Flemming Helweg-Larsen
Born(1911-07-20)20 July 1911
St. Croix, Danish West Indies
Died5 January 1946(1946-01-05) (aged 34)
Copenhagen, Denmark
Cause of deathExecution by firing squad
NationalityDanish
Occupation(s)Writer, gaucho, soldier

Flemming Helweg-Larsen (20 July 1911 – 5 January 1946) was a Danish man convicted of the murder of Carl Henrik Clemmensen.[1] He was subsequently executed in the first application of the capital punishment in Denmark in 54 years.[1]

Biography

Born on St. Croix to the governor of the Danish West Indies, Helweg-Larsen has been described as having an adventurous spirit with "remarkable wordcrafting abilities".[2][3] In the 1930s he traveled to South America, working there for three years as a gaucho.[2] During the same decade, his political interests began to drift into alignment with fascism, though he never joined the National Socialist Workers' Party of Denmark.[3] In the early 1940s he produced a Danish translation of the Ernest Hemingway novella The Torrents of Spring, which was published by Thaning & Appel in 1941 and which was used as the basis for a second Danish translation of the work in 1960.[2]

Following the German occupation of Denmark, Helweg-Larsen joined the Waffen SS, in which he served with a "propaganda unit in the Arnhem area to fire off material at British troops".[4] In 1943, Helweg-Larsen, Søren Kam, and a third Danish man, seized Carl Henrik Clemmensen – a Danish "anti-Nazi newspaper editor" – from his home.[5] Clemmensen's body was later found "riddled with bullets".[5] Following the war, Helweg-Larsen was convicted of the murder and executed by firing squad.[1][5]

While being held in prison during trial, Helweg-Larsen wrote a memoir of his life during the period of 1941 to 1945.[6] It was published by Gyldendal in 2008 under the title Dødsdømt: Flemming Helweg-Larsens beretning ("Death Sentence: Flemming Helweg-Larsen's Account").[6][7] In a review of the book, Berlingske concluded it was well-written and an "exciting reading".[3]

References

  1. 1 2 3 "Danish Writer Killed by Firing Squad". Decatur Herald. Associated Press. January 6, 1946. Retrieved October 23, 2017.
  2. 1 2 3 Gutmann, Martin (2017). Building a Nazi Europe: The SS's Germanic Volunteers. Cambridge University Press. pp. 128–129. ISBN 1-108-10801-6.
  3. 1 2 3 "Forræderens sidste ord". Berlingske Tidende (in Danish). September 17, 2008. Retrieved October 23, 2017.
  4. ↑ Holt, Valmal (2013). Major and Mrs Holt's Battlefield Guide to Operation Market Garden: Leopoldsburg-Eindhoven-Nijmegen-Arnhem-Oosterbeek. Pen and Sword. p. 257. ISBN 1-4738-2681-0.
  5. 1 2 3 Waterfield, Bruno (November 28, 2007). "Former SS officer sheltering in Germany". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved October 23, 2017.
  6. 1 2 Bo, Niels (January 1, 2009). "Flemming Helweg-Larsen: Dødsdømt. Flemming Helweg-Larsens beretning". Military Journal (in Danish). Retrieved October 23, 2017.
  7. ↑ "DØDSDØMT". gyldendal.dk (in Danish). Gyldendal. Retrieved October 23, 2017.
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