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https://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/szenes-hannah

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Hannah was tortured for trying to enter Hungary and crossing the border. She was arrested in Budapest, where she was born, and tortured there. She was caught but still attempted to help which was still very helpful.

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Hannah Senesh was born into a wealthy Hungarian Jewish family. Her father was Bela Senesh, and died when Hannah was only a few years old. And her mother, Katherine Senesh, was an elegant homemaker.

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Even though Hannah Senesh was only a teenager, she still found ways to help. She tried to help as much as she could for the Jews during the Holocaust. Her most important mission she ever encountered was to enter Hungary.

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Hannah Senesh was born on July 17, 1929. She died on November 7, 1944. Lastly, she was on a mission when she crossed the Hungary border on June 7, 1944.

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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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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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Multimedia Link: Song, Hero by Mariah Carey

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Multimedia Link: Song, Hero by Mariah Carey

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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.” https://mjhnyc.org/blog/the-legacy-of-hannah-senesh/#:~:text=Hannah%20was%20one%20of%20those,be%20executed%20by%20firing%20squad.

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Because Hannah was caught illegally crossing the Hungary border, she got brutally tortured for it. She was tortured terribly and got injured in the process. Even though she was caught, she still attempted to cross the border for her people, which in everyone's eyes, was honorable.

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Hannah Senesh did many missions for her people. She also once crossed Hungary border. She crossed the border on June 7, 1944, but was caught almost immediately after her act.

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Hannah Senesh was a Jewish girl that would try everything to help her people. She was a paratrooper which helped in many ways. She was born on July 17, 1929, and died on November 7, 1944 at the age of 15. She was born in Budapest, Hungary.