2024 Winner
Bank St. College of Education
Flora Stieglitz Straus Award
for Nonfiction
Junior Library Guild
Gold Standard Selection
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HARBORING HOPE
The True Story of How Henny Sinding
Helped Denmark’s Jews Escape the Nazis
Cover art by The Balbusso Twins
HarperCollins
ISBN-10: 0063214482
ISBN-13: 9780063214484
The inspirational TRUE story of how twenty-two-year-old Henny Sinding courageously helped smuggle hundreds of Jewish families in occupied Denmark to safety in Sweden during the Holocaust.
It wouldn’t be easy, but they had to try.
It was their only chance to survive.
In 1943, years after the Nazi occupation of Denmark, word spread of the Gestapo’s insidious plan to round up the Jewish population and deport them to concentration camps. Angry at this attack on their friends and fellow Danes, many in Denmark organized and fought back, including the young woman Henny Sinding. She and the crew of Gerda lll, a lighthouse supply boat, risked everything to smuggle their Jewish compatriots across the Øresund strait to safety in Sweden.
But what happened when their operation’s cover was blown and it was Henny’s turn to escape?Harboring Hope is an incredible true story in-verse about courage, community, humanity, and hope.
Includes extensive back matter with primary sources, additional information, further reading, and photographs.
Praise for Harboring Hope
Museum of Jewish Heritage—A Living Memorial to the Holocaust
“Harboring Hope is a masterful telling of the heroic escape of the Danish Jews. Through thoughtful and beautiful verse, Susan Hood has captured the intricacies of this special story for future generations.” — Jack Kliger, president and CEO
Mystic Seaport Museum
“Susan’s vibrant storytelling gives us a sense of hope that in stormy waters good will prevail.” — Peter Armstrong, President
Publishers Weekly
“Focusing on Henny Sinding (b. 1921), daughter of a respected Royal Danish Navy commander, Hood’s expansive verse recounting of the WWII Danish resistance movement builds a strong sense of shared Danish values while encompassing Nazi Germany’s 1940 invasion and its deportation of Danish Jews after years of “peaceful occupation. Effectively unadorned free verse from Hood (Alias Anna) capably renders the suspense and danger in numerous scenes of Sinding at work. Numerous excerpts from Sinding’s and others’ first-person accounts personalize the history, while the format helps to funnel a wide breadth of material into an accessible narrative.”
Sibert-Medal Winner Cynthia Levinson
“Hood’s impeccable research and engaging text immerse her readers in the true story of Danes' courage, decency, and modesty during World War II. In our challenging times, she offers young people hope and confidence in the enduring goodness of humankind.” — author of Sibert-Medal winner The People’s Painter: How Ben Shahn Fought for Justice with Art
National Book Award Finalist and Newbery Honoree Steve Sheinkin
"Henny is one of the coolest people I’ve ever read about. Cheers to Susan Hood for this thrilling, inspiring book!"
Jewish Book Council
”Hood’s commitment to telling the truth sets the book apart from other, more romanticized accounts. … The heroic acts of Henny Sinding and her colleagues — as well as the resilience of Denmark’s embattled Jews — present possibilities for defying authoritarian terror.”
Young Henny Sinding at the helm. Photo courtesy of the Sundø family.
A peek inside: Harboring Hope is a middle grade nonfiction book-in-verse perfect for fans of Lifeboat 12 and Alias Anna.
Gerda III is the actual boat Henny and her friends used to smuggle Jews to safety in Sweden. Donated by the Danish parliament to the Museum of Jewish Heritage in New York City, this lighthouse tender is currently afloat and open to visitors at Mystic Seaport Museum in Mystic, Connecticut. Photo courtesy of Mystic Seaport Museum, Joe Michael.