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.

Call Across The Sea by Kathy Kacer

Sixteen-year-old Henny Sinding lives in Copenhagen, Denmark with Mor (her mother) and Far (her father).  Henny has grown up on the waters of the channel, learning how to sail before she could walk.Their boat, the Gerda III is "Henny's home away from home."

Far, a naval officer in Copenhagen, is head of the Danish Lighthouse and Buoy Service. It is his job to supply the Drogden Lighthouse, situated at the south end of the channel. Helping on the Gerda are two crewmembers, Otto and Gerhardt who have worked as engineers as long as their father has.

On a warm, sunny day, with Henny steering the boat, Far's attention is drawn to a small boat flying the Nazi flag. The Nazis have occupied Denmark, for the last three years, since 1940 when King Christian X surrendered to Adolf Hitler. He was hoping to spare his country the horrors others had experienced at the hands of the Nazis. Now in 1943, the situation appears to be changing; more Nazi troops marching on the streets and now boats in the channel.

Far doesn't want to catch the attention of the Nazi boat so he orders Henny to cut the engines. This time they are lucky, the Nazi boat does not pursue them and they return to shore safely. On their way home, Henny notices her father is unusually quiet. At dinner Far reveals that the lighthouse staff told him Nazi boats have stopped at the lighthouse and the men have been interrogated by the Nazi police.  They wanted to know who stops at the lighthouse and were considering using it as a base. Mor wonders if the Nazis are planning to take control in Denmark, as they've done in other countries. Mor and Far, like their fellow Danes, are appalled at Hitler's treatment of the Jewish people. Fortunately Danish Jews are respected and their rights are the same as everyone else. 

After dinner Henny is paid a visit by her ten-year-old neighbour, Suzanne Rubin along with Suzanne's two-year-old brother Aron. The Rubins are Jewish. Henny promises to take Suzanne sailing in two days. At school the next day, Henny meets up with her friends, sixteen-year-old Lukas, and Emma and Sophia, twin sisters. Henny is not a good student, preferring sailing to studying. When the bell rings to announce the school day, Henny notices papers that fall out of Lukas' bag, with the Nazi swastika crossed out. But when she asks Lukas what the papers are, he tells they are nothing.

The next day Henny takes Suzanne sailing after having done a run to the lighthouse with Far. She meets Mr. Rubin at the Gerda's berth and assures him that she will walk Suzanne home after their boat ride. Out on the water all goes  well until Henny spots a boat flying the Nazi flag moving towards them. Otto and Gerhardt take down the sails and after starting up the motor they head back to shore.

The next day Henny corners Lukas in the schoolyard and learns that he's part of the Danish resistance, passing out pamphlets outlining the evils of the Nazis. When Henny reminds Lukas of the extreme danger, he asks her if she's heard what is happening to Jews in other countries. Lukas challenges Henny to speak out against the Nazis, reminding her that she is friends with a Jewish family who is at risk and as the Nazis appear to be preparing to do in Denmark, what they've done in other countries. He also asks her to keep his secret. On her way home, Henny witnesses an elderly Jewish man being arrested by Nazi soldiers. When a young man attempts to intervene, he too is arrested. At home, Henny tells Far and Mor what she saw and they confirm what Lukas told her. The Nazis are attempting to tighten their control over Denmark. 

This leads Henny to consider that maybe it's time she started to get involved. The next day Henny approaches Lukas to tell him she wants to join his resistance group. A few days later, Lukas tells her to meet him later that night outside the train station. Little does Henny know, the important role she will come to play in helping save hundreds of Danish Jews.

Discussion

Call Across The Sea is the fourth and final installment in the Heroes Quartet that focuses on ordinary people who acted courageously to save Jewish citizens from the Nazis. In Call Across The Sea, the focus is on Denmark and the efforts of Henny Sinding, who is credited with saving many Danish Jews. As Kacer acknowledges in her note entitled Who Was Henny Sinding?, Henny was actually twenty-two years old when the events described in the novel occurred. 

In real life, in 1943, Henny was approached by four crew members of the boat, Gerda III. They were Captain Einer Tonnesen, and crew members John Hansen, Otto Andersen and Gerhardt Steffensen. The Nazi's had occupied Denmark since 1940 and seemed uninterested in Danish Jews. But they suddenly decided to round up all of Denmark's Jews and deport them to concentration camps in one night. This operation was leaked to a prominent Dane who then set about helping his country's Jewish citizens. The Gerda crew had a plan to get these people to safety in Sweden, an unoccupied country, by sea. But to do so would require Henny's help by obtaining permission from her father, who as a Danish naval officer, was in charge of the Lighthouse and Buoy Service. This was not a problem. They also needed Henny's help in bringing those Jewish families in hiding to the boats to be rescued.

