While at a Nordic literature conference in Stockholm, Hansen accidentally ingested cleaning fluid and was rushed to the hospital to have his stomach pumped.

To his dismay, Hansen was tasked with writing in defense of these executions, and he eventually published Dialogue on Murder and Responsibility (Danish: Dialog om drab og ansvar).

The dialogue was an eleven-page debate between Socrates and his friend Simmias which justified the executions of suspected informants, though it argued that those performing them should be brought to fair trial afterwards.

[6] It was published in Morten Korch's anthology, Der brænder en ild, along with works by other Danish resistance authors, such as Tove Ditlevsen, Hans Kirk, Ole Sarvig, and Halfdan Rasmussen.

[9] In response, he wrote The Guests (Danish: Gæsterne) a short story told from the perspective of an author who, like Hansen himself, had written a justification of extrajudicial killings.

Over the course of the story, Martin recounts his younger years traveling with Kristoffer, a young idealist who dedicated his life to protecting others as a knight and eventually died for his beliefs.

As is characteristic of confessional writing, the narrator is forced to admit that while his lack of ideals had kept him safe, it made Kristoffer a more courageous man than he had been.

[13][14] In 1946, just after the end of WWII, Hansen published Tornebusken, a collection of short stories which addressed the darkness of the postwar atmosphere and attempted to derive meaning from the death and suffering caused by the war.

[17] Hansen was commissioned by Danmarks Radio to write a story to be read over the air and he eventually produced his novel The Liar (Danish: Løgneren).

It was written as a series of diary entries from the perspective of Johannes Vig, an unreliable narrator and anti-hero who lies and manipulates the people close to him.

[20][21][22] His 1952 novel, Orm og Tyr, details Scandinavia's transition from Norse paganism to Christianity and the duality of the region's resulting traditions.

In the legend, the bull defeats the snake but is poisoned by its venom and dies on the steps in front of the church once the villagers regain access to their place of worship.