Sven Hassel

Sven Hassel (19 April 1917 – 21 September 2012 in Barcelona) was the pen name of the Danish-born Børge Willy Redsted Pedersen who wrote novels set during World War II.

In Denmark he used the pen name Sven Hazel.

Pedersen a.k.a. Hassel (or Hazel) was born on 19 April 1917 as the first of seven children to miller Peder Oluf Pedersen and his 20-year-old wife Maren Hansine Andersen in Nyhuse, Frederiksborg Slotssogn in Frederiksborg County, Denmark and on the second Sunday after Trinity baptized Børge Willy Redsted Pedersen.

In 1920 Pedersen a.k.a. Hassel moved with his parents and little brother from Agerup in Hyllinge parish where his father had been born to Copenhagen, where in 1921 they lived in Peter Fabersgade 4 with his father supporting the family as a miller foreman at the Toldbod mill.

In 1924 the family had moved to Ny Toldbodgade 23, with his father still a foreman and in 1929 they lived in Tverstedgade 3, Vanløse where in 1930 his father supported the family as a miller at Dansk Sojakagefabrik.

On Palm Sunday 1931 he was confirmed in Vanløse church, while still living in Tverstedgade 3.

Pedersen a.k.a. Hassel claimed that at the age of 14 he joined the merchant navy as a cabin boy and worked on ships until his military service in 1936. However, while his two-years-younger brother Tommy Redsted Pedersen was entered in the army levy roll for Copenhagen in 1937 when he turned 18 and his four-years-younger brother Uffe Redsted Pedersen was entered in the same roll in 1939 when he turned 18, Pedersen a.k.a. Hassel was not entered in the roll from 1934 through 1940.

In 1937, to escape the Great Depression, the unemployed Hassel moved to Germany to join the army. In an interview in 1990, he said, "Germany happened to be closer than England, I went to a Wehrmacht recruiting office to enlist, but it wasn't as easy as I had thought. Only German citizens could serve. After six months of trying to join up, the Seventh Cavalry Regiment finally accepted me on the condition that I became a naturalized German."

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