envy on his 20th century colleague, war writer 'Sven Hassel'. MaybeBorge Villy Redsted Pedersen (who had not yet invented his 'Sven Hassel' pen-name) made the association when in 1951 he succeeded, not for the last time, in tricking at least some of the Copenhagen upper-classes, convincing them of his incredible fantasies. It happened when he married using the alias 'Bob de l'Arbin' and the title of 'Baron'. His morning coat plastered with tingel tangel medals and a sash bought in the nearest second-hand shop.
Maybe we should no longer talk about 'him' but, more accurately, 'them' as since then he is only one half of the Hassel-swindle. They are since then a couple: His wife should really be counted as more than half: Partly because she since then is the real writer: He is almost illiterate. What he delivers are the creative fantasies of a soldiers' life - a life which he never experienced himself- Partly because, while 'doing business' in the backstreets of Copenhagen during the war, she came far closer to German soldiers than he ever did.
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 'script'. First and foremost it was so big. I would estimate 1,000 pages of script. 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 script. 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.
- We were talking about your contract.
- I demanded that the contract be set up by a lawyer, with the money passing through the publisher Grafisk Forlag. I had no confidence in this man who had produced, I was quite sure, such a tall story. Not even a goodone. If the book was a good fabrication then it's because I, not 'Hassel' made the lies sound so believable! The
contract was agreed and I was to get 20 per cent of author's royalties for sales in Denmark and 50 per cent for sales overseas. The 'overseas' bit was the joke of the year.
- What about the film rights?
- Are you crazy, man! Rights to film that manure! I never believed in that at all. When it happened anyway many years later - I was more than surprised. I remember joking when it was put into the contract that if the script became a film I should have 50 per cent of that too!
- Did you ever get any money?
- Oh yes! I have written a lot of books and only one, called "Me - a Man" (a soft-porn book of the 60s), has paid better. I earned more than 100,000 Danish kroner [ca. 14,000 US-$]. As long as Grafisk Forlag published theHassel novels, Mrs 'Hassel' came every year and paid me for 'The Legion of the Damned'. When in 1963 Grafisk
Forlag threw the man out, she also stopped paying me. Many years ago my lawyer and I calculated that the man owed me several hundred-thousand Kroner in Danish royalties alone. But the lawyer advised me not to start a court case to get my money. The man was, like many other former Nazis, living in Spain at the time - well protected by dictator Franco's fascist regime. So I gave the whole case up. Now
Franco is dead and 'Hazel' still alive, but I am too old and tired to risk a court case. I have had a good life and written many books I can be proud of. I did not, and do not, want to be known of as 'The true Hassel'.
- Did you have anything to do with the later Hassel-books, Georg?
- Absolutely not! I wouldn't touch the man with a bargepole. I have often wondered how he was able to go on with the same characters as the ones I invented. At the end of the novel I killed nearly every one of the characters - and I admit I did it with great delight!
- Even the principal characters of the Hassel books are my invention.
- Since you put together the first book ten more have been published under the name of Sven Hassel!
- I can guarantee they weren't written by him. Maybe dictated - he is totally illiterate. But I can believe that the stories come from his sick fantasies. I have heard that his wife actually writes them. That sounds likely to me.
Let me put it this way: She is no missionary, no Sunday-school teacher. Her daily language is closer to the language in Hassel's novels than any other 'lady' I know of. Mrs Hassel is a very strong woman. She certainly wears the trousers in that marriage.
- Now you're using the 'Hassel'-name yourself!
- To me he will always be known as 'the Hassel Phenomenon'. I cannot think of him as Borge Arbing - or as Borge Villy Pedersen. To me the person will always be 'Mr Hassel - the big mouth with the big lies'.
On a personally note.
I read the books, they are good books, and I enjoy reading them. But they are fiction.
They are not the experience of one Sven Hassel.
He (or they) has taken stuff from other writers, persons and movies to make those books.
The first book “The Legion of the Damned” is properly to some degree experiences from real people, he got off inmates from prison. The rest is for the most part pure fiction.
Whether its fiction or not – it is not the experience of Sven Hassel.
Btw the German movie “Stalingrad” is to some part taken from the Sven Hassel book – “The SS-General” (org: SS-Generalen). Some of the clips in the movie are almost word identical to the book
Hope that clears it up. Old traitor should have been shot back int the 40's.
