Harboring Hope: The True Story of How Henny Sinding Helped Denmark's Jews Escape The Nazis by Susan Hood

Twenty-two-year-old Henny is stealing down the dark streets of Copenhagen, leading a mother and her toddler to a safe house on Strandgade (Strand Street). Along with many other Jewish families, they wait until early morning and the opportunity to race to the lighthouse supply boat waiting on the wharf. That boat, the Gerda III, will carry them across the sea to safety in Sweden. Henny waits until the Nazi guards separate and then cues each adult to cross. The children are carried across after the adults by Henny and another crew member. Once in the Gerda III, the refugees are hidden in the damp, dark hold, behind barrels, cargo and nautical gear.

After submitting to a check by the German guards, and a friendly drink with the Germans, the Gerda sets out, down Christianshavn Canal. Its destination is the Drogden Lighthouse and then onto Sweden to drop off the Jewish passengers. It is a dangerous journey, with German patrols on the bridges, open sea, enemy patrol boats, and underwater mines.

Henny Sinding was born in 1921 in Copenhagen, Denmark, a country led by the beloved monarch, King Christian X. Henny was the middle child of Royal Danish Navy Commander Paul Sinding and his wife Elna (nicknamed Chika). Henny had an older sister Bente and a brother, five years her junior, Carsten. Henny's father was in charge of the Danish Lighthouse and Buoy Service, supervising the Drogden Lighthouse and managing the Gerda III. Henny adored her father and came to share his love of the sea. For the Sindings, having a "good inner moral compass" and being humble were important.

Henny's passions were music and dance and she aspired to attend the Royal Danish Ballet School. This was not acceptable to her parents who did not approve of the lifestyle of dancers, so Henny learned to play the accordion and to step dance. Henny attended N. Zahle's School for Girls. Her best friend was Isse (Annelise) Brune. It was Isse's father who introduced both girls to sailing. Henny soon became a proficient sailor, racing iceboats in winter, learning the Oresund Strait between Denmark and Sweden.

In 1938, when Henny was seventeen, she worked as an au pair in England, learning to speak and read English. She arrived back in Denmark in 1939 with a wider perspective on the world.  In September, 1939, Germany invaded Poland, and Britain declared war on Germany. Denmark had a "non-aggression pact" with Germany, which meant they were at peace. For now.

Henny began working with her father's naval unit, the Danish Lighthouse and Buoy Service in Copenhagen. She was assigned to plot the locations for buoys and lighthouses as well as mapping safety routes. Henny also learned to become a proficient typist. Her work involved a group of close friends, Captain Ejnar Tonnesen, Engineer John Hansen, Gerhardt Steffensen and Otto Andersen.

The crew of the Gerd III set sail every morning bringing mail, books and newspapers to the lighthouse keepers at Drogden Light. It also serviced the buoys that guided ships travelling between the Baltic and North Seas. 

In 1940, when Henny was eighteen years old, the Nazis invaded Denmark on April 9 at 4:15AM. The German invasion, Operation Weserubung was over by 6AM. King Christian X agreed to cooperate as long as Denmark's right to freedom of religion was respected. Germany desired a peaceful occupation of Denmark as this meant the need for fewer soldiers to police the country. While the Dane's ran the country, the Nazis controlled agriculture and industry and set about fortifying the coastline.

Henny and Bente and their father continued to work, the Gerda III continued to sail, but life was more difficult. The Danes were not friendly to their Nazi occupiers and they wondered what would happen to Denmark's Jewish citizens. More than eight thousand Jews lived peacefully in Denmark, accepted in the country and thriving. Hitler attempted to force the Danish government and people to follow his orders but politicians resigned and students protested. King Christian X agreed to cooperate as long as Denmark's right to freedom of religion was respected.

In 1941,  the Nazis began to implement their "final solution" to the Jewish problem: murder and extermination. The attempt to have Danish Jews wear the Yellow Star failed and the Danish resistance grew. Medical students, and physicians joined the resistance movement, student unrest was country-wide. Knud Peterson and his older brother Jens, along with a cousin and two friends formed a club, the RAF club to fight back. A group of men formed the Holger Danske, named after a knight of Danish legend. 

