Harry Söderman

Harry Söderman (1932)

Harry Söderman (born August 28, 1902 in Stockholm , † March 16, 1956 in Tangier ) was a Swedish criminalist . He was head of the Swedish Forensic Institute (SKA) from 1939 to 1953 .

Life

Söderman was one of ten children of the Swedish police officer Per Söderman. He graduated from the Malmö Chemical Institute in 1920 with distinction. In addition, he studied chemistry in Altenburg, Germany, in 1922.

After Söderman had completed his military service, he undertook a trip to the Orient from 1924 to 1926, which should bring him closer to his actual career aspiration as a criminalist. He was supported by the Swedish police magazine, for which he investigated the police authorities and criminal activities in different countries. Söderman initially rode his bike from Sweden to Constantinople and from there on through the Baluchistani desert, India, Burma and Thailand to China. His articles were read by criminalists all over the world, which made him well known at the age of 24.

In 1926 he became assistant to the criminalist Dr. Edmond Locard at the State Police Laboratory in Lyon, France. He graduated from the University of Lyon with a doctorate in the analysis of pistol bullets, which earned him the nickname "Revolver Harry". Söderman spent 1929 in France teaching Thai police officers modern police techniques.

In 1930 Söderman finally went back to Sweden, where he opened a private criminal investigation office and also offered document authentication. He soon became the chief editor of the Journal of Police Science, and he was also a lecturer at Stockholm University . Since that time he has been considered one of the most respected criminologists, both in Sweden and internationally, and was commissioned by the Swedish government with criminal cases across Scandinavia.

He was in the United States for about two years, studying American police methods in the New York Police Department and the FBI in Washington. In 1934 Söderman investigated the spectacular case of the Reichstag fire. He was the only person, other than those responsible for the Nazis, who was allowed to speak to the suspect Van der Lubbe .

In 1937 he hired Astrid Lindgren as a shorthand typist for his extensive correspondence. Lindgren's detective novels about master detective Kalle Blomquist were inspired by working with Söderman. In 1939, Söderman was appointed head of the newly established Swedish Forensic Science Institute (SKA), an institution similar to the FBI and the forerunner of today's National Forensic Science Laboratory (SKL).

In 1942 he received an offer from the Norwegian Minister of Justice Terje Vold to train Norwegian refugees in Sweden to become police officers. These men were supposed to replace the Norwegian police officers who worked for the Nazi regime after the war. Söderman accepted and founded several camps, in which by 1945 a total of 17,000 men received mostly military training. On January 12, 1945, the first police forces were deployed in Norway. His commitment to Norway earned him a lot of admiration there, in Furudal , north of Rättvik , there is still a bust of him today.

In 1953 Söderman retired as head of the SKA and moved with his family (Söderman was married and had two children) to the USA. He now devoted himself entirely to his international obligations, for example he was one of the founders of Interpol . In 1956, Söderman suffered a heart attack while staying in Tangier.

bibliography

• 1927: The world of crime (Brottets Värld)
• 1930: Handbook of Forensic Technology (Handbok i Kriminalteknik)
• 1957: On the trail of crime: memoirs of a criminalist. Kiepenheuer & Witsch (Mitt liv som politimann)

Web links

• About Söderman at SKL (Swedish)