Gerda III

Built in 1928 for the Danish Lighthouse and Buoy Service, the Gerda III was a lighthouse tender that took on a vital role in October 1943 as the persecution of Danish Jews began. Its crew—Skipper Otto Andersen, John Hansen, Gerhardt Steffensen, and Einar Tønnesen—worked with Paul Sinding, director of the Danish Lighthouse and Buoy Service, and especially with his 22-year-old daughter, Henny Sinding (Sundø), a member of the Danish Resistance group Holger Danske 2, to ferry Jewish refugees from Denmark to Sweden. Refugees were brought to a warehouse and smuggled aboard, where they hid in the cargo hold, and the vessel then set out on official lighthouse duties before detouring to the coast of neutral Sweden to put them ashore. Although German soldiers regularly boarded and checked the vessel, the refugees were never discovered. In October 1943, the Gerda III rescued approximately 300 Jews in groups of ten to fifteen, as part of a spontaneous effort in Denmark that saved more than 7,000 Jews, almost the country’s entire Jewish population. After Danish Jews had been ferried to Sweden, the Gerda III also rescued an additional 600-700 people, mostly Danish Resistance fighters but also Allied pilots and parachutists.

Mystic, Connecticut · United States