With connections to a university-based resistance group, Henny was given a list of people, where to meet them. She set about retrieving these people, who were eventually rescued by boat to Sweden. At least three hundred Jews were secreted to safety on the Gerda III during the month of October by Henny and the crew. You can read more about Henny Sinding  at the Museum of Jewish History: https://mjhnyc.org/blog/the-22-year-old-woman-behind-the-rescue-of-over-300-danish-jews/

Call Across The Sea portrays the basic elements of Henny's amazing story in a format that is appealing to younger readers. A map showing the location of Copenhagen, Denmark relative to Sweden would have been very helpful for readers, allowing them to appreciate better the risks Henny undertook to help her fellow countrymen.

Kacer captures the essence of the situation in Denmark in a realistic manner. The Danish people considered their Jewish neighbours to be no different from themselves, and this is reflected in the characters of Far and Mor, Henny, Otto and Gerhardt as well as Lukas. A hint of their courageous resistance is portrayed by Henny, Lukas and other resisters but Kacer also shows that there were some Danes, represented by Henny's classmate, Erik who were not so honourable. Call Across The Sea is a fitting conclusion to the Heroes Quartet, which featured some lesser known heroes of World War II, who risked everything to help those in their most desperate hour.

Book Details:

Call Across The Sea by Kathy Kacer
Toronto: Annick Press   2021
207 pp.

The Boys Who Challenged Hitler by Phillip Hoose

The little known story of the beginning of the Danish resistance as told in The Boys Who Challenged Hitler almost never got told. As Hoose relates in his introduction, while on tour in Denmark in 2000, he visited the Museum of Danish Resistance in Copenhagen and came across a special exhibit called the "Churchill Club". This group was started by a group of Danish teens during World War II to resist the Nazi occupation of their country. Unlike neighbouring Norway, the Danish settled quickly into an uneasy relationship with their German occupiers and these teenage boys were shocked and ashamed that their countrymen would be so willing to work with the Germans.

Hoose was encouraged to contact one of the original members, Knud Pedersen, now an elderly man, by the museum's curator. However, when Hoose reached out to Pedersen, he indicated to Hoose that he was unable to work with him due to prior obligations with another American writer. In September 2012, Hoose reconnected with Pedersen after discovering his old file on the Churchill Club. This time Pedersen was interested, as the previously planned book was never written. So in October 2012, Hoose and his wife flew to Denmark where they stayed with the Pedersens. Hoose spent a week interviewing Peterson and the two sent hundreds of emails to one another in the following months as Hoose wrote. However, at Christmas 2013, Knud Pedersen became seriously ill with pneumonia and almost died. In December, 2014, just prior to the publication of The Boys Who Challenged Hitler, Knud Pedersen passed away. The Boys Who Challenged Hitler tells the remarkable story of a group of Danish teens determined to undermine the Nazis in Denmark and awaken their countrymen's courage to stand up to Hitler.

The story begins with the lightning occupation of Denmark on April 9, 1940 by Nazi Germany under the guise of placing Denmark as a "protectorate" of Germany. Fourteen-year-old Knud Pedersen's family was living in Odense, Denmark's third largest city. The Pedersen family consisted of Reverend Edvard Pedersen, his mother Margrethe, his older brother Jens and his younger siblings, Gertrud, Jorgen and Holger. Denmark was not the only country invaded in early April. The Nazi's also invaded Norway with one significant difference; the Norwegians valiantly fought back, while Denmark quietly and quickly conceded to the German army. Hitler needed all of Scandinavia; Denmark provided a route to transport the iron ore needed in the manufacture of weapons from Sweden (which was neutral) and Norway.

Interested in drawing and painting, Knud never paid much attention to politics or the war going on in Europe. From the newspapers Knud and his brother Jens learned of the resistance put up by the Norwegians and the high price they paid for that resistance. Furious and ashamed of his countrymen, Knud and Jens decided that "if the adults would not act, we would."

While Jens wanted to wait until they recruited more people, Knud wanted to act. They formed their group which they decided to call the RAF Club with their cousin Hans Joergen Andersen and their friends Harald Holm and Knud Hedelund. Having no weapons or training in the use of them, the boys were limited to disrupting the Germans by cutting telephone lines, destroying signs. The Germans were furious and told the Danish police to find the culprits or they would take over the police force in Odense.

In 1941, Knud's father, Edvard Pedersen moved to Aalborg, Denmark's fourth largest city to accept the pastorship of a new parish. Aalborg was highly prized by the Germans because of its airport which was used by German planes to refuel before traveling on to Norway. The German war machine needed the iron-ore from Sweden and controlling Norway allowed them to transport this valuable resource to Germany.  The Pedersen family lived in a very small part of Holy Ghost Monastery. Knud and Jens lived on the second floor and were enrolled in the college prep school, Cathedral School. The school had many pro-Nazi students and faculty so they had to learn who to trust.

Eventually Knud was able to recruit Helge Mil and Eigil Astrup-Frederiksen. Before Christmas, Knud, Jens, Eigil, Helge and two more potential recruits, Mogens Thomsen and Mogens Fjellerup along with two of Jen's classmates, Sigurd and Preben Ollendorf had an intense discussion about the occupation of their country. They decided to act. "We will act. We will behave as Norwegians. We will clean the mud off the Danish flag." Sigurd and Preben decided against getting involved but the others remained committed and named their group the Churchill Club after Prime Minister Winston Churchill.

