Overview

Denmark's World War II rescue of its Jewish population was a shining example of courage, morality and national resolve. In September 1943, three years after they invaded Denmark, the Nazis set a plan in motion to capture the country's nearly 8,350 Jews in a single night and send them on the path to annihilation. Word of the plan got out seventy-two hours before the Nazis were set to pounce, triggering a nationwide effort to warn and hide the Jews. On the night of the scheduled raids, the Gestapo came up almost empty-handed. The chase, however, had just begun. The only safe place within reach was Sweden, and the only way to get there was by boat. Danes organized escape routes on hundreds of boats from points all along Denmark's eastern shore. Gerda III -- Henny's Boat -- was one of the most successful. During a month of clandestine crossings, Gerda III and the people associated with it saved at least three hundred Jews, ten to fifteen on each early morning passage. Twenty-two-year-old Henny Sinding was at the heart of Gerda III's rescue missions. Working with the boat's four-man crew, a university-based resistance group, and a young navy cadet with whom she was falling in love, Henny escorted Jews from rendezvous points around Copenhagen to a warehouse attic overlooking the boat . Then, in pre-dawn darkness, she slipped them into the boat's cargo hold, eluding Nazi sentries who patrolled the dock. Gerda III's crew completed the escape, traveling past German warships and mines to Swedish ports. When the Jewish rescue operation was complete, Henny's team became leaders in the armed resistance, and Gerda III continued to be a lifeboat for persons hunted by the Nazis. conducting daring sabotage missions throughout Denmark, and Gerda III continued to be a lifeboat for persons hunted by the Nazis. Their story epitomizes the story of a nation that rose from a humbling surrender to battle the Nazis and hand the Gestapo its most glaring defeat. The book is an expanded and enhanced version of the author's earlier book, Henny and Her Boat, Righteousness and Resistance in Nazi Occupied Denmark.

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Howard Veisz's book is a most welcome educational gem! It narrates in riveting details the remarkable story of a courageous young woman -- Henny Sinding-- who organized the 1943 escape of hundreds of Jews, on the vessel Gerda III, from the shores of Nazi-occupied Denmark to the safety of Sweden....The book provides a remarkably comprehensive overview of the historical context within which Gerda III's daily covert crossings took place.... It not only makes for exciting reading -- but having personally been among those Danish Jews who escaped to Sweden -- I can vouch for the historic accuracy of Howard Veisz's account. Leo Goldberger Professor Emeritus, New York University Editor, The Rescue of the Danish Jews, NYU Press, 1987 .

Howard Veisz's book is a most welcome educational gem! It narrates in riveting details the remarkable story of a courageous young woman -- Henny Sinding-- who organized the 1943 escape of hundreds of Jews, on the vessel Gerda III, from the shores of Nazi-occupied Denmark to the safety of Sweden....The book provides a remarkably comprehensive overview of the historical context within which Gerda III's daily covert crossings took place.... It not only makes for exciting reading -- but having personally been among those Danish Jews who escaped to Sweden -- I can vouch for the historic accuracy of Howard Veisz's account. Leo Goldberger Professor Emeritus, New York University Editor, The Rescue of the Danish Jews, NYU Press, 1987 . In this 'expanded edition' of his 2017 book, Henny and Her Boat, Veisz adds to his pioneering history of Henny Sinding, a 22-year-old Danish woman who worked with the crew of the ship Gerda III to rescue hundreds of Jews in Nazi-occupied Denmark.... As recounted by Veisz in thrilling detail, Sinding would make hundreds of trips alongside Jews 'through the darkened late-night streets of wartime Copenhagen, ' as they hoped to accompany the ship's daily 'covert crossings....' The author's decadelong research...is most impressive.... And while the work's original research may be of value to historians, its harrowing story has broad appeal.... [T]he book has an engaging writing style that is complemented by the ample inclusion of maps, photographs and other visual aids.... An engrossing tale of World War II civilian valor. ----------- Kirkus Reviews

Author Information

In 2009, Howard Veisz left a 35-year legal career and went to sea. After a two-year sailing voyage, he settled in Mystic Connecticut and began work as a volunteer at Mystic Seaport Museum's preservation shipyard. He has since assumed a leading role in preserving Gerda III -- Henny's Boat -- and in reconstructing the history of the boat and of the people who put it to such good use. He has travelled to Denmark to locate and meet with descendants, nephews and nieces of the people who carried out Gerda III's rescue missions; gathered and analyzed writings by members of the Gerda III rescue and resistance group; scoured Danish archives; and visited the docks from which Gerda III and other rescue boats set out. He continues to play a leading role in preserving Gerda III and is often invited to speak about the Danish Rescue and its lessons for today's world.

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