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.

Alias Anna by Susan Hood with Greg Dawson

Zhanna Dimitrinov Arshanskya was born April 1, 1927 in Ukraine, a part of the Soviet Union. Zhanna's mother Sara, an avid reader, chose the Russian name closest to Joan of Arc, beloved heroine of France.

Zhanna and her parents lived in the resort town of Berdyansk. Her father made fruit-flavoured candies and fine caramels which he sold on the street outside their home. Zhanna's father was a self-taught violinist who played at family weddings and in the cinema for the American silent movies. From the money he earned, Zhanna's papa bought a small, upright Bechstein piano from Germany. It was the heart of their home, a spiritual refuge from Communism.

Their home had no hot water, electricity, indoor plumbing or even a refrigerator, but it was a happy one with two grandparents, her mother and father, Zhanna and her baby sister, Frina.

As a three-year-old, Zhanna often wandered around Berdyansk. In the evenings, Zhanna would wait for her papa's good friend, Nicoli who came to their home to play piano. Zhanna delighted in the violin and piano, as they played Rossini, Bizet and Tchaikovsky. She often fell asleep in the living room to their music.

Zhanna refused to attend kindergarten. To stop her wandering, her papa had her study piano with a family friend and pianist, Svetlana. At first Zhanna did not co-operate but gradually as she watched Svetlana play, she grew to love her. Soon Zhanna was playing Chopin, Brahms and Beethoven. Her father began to have small concerts at home with family and friends. He often closed the shutters, darkening the room so Zhanna could display her mastery of the music and keyboard.

In the 1930's, Josef Vissarionvich Dzhugashvili - known as Josef Stalin, wanted to modernize the Soviet Union. To do that, he took over Ukraine's farms, shipped thousands of farming families to Siberia, and sold the grain to other countries in order to buy heavy industrial equipment. With their crops confiscated, the people began to starve. Zhanna saw beggars on the streets as people starved. Her father, who had never joined the Communist party, was repeatedly arrested and questioned. 

Eventually Zhanna's family had to leave Berdyansk. They left behind their grandparents, taking only their violin and small piano. It was now 1935 and Zhanna's family settled in Kharkov, a vibrant center of Jewish culture. Their home was a one room apartment on Katsarskaya Street. Dimitri earned money playing violin and giving piano lessons. 

Dimitri decided to take eight-year-old Zhanna and six-year-old Frina to audition at the renowned Kharkov Conservatory. The judges were so impressed that the girls were each awarded two hundred ruble monthly scholarships. They would study under renowned teacher, Abram Lvovsik Luntz. Under his tutelage, Zhanna learned Chopin's Fantaisie-Impromptu, with which she became obsessed. The school also paired the sisters together on two pianos. Their concert debut was enormously successful, resulting in many new opportunities.

In 1939, Zhanna was twelve and Frina was ten years old. Life seemed to get better with Zhanna's grandparents moving to Kharkov and opening a sweets shop. Zhanna and Frina continued to compete and after a competition at the Moscow State Conservatory, had a private audition with as classmate of Rachmaninoff, Alexander Borisovich Goldenweiser. He offered to take them on as pupils but their family could not afford to live on the meager scholarship he offered.

Meanwhile war raged across Europe, until finally in June of 1941 it came to Ukraine.Hitler attacked the Soviet Union in Operation Barbarossa. Kharkov was a German bombing target and so Zhanna's school became a refugee center. As Stalin's army retreated east, they destroyed everything burning crops and buildings. Over a million people fled Kharkov, and went east to the Ural Mountains and Siberia. Among those were Zhanna's aunt and uncle and her two cousins, Tamara and Celia. They begged Zhanna's mother to flee as well but her health was not good. So Zhanna's family stayed behind. They did not know about Hitler because Stalin had hidden news of Hitler's crimes from the people. They didn't know about the murders, or the mobile killing squads that murdered Communists, Romas and Jews.

On September 29, 1941, Babi Yar, the destruction of almost THIRTY-FOUR THOUSAND Jewish men, women and children occurred outside of Kyiv. This mass murder was done by the Einsatzgruppen. In late October, they came to Kharkov. First the Nazi soldiers terrorized Zhanna's family, demanding gold, then they returned to pillage their apartment, taking Dimitri's violin. Others were not so lucky. The bodies of more than one hundred people hung from the trees in Kharkov.

On December 14, 1941, all Jews in Kharkov were to report to the center of town. Zhanna said good-bye to her best friend Svetlana Gaponovitch, not knowing if she would ever see her again. On December 15, they were told they were being sent away to work.Just before leaving, Zhanna raced home and retrieved the music to Chopin's Fantaisie-Impromptu. Then, Zhanna, Frina, her parents and grandparents began the long march to an abandoned tractor factory along with sixteen thousand other Jews.They spent the next two weeks in the abandoned factory barracks, in freezing conditions, with no bathrooms and no food. Twice Zhanna left the barracks and walked back to Kharkov to bring food scraps back to her family. She was helped by a family who took her in and allowed her to stay overnight and fed her.

