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Hannah Senesh(Szenes) was a Hungarian paratrooper during the holocaust. She helped rescue Jews as a part of the British Army in her twenties until the end of her short life. She was born on July 17th,1921 in Budapest, Hungary to mother Catherine Szenes and father Béla Szenes. Senesh studied at a school of agriculture and settled in Israel where she also wrote some of her famous poems like "Eli, Eli."

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Senesh's Gravestone in Israel

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She was killed in Hungary when she snuck in to help people during the mass deportations. She was captured and tortured for months as well as threats to her mother when she refused to give up information. Eventually on November 7th, 1944 she was sentenced to death by firing squad.

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This song reminds me of what Senesh aimed to do and she wanted to help change and help people throughout all that was happening

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Even from a young age Hannah was always writing. She wrote and dedicated things to her family members like her brother György.

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This song also reminds me of Hannah because it talks about not giving up until the end and winning. Similarly to how she refused to talk no matter the consequences.

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During the Hungarian deportations she went to Hungary to help Jews escape but in her attempt she was captured.

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This is one of Hannah's many poems that was published in late years.

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Hannnah Senesh: The Girl Who Never Stopped Writing

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A glimpse of Hannah Senesh's childhood writings

Hannah Senesh was born into a home where writing was an integral part of family life. Her father, Béla, was a well-known journalist, playwright and children's author in Hungary. His books sold well and his plays were very popular in Budapest-but his short career ended abruptly with his sudden death from a heart attack at the age of thirty-three. Hannah (nicknamed Anikó) was then only six years old.

It soon became apparent that little Anikó had also been bitten by the writing bug. In November 2020, the Senesh (often spelled Szenes) family decided to deposit the entire Hannah Senesh Collection with the National Library. It includes dozens of items gathered throughout Senesh's all too brief life. A number of these rare items document the very beginning of this creative girl's journey.

Senesh was "writing" even before she actually knew how. She dictated to her brother Giora (Györi) a greeting for her grandmother and mother. When she started composing poems in her head-at the age of six!-Grandma Fini made sure to write them all down by hand in a notebook she kept just for that purpose.

Shortly after, Hannah, still a child of 7 or 8 years old, tried her hand at a career similar to her father's. She felt that the Senesh family needed its own newspaper, and she would be the editor-in-chief! Thus came into being the family newspaper she called Kis Szenesek Lapja ("The Little Seneshes' Newspaper").

For several months in 1929, Anikó edited her own little newspaper. At the top of each issue was the date, just like in any proper paper. Hannah typed everything on the home typewriter. She wrote the articles, chose the poems and stories and drew the illustrations for the enjoyment of the whole family. She even attempted to write an entire play. This newspaper will also soon be available for viewing at the National Library of Israel.

The complete Hanna Senesh Collection reveals the creative roots of the person who would come to be remembered in Israeli and Jewish collective memory mainly as a brave paratrooper. She began creating even before she could write. Her early work is in Hungarian, but soon after arriving in Mandatory Palestine, she very quickly gained command of the Hebrew language and continued writing in Hebrew as well. Hannah Senesh remained a writer throughout her life, from her early childhood to her very last days in a Hungarian prison.

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Hannah Senesh: The Girl Who Never Stopped Writing

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A glimpse of Hannah Senesh's childhood writings Hannah Senesh was born into a home where writing was an integral part of family life. Her father, Béla, was a well-known journalist, playwright and children's author in Hungary.

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When she died at 23 she was remembered for her self sacrifice and willingness.

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The Jewish Women's Archive

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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 2008 a movie was made about her life experienceS

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The Jewish Virtual Library

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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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"One needs something to believe in, something for which one can have whole-hearted enthusiasm. One needs to feel that one's life has meaning, that one is needed in this world."  -Hannah Senesh