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                                Hannah Senesh 

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                                Hannah Senesh 

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Hannah Senesh 1921-1944. She was a trained paratrooper that helped rescue Jews. she was born in 1921 and was captured and killed by nazis in 1944. She was born in hungry and then moved to Eretz Yisrael around 1939, In a couple of months, she made it to Kibbutz Sdot Yam where she stayed.

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This photo is a photo of hannah in her uniform before she entered behind enemy lines 

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This photo is a photo of hannah in her uniform before she entered behind enemy lines 

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Hannah parachuted behind enemy lines in march of 1944 where she landed in Yugoslavia she spent three months There. On June 7 she tried to sneak into the border of hungry and got caught almost immediately. Over the course of months, she was brutally tortured and beaten for information but she never talk even through threats at her family and torture she stayed strong up until she died

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Hannahs memorial grave stone placed in her honor in Ireland 

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Hannahs memorial grave stone placed in her honor in Ireland 

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Hannah became a symbol of bravery and self-sacrifice because she never gave up even though she was being tortured

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A photo from a movie theater playing a movie based on the story of hannah 

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A photo from a movie theater playing a movie based on the story of hannah 

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A photo of hannah and her brother as a kid 

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A photo of hannah and her brother as a kid 

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In 1944, 22-year-old Hannah Senesh parachuted into Nazi-occupied Europe with a small group of Jewish volunteers from Palestine. Theirs was the only military rescue mission for Jews that occurred in World War II. Narrated by Academy Award winner Joan Allen, the multi-award-winning BLESSED IS THE MATCH follows the remarkable journey of this young Hungarian poet and diarist, paratrooper and resistance fighter. Told through Hannah's letters, diaries, and poems, her mother's memoirs, and the recollections of those who knew and loved her (including two of her fellow parachutists), the film traces her life from her childhood in Budapest to her time in British-controlled Palestine--where she was drawn by the Kibbutz Movement that sought to build an independent Jewish state--to her daring mission to rescue Jews in her native Hungary. Both devastating and inspiring, BLESSED IS THE MATCH offers an intimate portrait of a singularly talented, courageous and complex girl who believed that one person could be a flame that burns brightly in even the darkest hours.

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Blessed Is the Match: The Life and Death of Hannah Senesh

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In 1944, 22-year-old Hannah Senesh parachuted into Nazi-occupied Europe with a small group of Jewish volunteers from Palestine. Theirs was the only military rescue mission for Jews that occurred in World War II. Narrated by Academy Award winner Joan Allen, the multi-award-winning BLESSED IS THE MATCH follows the remarkable journey of this young Hungarian poet and diarist, paratrooper and resistance fighter.

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The movie about hannah called Blessed is the match

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The movie about hannah called Blessed is the match

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Hannah Senesh (originally Szenes) was a paratrooper trained to rescue Jews during the Holocaust. Captured and killed by the Nazis, she is still a national heroine in Israel.

Senesh dresses up in costume as a Hungarian soldier

Through her brief but noteworthy life, Senesh became a symbol of idealism and self-sacrifice. Her poems, made famous in part because of her unfortunate death, reveal a woman imbued with hope, even in the face of adverse circumstances.

Senesh was born on July 17, 1921, in Budapest, Hungary as the daughter of an author and journalist. She demonstrated her own literary talent from an early age, and she kept a diary from age 13 until shortly before her death. Although her family was assimilated, anti-Semitic sentiment in Budapest led her to involvement in Zionist activities, and she left Hungary for Eretz Yisrael in 1939. She studied first at an agricultural school and then settled at Kibbutz Sdot Yam. While there she wrote poetry, as well as a play about kibbutz life.

In 1943, Senesh joined the British Army and volunteered to be parachuted into Europe. The purpose of this operation was to help the Allied efforts in Europe and establish contact with partisan resistance fighters in an attempt to aid beleaguered Jewish communities. Senesh trained in Egypt and was one of the thirty-three people chosen to parachute behind enemy lines. With the goal of reaching her native Budapest, Senesh parachuted into Yugoslavia in March 1944 and spent three months with Tito's partisans. Her idealism and commitment to her cause are memorialized in her poem "Blessed is the Match," which she wrote at this time.

On June 7, 1944, at the height of the deportation of Hungarian Jews, Senesh crossed the border into Hungary.

She was caught almost immediately by the Hungarian police and tortured cruelly and repeatedly over the next several months. Despite these conditions, Senesh refused to divulge any information about her mission. Even the knowledge that her mother was at risk and that she too might be harmed did not compel Senesh to cooperate with the police. At her trial in October 1944, Senesh staunchly defended her activities, and she refused to request clemency. Throughout her ordeal, she remained steadfast in her courage, and when she was executed by a firing squad on November 7, she refused the blindfold, staring squarely at her executors and her fate. Senesh was only 23 years old.

The following poem was found in Hannah's death cell after her execution:

Senesh's grave stone in Israel

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.

In 1950, Senesh's remains were brought to Israel and re-interred at the military cemetery on Mount Herzl in Jerusalem.

Her diary and literary works were later published, and many of her more popular poems have been set to music. The best known of these is "Towards Caesarea," more popularly known today as "My God, My God" with a melody created by David Zahavi and sung by artists including Ofra Haza, Regina Spektor, and Sophie Milman.

Senesh has also been the subject of several artistic works, including a play by Aharon Megged.

Sources: The Pedagogic Center, The Department for Jewish Zionist Education, The Jewish Agency for Israel, (c) 1997-2007, Director: Dr. Motti Friedman, Webmaster: Esther Carciente.

Photo: Gravestone courtesy of Valley2city.

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Encyclopedia of Jewish and Israeli history, politics and culture, with biographies, statistics, articles and documents on topics from anti-Semitism to Zionism.

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Link to website where all information came from 

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Link to website where all information came from 