The Nazis told them that they were being taken to Poltava, which happened to be Zhanna's papa's hometown. Her father suspected that they were being taken to their deaths, as the trucks left in the opposite direction to Poltava. Shortly after Christmas, it was Zhanna's family's turn to leave. They were to be marched four miles south to a ravine which would become known as Drobitsky Yar. Zhanna's father was determined to save Zhanna, so he bribed the Ukrainian soldier walking alongside them to look the other way while Zhanna left the march. He was successful.

Now on the run, Zhanna fled back to Kharkov, stopping once again at the home of the family who had sheltered and fed her on her trips back and forth to the barracks. In Kharkov, Zhanna was turned away by her friend, Svetlana Gaponovitch's family but taken in by another classmate's family whose mother was rumoured to be an anti-Semite. Thus began her long journey that would lead ultimately to freedom.

Discussion

Alias Anna tells the story of Zhanna Dimitrinov Arshanskya, the mother of co-author, Greg Dawson and her escape from certain death at the hands of the Nazis in Ukraine during the Holocaust. Alias Anna is a true story, told in verse. It's important because it was written for children. As Greg Dawson writes, "Alias Anna brings the story of the Shoah in Ukraine to a vast new audience, arguably the most important of all, the next generation to inherit the world and become keeps of the flame. 'Never again.' "

Zhanna's story is divided into six parts, Overture, Prelude, Fugue, Invention, Variations and Bridge - each named for a musical term. Her story is told using poems in free verse. In a section titled Poetry Notes at the back, Hood writes about the many poetic forms used in the novel. These forms include a tercet which is a poem with stanzas of three lines, a reverso poem which "reads one way going down and presents another idea or point of view when the same lines are read going up.", an elegy which is used to "praise or mourn the dead," and a haiku, "a traditional Japanese form of unrhymed poetry, originally written as one vertical line and measured in morae, or breaths. There are many more forms used in the telling of Zhanna's story as noted at the back.

The novel opens with a real life event involving Zhanna's granddaughter, Aimee, who is Greg Dawson's daughter, writing a letter to her grandmother about a history project that requires her "to find out as much as possible about our grandparents and what was going on when they were 13 years old..." Zhanna had only spoken to her son Greg, once about the Shoah. The events were so traumatic they were sealed inside her heart never to be spoken about again. Until Aimee's request. According to Greg Dawson, as related in the section titled, Finding Zhanna's Story, his mother wrote back a lengthy letter and found the determination and courage to share her story.

In Alias Anna, Hood portrays Zhanna's early life living in the small village of  Berdyansk so readers understand what life was like before both Stalin and the Holodomor and before the Shoah. Although they did not have any of the modern amenities we take for granted today, their life was a happy one. That is until Stalin began to plunder the farms and resources of Ukraine, leaving the people starving. But the arrival of the Nazis heralded a new form of terror: the beginning of the mass murder Ukrainian Jews. This was the beginning of the Hitler's final solution, a terror that would spread to other European countries and for which the Nazis would devise more efficient ways of achieving via gas chambers.

In addition to being a brilliant pianist, Zhanna was also a resourceful, courageous and intelligent girl. Despite the trauma of losing her parents, she focused only on what her father's last words were, "I don't care what you do. Just live."  So when Zhanna escaped the massacre of her parents and other Jews in what came to be known as Drobitsky Yar, she and Frina (who also escaped) had to forge new identities and learn to survive. Those new identities were Anna  and Marina Morozova, forming the basis of the novel's title, Alias Anna. Eventually, the two talented girls found themselves giving nightly performances to German soldiers - those same soldiers who murdered Jews by day but by night were the epitome of respectability and culture. This must have been both painful and disgusting for Zhanna and Frina. But they did this to survive, to honour the sacrifice her parents made.

"How could she do it?
Play for the enemy
who had killed her family?
'I don't care what you do. Just stay alive.'
This was what it took to stay alive.
So Zhanna closed her eyes and played
for the memory of her family."

Alias Anna is such an important novel because it's intended for middle grade readers who often do not know about the Holocaust. It's timely in light of the current conflict in Ukraine, an area of Europe that has experienced ongoing conflict for decades. Zhanna questioned how it was possible to bring such a story to children. In his With Gratitude section, Dawson writes, "This is how: with rhythmic, accessible verse in service of a faithful abridging of the story for youthful sensibilities." Alias Anna does just that. It doesn't overwhelm young readers with horrific details but gives them just enough to understand what happened. Zhanna's story is told in an interesting way, with easy to read poems, the style of which vary, engaging readers as they move through the book. 

