Sven Hassel (1917–2012)

For Sven Hassel’s Legion of the Damned, it was more interesting researching the author than reading the book. This is the first in a series of WWII books about a Danish soldier serving in the German army, purporting to be autobiographical. The book recounts the bloody and violent adventures of a group of German soldiers in a penal battalion on the Russian front. It doesn’t take too long to realize everything is a little off; weapons are incorrect for the time period, dates are missing, show more locations seem deliberately vague.

It seems like – the case was never really settled but the evidence seems pretty strong – the author’s actual World War 2 service was in a collaborationist Danish paramilitary unit, he never left Denmark, and he served a prison term as a traitor after the war. It’s further claimed that the characters and plot elements were plagiarized from All Quiet on the Western Front; that the novels were actually ghost-written by the author’s wife, a Danish journalist; and that the author collected many of the stories and anecdotes from Waffen SS members he met in Denmark.

The Hassel books were immensely popular – he is the second most published Danish author, after Hans Christian Andersen. I suspect there’s a certain element of guilty pleasure there – “war porn”. Legion of the Damned is the only one I’ve read thus far; its treatment of the Soviet Union is pretty surprising. Supposedly commissars are jolly sorts that let a German POW go when he beats them at cards, and in a Soviet prison camp you can sign out overnight to visit the girls in the neighboring village. This must have been a hell of a surprise to Solzhenitsyn and Shalamov.

I suppose my OCD will compel me to read the rest of these. Not really looking forward to it, though. show less

This book is very uneven. Judging by the style and events depicted, I would attribute this work to multiple authors trying to write multiple types of books. And the editor did not make a good job on blending all these things into something more organic. From one chapter to the other, without any notice, we go from the absolute horrors of war/imprisonment to the soldiers' various shenanigans.

And while this can be understandable and can provide some insight into a soldier's mind, the show more immersion is fully broken by the narrator's attempt to force feed you with morality. The actions depicted offer enough information for a reader to form his own opinion on the matter of war. They do their job well in that manner. But then the narrator starts putting his own words into his characters' mouths and, as if it weren't enough, he's often adressing his thoughts directly to the reader. This takes so much away from the whole experience and makes the book very verbose at times.

What is more, I sometimes got the feeling that Hassel was a bit of an asshole who modified the reality to suit his needs("Hey guys, I really never liked these Nazi anyway. I was secretly always on your side." riiiiiiight) or the needs of the book("Well, I'm almost at the end of the story and I totally forgot to add some action. OK. Tank battles it is. Oh and nobody of importance died around me? That's odd. Better take care of it now.").

All in all, it is an enjoyable book, easy to read, manages to represent a lot of the various aspects of war, but I would not go as far as consider it autobiographical. show less

Como todas las obras de Sven Hassel, MONTE CASSINO se basa en las experiencias personales del autor, quien describe la titánica batalla que tenía como objetivo la conquista del célebre monasterio. Y en aquel universo apocalíptico, un grupo de jóvenes sometidos desde su infancia a un entrenamiento intensivo, con la única finalidad de convertirlos en robots, dispuestos a cumplir las órdenes más insensatas. Ya nos son hombres, sino máquinas con un arma mortífera en las manos que se show more mueven por reflejos condicionados. En el transcurso de la batalla, lucharan por un ideal incrustado en el fondo de ellos mismos, sin advertir que los sufrimientos que soportan y su ciego heroísmo son inútiles, ya que los móviles que les impulsan son reprobables. show less

Ik had nog niet eerder van deze schrijver gehoord, en ik vind het jammer dat ik bij het 3e deel van de serie ben begonnen. Ik hoop de overige delen nog wel te pakken kunnen krijgen. Volgens de schrijver heeft hij actief meegevochten aan het oostfront. Een andere Deens auteur schrijft, die Hassel's verleden onderzocht schreef dat hij een informant van de Nazi's in bezet Denemarken was. Ik weet niet wie er gelijk heeft of niet, en doet dat er veel aan toe? Er zijn meerdere schrijvers geweest show more die een fout verleden hebben.

Zoals al eerder door anderen geschreven, de rauwe werkelijkheid, gezien door de ogen van een groep soldaten in een strafbataljon aan het Oostfront.
Het verhaal is eigenlijk een festijn van vuist-gevechten, orgies, en zuipfeesten.

Zo ver we kunnen weten uit dit boek, hebben de hoofdrolspelers nooit meegedaan aan de wreedheden uit de oorlog, haten ze de Nazi partij en officieren.

Grof, maar eerlijk, zo zou ik dit boek willen betitelen. show less