The Legion of the Damned (novel)
Legion of the Damned (original Danish title: Fordømtes Legion) is the first of 14 World War II novels written by author Sven Hassel. The book covers a chronological period of a number of years, starting with the author's arrest and time in German concentration camps, and ending with his being an officer and company commander on the Russian front. All of Sven Hassel's subsequent war stories, from a chronological point of view, fill in details omitted by this book.
Published in 1953, the book provides a moving account of life as a soldier in European Russia during the Second World War. The descriptions of violence contain graphic detail that caused a stir at the time.[1]
It is more solemn and more serious than all of its successors, save perhaps Wheels of Terror. In some respects it seems to be modelled on Erich Maria Remarque's All Quiet on the Western Front, in particular the parallels between Willi Beier and Kat. Some sources describe Legion of the Damned as a grislier, more fast-paced, version of Remarque's famous book.[2]
The book opens with the author being tried and convicted as a deserter, and as a result being sent to concentration camp. He spends a number of months in camps, particularly Gross Rosen and Lengries, where he is involved in bomb disposal and also witnesses a number of atrocities committed by the SS guards, before abruptly being "pardoned" and dispatched to a penal regiment, the Sonderabteilung 27th Panzers.
Legion of the Damned won critical acclaim across Europe and the United States and was translated into 15 languages. It has been also optioned for a film.
[edit] Notes and references
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