Henny's Boat: The Maritime Rescue Operation that Saved Denmark's Jews and Sparked a Nationwide Revolt Against the Nazis

n nDenmark's World War II rescue of its Jewish population was a shining example of courage, morality and national resolve.n n nn nThree years after the Nazis invaded Denmark, they set a plan in motion to capture the country's 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.n n nn nDanes 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, at least three hundred Jews, ten to fifteen at a time, were saved by Gerda III and the people associated with it.n n nn nTwenty-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 and then, in pre-dawn darkness, onto the boat itself. Gerda III's crew completed the escapes, traveling past German warships and mines to Swedish ports.n n nn nWhen the Jewish rescue operation was done, Henny's team became a leading armed resistance group, 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. n n nn nThe book is an expanded and enhanced version of the work originally published as Henny and Her Boat, Righteousness and Resistance in Nazi Occupied Denmark.n