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Hannah Szenes (Senesh) was born July 17, 1921 in Budapest, Hungary to a wealthy, distinguished, accommodating Hungarian family. Her father died when she was a little girl. Her father was wealthy because of his journal writings and he was a dramatist. Hannah's mother Katharine, was an elegant homemaker. Hannah was exposed to antisemitism which caused her to learn more about Jewish origins. She decided to join the Zionist movement to learn some Hebrew in preparation for immigration to Palestine. In 1939 after completing her high school studies she came to Palestine to study at the girls agricultural school in Nahalal. After having completed a two-year course in agriculture, Hannah joined the Sedot Yam kibbutz at Caesarea. She made this choice because she was motivated by the preference of maintaining a secret status rather than being known as Bela's daughter. Even though she worked in the kitchen and in the kibbutz laundry she still wrote about stuff in her journals and diaries she just didn't publish them. Around 1939 that's when the Holocaust started and that's when she started her new job as a member of a paratrooper.

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Paratrooper trying to break into Ghetto walls.

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Paratrooper trying to break into Ghetto walls.

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In 1943 Jewish Agency officials made overturns towards Hannah to join a clandestine military project whose main purpose was to offer help to beleaguered European Jewry. And in January 1944 she participated in a course for paratroopers, before leaving Palestine she met with her brother to discuss plans about the mission and family business.

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Quotes from Paratroopers, and other Resistors

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Quotes from Paratroopers, and other Resistors

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“The voice called, and I went because the voice called.” —Hannah Senesh

“The force that has overcome Europe and destroyed entire states within days could cope with us, a handful of youngsters. It was an act of desperation . . . We aspired to only one thing: to sell our lives for the highest possible price.”—Mordechai Tenenbaum

“I swore never to be silent whenever and wherever human beings endure suffering and humiliation. We must always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented.”— Elie Wiesel: Surviour of the Holocaust.

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Paratrooper getting ready to go save Jews

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Paratrooper getting ready to go save Jews

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Baumel, Judith Tydor. "The Heroism of Hannah Szenes: An Exercise in Creating Collective National Memory in the State of Israel." In Double Jeopardy: Gender and the Holocaust, edited by Judith Tydor Baumel, 155-180. Portland, OR: Vallentine Mitchell, 1998

Hay, Peter. Ordinary Heroes: Chana Szenes and the Dream of Zion. New York: Putnam, 1986

Palgi, Y. And Behold, A Great Wind Came (Hebrew). Tel Aviv: Am Oved, 1977

Masters, Anthony. The Summer That Bled: The Biography of Hanna Senesh. London: St. Martin's, 1972

Breslavski, M., ed. Hannah Szenes: Her Life, Mission and Death (Hebrew). Tel Aviv: N.p., 1966

Gilad, Zerubavel. Secret Shield (Hebrew). Jerusalem: Jewish Agency, 1952

Senesh, Hannah. At Levadekh Tavini: Hanna Szenes Letters 1935-1944. Edited by Szalai, Anna. Tel Aviv: Hakibbutz Hameuchad, 2014

Syrkin, M. Blessed Is the Match: The Story of Jewish Resistance. New York: A.A. Knopf, 1947

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Hannah Szenes (Senesh) | Jewish Women's Archive

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Hannah Szenes has attained legendary status in the pantheon of Zionist history. After immigrating to Israel, Szenes agreed to participate in a military operation as a paratrooper. Hungarian authorities captured her and tortured her, but Szenes refused to talk. She was killed by a firing squad in 1944.

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In mid-March 1944, Hannah and some other Palestine Jews that volunteered to be paratroopers were dropped into Yugoslavia in order to aid the anti Nazi forces. They had to do this only until they would be able to start their other mission and step foot into Hungary. The German invasion held back the paratrooper's plans for a while, so Hannah had to cross the boarder to her former motherland only in June that year. Also going back to Yugoslavia when Hannah was there she also joined a group of partisans called Tito’s partisans.

June 7: On June 7 1944 Hannah had to give aid to over 20 Jews and she had to rescue about half of them. 1944 was the year Hannah got caught by the Nazi Germans a few hours after she crossed the border and stepped foot on Hungarian territory.

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After Hannah was captured by the German she was sent to a prison in Budapest. There she was tortured by Hungarian authorities because they hoped that she would give up some information about Allied Wireless codes. Hannah wasn't the only one captured though within a few hours after Hannah's Capture her two co-parachutists were also captured by the Germans, unaware of Hannah's location. Only one of them, Yoel Palgi was their only hope to survive the war. When the Hungarian authorities realized that Hannah wouldn't give up any information about her resistance group and the allied codes they threatened her about arresting her mother. Even though Hannah was really hurt and didn't want her mother to be arrested she still didn't break her promise to her resistance group. Her mother understood why she got her arrested though. That was the first time Hannah saw her mother in almost five years. Hannah's mother Katharine had no idea her daughter left Palestine. Hannah was tortured so bad that she had a black eye and lost three teeth. Hannah died on November 7, 1944 she is remembered by every Jew and resistor. After she died she became a symbol of idealism and self-sacrifice.

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Like her father, Hannah wrote many poems in her journals but she didn't want to publish them because she was afraid that a German might find out about it and punish her. One of her poems was found in her death cell after she died. “One - two - three... eight feet long

Two strides across, the rest is dark...

Life is a fleeting question mark

One - two - three... maybe another week.

Or the next month may still find me here,

But death, I feel, is very near.

I could have been 23 next July

I gambled on what mattered most, the dice were cast. I lost.

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Since Hannah's mother was still alive, she escaped her prison barely. She wanted her daughter to be remembered for all she did for all the Jews that were too weak to fight for themselves in the ghettos. Hannah's mother was a huge part of Hannah's Legacy. Hannah had over 80 poems in her diary and journals.

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"Blessed is the match consumed in kindling flame

Blessed is the flame that burns in the secret fastness of the heart

Blessed is the heart with strength to stop its beating for honor’s sake

Blessed is the match consumed in kindling flame" This Poem is about how Hannah sacrificed herself many times to help the helpless. And it's also saying protect the Jews that can't even bother to stand up.

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"A voice called. I went.

I went, for it called.

I went, lest I fall.

At the crossroads

I blocked both ears with white frost

And cried

For what I had lost."

This poem is basically saying that she felt that God called her to fight for the Jews