In September of 1942, King Christian refused to acknowledge Hitler's birthday greeting in a way that the Fuhrer expected. And so the Germans replaced their white glove approach with that of an iron fist. After another year of demonstrations, sabotage and strikes, in August of 1943, Danish workers went on strike. Then on August 29, with Operation Safari, the Nazis attempted to capture the Danish navy. But the Danes had anticipated this and scuttled many of their warships, torpedo boats and submarines. Eventually Henny came to meet Jorgen Kieler, a medical student and Erik Koch Michelsen or Mix, a naval cadet. All were interested in actively resisting the Nazis. 

Werner Best, Hitler's man in Denmark, was struggling to subdue the increasing Danish resistance. To regain Hitler's favour, Best decided to suggest that they roundup all of Denmark's Jews. Hitler was pleased with this plan and the date was set: Friday, October 1, 1943, the end of the second day of Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year and the Shabbat Shuvah. It was a truly evil plan because most Jews would be at home and therefore, easily captured.

The Danes had three days to save their Jewish friends and neighbours. Henny along with Jorgen, Mix and hundreds of others sprang into action. Using the Gerda III, Henny set to work planning just how the boat and its brave crew could save hundreds of Jews and transport them to safety in neutral Sweden.

Discussion

Author Susan Hood tells the story of Henny Sinding and the Danish resistance mostly through the use of free verse. Henny's story is one of incredible courage, perseverance and a touch of luck, as work in the Danish resistance was dangerous.

In Harboring Hope, Henny Sinding and the crew of the lighthouse supply boat, Gerda III worked tirelessly to save as many Jews as possible, after the Nazis decided to implement the first part of their "final solution" which was to round up all of Denmark's Jews and transport them to the concentration camps on the continent. They had three days to devise a plan, locate their Jewish neighbours who had gone into hiding, learn who to trust, hide them and then get them to safety. This required planning, organization, courage and determination, all of which Henny Sinding had in abundance.

The crew of the Gerda needed the permission of Henny's father, who was in charge of the Danish Lighthouse and Buoy Service. Twenty-two-year old Henny was able to obtain his permission to not only use the Gerda but also to relocate it simply by asking her father not to notice the boat's different sailing route. With the help of a naval cadet nicknamed Mix, and a medical student, Jorgen and his resistance group, as well as others in the underground, Henny helped locate Danish Jews,  shelter and eventually lead them onto the Gerda which then ferried them to safety in Sweden. Henny's group was able to save around three hundred people.

Harboring Hope realistically portrays life in Denmark during World War II. The Danish, unable to effectively fight the mighty German military machine, at first settled into an uneasy coexistence. Soon resistance to the Nazis grew. Hood includes several notable Danish citizens who felt deeply motivated to fight back against the Germans, including many young teens who were ashamed of their country's weak response. One was Knud Pederson and his Churchill Club. In 1940, fourteen-year-old Pederson was inspired by the resistance of the Norwegians to the Nazis. Initially he and his brother Jens along with other friends formed a club called the RAF club which undertook small acts of sabotage. When he moved to Aalborg, he formed a new club, the Churchill Club which became more deeply involved in fighting the Nazis.

Through many different forms of poetry, Hood is able to convey Henny Sinding's remarkable courage, determination and levelheadedness as well as her ability to organize. She became the focal point around which the crew of the Gerda III could effectively outwit the Nazis and really contribute to helping their Jewish countrymen.

The novel is divided into nineteen parts and employs mostly free verse to tell Henny's story. However,  in her Poetry Notes, the author writes that she also wrote other forms such as a shape poem, a sensory poem, an  ABC poem, a triolet, a nonet and elegy. Hood writes that various "poetic techniques, such as alliteration, anaphora, assonance, onomatopoeia, refrains and rhythms" were also used. This variety adds interest and aids in the storytelling.

Harboring Hope is another excellent novel by author Susan Hood. She provides her readers with a large amount of supplemental information at the back of the novel in a part titled Ship's Log. In this part there is More About Henny, Gerda III, and the Escape of the Danish Jews, Homecoming which provides information on the return of the Jews in the post-war period, What Happened to Gerda III?, Photographs which include photos of Henny, her parents, Nazis in Copenhagen, the Gerda III, and Mix, Poetry Notes, Sources, a Bibliography, and an extensive source for Quotes used in the book.

Book Details:

Harboring Hope: The True Story of How Henny Sinding Helped Denmark's Jews Escape The Nazis by Susan Hood
New York: HarperCollins Publishers    2023

352 pp.