The authors open the novel with a map of the region, indicating Zhanna and Frina's journey throughout World War II. At the back of the novel are extensive notes for readers including sections on Photographs, The Letters which explores the significant of Zhanna's letter to Aimee, Finding Zhanna's Story which details Greg's discovery of his mother's incredible story, a list of The Pieces Zhanna and Frina Played, Hitler Stalin and Music, Field Trips and Places of Note, Poetry Notes on the types of poems in the novel, Sources, Quote Sources, Websites, News Reports, Films, and a Bibliography. Hood and Dawson have offered many resources for readers, educators and parents to explore.

Teachers, librarians and parents are all encouraged to make use of Alias Anna as a way to educate young children about the Shoah, the Holodomor and as to what can happen when bullying, bigotry and racism are allowed to grow. We owe it to the Zhannas and Frinas of the past to pass on these lessons learned as such a terrible cost.

Book Details:

Alias Anna by Susan Hood with Greg Dawson
New York: HarperCollins Children's Books   2022
339 pp.

Ada's Violin by Susan Hood

Their story has been told in the documentary, Fillharmonic, and in countless newspapers, magazine articles and even on television. It is a story about resiliency, determination, creativity. Ada's Violin, tells the story of the Recycled Orchestra of Cateura, Paraguay in a picture book for younger readers.

In Ada's Violin,  Ada Rios lives in Cateuna, a town on a landfill near Asuncion, Paraguay. Every day fifteen hundred tons of trash are dumped at the landfill. The gancheros (recyclers) use long-handled hooks to rip open the bags of trash in the hopes of finding something to sell.

Ada and her younger sister Noelia were cared for by their abuela, Grandmother Mirian while their parents worked. Her abuela loved to sing and Ada's father often told them stories about famous musicians. As Ada and her sister grew up and began attending school, their abuela returned to work as a recycler. Ada began to notice that many of the teenagers with nothing to do, joined gangs or got into trouble.

When Ada was eleven-years-old, her abuela saw a sign offering music lessons on Saturdays by music teacher, Favio Chavez. She saw the opportunity for her granddaughters that she never had and signed up Ada and Noelia. The first class was both exciting and disappointing. Ada wanted to learn violin but Senor Chavez had only three guitars and two violins - not enough for all the children who wanted to learn music. They would also not be able to take these expensive instruments home to practice as they might be stolen. Senor Chavez remembered another orchestra that had made its own instruments. He sought the help of a carpenter and ganchero named Nicolas "Cola" Gomez. Along with the help of Tito Romero, the two men were able to transform discarded materials such as oil drums, pipes and packing crates into musical instruments for the children. And an orchestra was born!

Discussion

The Recycled Orchestra of Paraguay

Ada's Violin is a testament to human ingenuity and determination amidst poverty and social isolation. This well researched picture book provides the backstory of the renowned Recycled Orchestra of Paraguay. Veteran author Susan Hood, interviewed Ada Rios and Favio Chavez and used numerous sources to weave together their remarkable story. Hood's expressive writing appeals to the senses as she describes Ada's life near the landfill, the music in her family's home, the orchestra's initial struggles to learn to play, and the large concerts in packed venues. From the garbage trucks that "rumble and roll", to life in the "noisy, stinking, sweltering slum" to Ada's first struggles to make music "Sharps and flats clanged and clashed." Eventually, "...the screeches, twangs, and tweets hit all the right notes." and the "...symphony of sound helped to lift them beyond the heat, the stench, and their aching backs."

Hood portrays the positive effect music and the orchestra had and continue to have on the young musicians, their families and their community. "...there was something new in the air in Cateura. Gancheros trudging home from the landfill might lift their heads to hear the sounds of Ada's violin...or the strains of Bebi's cello... or the strum of Noelia's guitar." The music brought hope into the lives of those in Cateura, giving them dignity, and allowing young people like Ada to actually live a better life instead of simply dreaming about doing so. Music helped Ada grow in self-confidence, allowing her to be a mentor to younger musicians. The money from the orchestra's concerts has helped improve the lives of some members of the orchestra including Ada.

The accompanying illustrations by Sally Wern Comport were created using "a hybrid technique of collage, acrylic glazes and paints, drawing, and digital mediums, then executed on stipple paper.", adding to Hood's descriptive text. Hood includes a detailed Author's Note about the orchestra, and information on relevant websites and videos as well as a list of the Sources she used for the picture book. More information on the documentary, The Landfillharmonic can be found at www.landfillharmonicmovie.com

Ada's Violin is a great resource to use along with the documentary touching on geography, diversity, music, language and culture, poverty, environmental stewardship and community. It also touches on the themes of resiliency, courage, identity, and ingenuity.

image credit: http://www.landfillharmonicmovie.com/#prettyPhoto/0/

Book Details:

Ada's Violin by Susan Hood
New York: Simon & Schuster Books For Young Readers  2016