Book recommendations

[Skybird]

Originally Posted by BossMark

I will recommend this author and all his books
Sven Hassel
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sven_Hassel

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The Danish writer Erik Haaest has been disputing Hassel's claims for many years.[4]
Haaest writes that Sven Hassel is actually Børge Villy Redsted Pedersen, a Danish Nazi who never served on the Russian 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.[5]
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."



Maybe better not.

[BossMark]

@ Skybird not sure what to believe but never the less I still enjoyed reading his books.

[Esanssi]

Originally Posted by Skybird

--->
"
The Danish writer Erik Haaest has been disputing Hassel's claims for many years.[4]
Haaest writes that Sven Hassel is actually Børge Villy Redsted Pedersen, a Danish Nazi who never served on the Russian 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.[5]
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 ***8211; 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."



Maybe better not.

That doesn't make the books any less enjoyable, does it? I mean, it's quite clear even for the uneducated reader that most of Hassel's stories couldn't possibly be real.

I'd say a good liar makes a great writer.

It would be a different matter if Hassel displayed himself and the other characters as heroic and took credit for that sort of stuff, but these guys are mostly bastards. But that makes them much more interesting.