They divided themselves into three groups that would look after propaganda, technical and sabotage. The propaganda department painted blue versions of the Nazi swastika with "arrows shooting out of the top of each arm, like thunderbolts" on German cars, barracks and headquarters as well as those stores, homes and offices which were owned by Danish Nazi sympathizers. The technical group was to produce bombs and was headed by Mogens Fjellerup who was nicknamed "the Professor" because he was a brilliant physics student who had been given the keys to the physics lab. The sabotage department was to focus on destroying German property and steal weapons. Knud, being a man of action, was most interested in sabotage.  A fourth group, which was unable or unwilling to actively participate in the club, provided other kinds of assistance such as providing money or materials. All members "had to commit a serious act of sabotage such as stealing a German weapon." and no adults were to be told about the group.

The Churchill Club would meet in Jen's room and then ride around Aalborg to scout out potential targets. Those targets were hit during the daytime since security was less stringent and they all had curfews. Many Germans enjoyed their life in Denmark, partaking of the culture while many Danish collaborated with them producing weapons and parts for the war. However, other Danish began to show patriotism by singing Danish folk songs and wearing special pins called "Kings Badges".

The Churchill Club began by vandalizing directional signs in Aalborg and painting their blue altered swastikas all over the city. They attempted to set an office in the Fuchs Construction Company, a major collaborator with the Nazis, on fire. The next focus of the club was to set German vehicles on fire and to steal German weapons. They managed to steal a pistol from a German car and rifle from the bedroom of a German soldier. The acquiring of these weapons now forced the Churchill Club to decide what they would do with the weapons; would they continue to destroy German assets or would their focus be on armed resistance? If the latter, that meant they would have to train themselves.

The Germans by now, were well aware that someone was actively determined to destroy their assets in Aalborg and they were equally determined to stop whoever was responsible. Eigil's sister worked as a secretary for the Aalborg police and she informed the Churchill Club members that the German's had brought in two investigators to determine who was involved. She pleaded with them to lie low but Knud was not interested in doing so. Their next hit, on the Aalborg railroads would be so successful that Knud and the Churchill Club would be in the sights of the Nazi investigators. The teenagers would be no match for the brutal Nazis determined to end the beginnings of Danish resistance. Little did they know that the Churchill Club was just the impetus the Danish people needed.

Discussion

The Boys Who Challenged Hitler tells the story of the Churchill Club primarily through the narration of Knud Pedersen, while writer Phillip Hoose sets the stage for the narratives by providing some of the background details. The story, little known outside of Denmark and certainly not well known to younger generations of Canadians, is an important part of the history of World War II and the global resistance to Nazism. 

Hoose not only focuses on the events during the war but also provides readers with information on what became of the members of the Churchill Club. What is apparent is that the members of the Churchill Club were forever changed by what happened to them during the war. Knud found Denmark had changed drastically in the two years he had been locked up in jail. The resistance was now intense, resulting in Germany identifying Denmark as "enemy territory." "Aalborg had become a hotbed of resistance. Residential gardens bulged with buried guns, smuggled from abroad, tooled at home, or stolen from the Germans. Underground newspapers, at last telling the truth about the war, flew from small, mobile, concealed presses. Massive labor strikes challenged German authority." Knud's family had changed too; his father haboured resisters and raged against the Nazi's from the pulpit. Knud found himself lonely and struggling to reintegrate into what was left of Danish society. He managed to become involved in the organized resistance and did so until the end of the war in 1945.

Despite their hatred of the Germans, Knud and his fellow resisters had a code that they operated according to. While planning to damage the German cars that sat every day outside Knud's bedroom window, one of the members suggested that if the German guard realized what was happening, they would hit him from behind with a pipe. However, other members objected to hitting a man, even a German soldier, from behind considering to do so was an act of cowardice. This was the first time the Churchill Club were forced to confront some hard questions. It was easy for Knud and his brother and the other boys to decide that they would form some kind of resistance group. According to Knud when they formed the group they had "all vowed that we could, and would, kill." But actually acting on this proved to much more difficult. As Knud points out in his narrative, they were middle-class boys who came from regular families and had no military training that would have prepared them to behave as soldiers who are trained to kill.

The Boys Who Challenged Hitler is filled with photographs of the Churchill Club, the occupying Germans in Denmark, Holy Ghost Monastery, and many other relevant people and places. Hoose has included maps, an Epilogue, a Bibliography, notes on supplemental information used in the book and an index.

Well-written in a style that is readable and engaging, readers will feel that they have come to know Knud Pedersen personally. The sadness and confusion he felt when his beloved country was occupied and his determination to resist the Nazis comes through in his narrative, more than seventy years later.

Book Details:

The Boys Who Challenged Hitler by Phillip Hoose
New York: Farrar Straus Giroux        2015
198 pp.