Hannah Szenes

Childhood in Budapest

Hannah Szenes was born on 17 July 1921 in Budapest into an assimilated Jewish family (English Wikipedia, Jewish Virtual Library). Her father, Béla Szenes, a journalist and playwright, died when she was a child, and she was raised by her mother, Katalin, with her brother György (English Wikipedia).

She attended a Protestant girls' school and joined the Zionist youth movement Maccabea, where she began to learn Hebrew (English Wikipedia). According to the Jewish Virtual Library she began a diary at the age of 13 and kept it almost until her death.

Nahalal and Sdot Yam

After finishing school in 1939 she left Hungary for Mandatory Palestine to study at the Girls' Agricultural School in Nahalal (English Wikipedia, Jewish Virtual Library). In 1941 she joined Kibbutz Sdot Yam and then the Haganah (English Wikipedia). The Jewish Virtual Library says she wrote poetry there and a play about kibbutz life.

One of her poems, "A Walk to Caesarea", better known as "Eli, Eli", is today widely recited at memorial ceremonies (English Wikipedia). We give its history only, not its text.

The parachute mission, 1943 to 1944

In 1943 Szenes enlisted in the British forces and was recruited into the Special Operations Executive (SOE), and she trained as a parachutist in Egypt (English Wikipedia, Jewish Virtual Library). According to USHMM, the mission aimed to organise resistance to the Germans and to help rescue Allied personnel. Its numbers, as USHMM gives them:

Szenes parachuted into Yugoslavia on 14 March 1944 (English Wikipedia). After landing, the group learned that Germany had occupied Hungary, and the original plan was judged too dangerous, but she kept looking for a way across the border (English Wikipedia). The Jewish Virtual Library says she spent about three months with Tito's partisans, and dates her poem "Blessed Is the Match" to this period.

Capture, trial and execution

1. 7 June 1944 She crossed into German-occupied Hungary and was captured almost at once (USHMM, Jewish Virtual Library). English Wikipedia says Hungarian gendarmes found her radio transmitter, and that her fellow parachutists Yoel Palgi and Peretz Goldstein were also arrested.
2. June to October 1944 She was tortured in prison and interrogated in Budapest. She refused to give the code of the transmitter, even when her mother was arrested (English Wikipedia). USHMM says she never betrayed her comrades.
3. 28 October 1944 She was tried for treason by a court of the Arrow Cross regime (English Wikipedia). The Jewish Virtual Library says she defended her actions and refused to ask for clemency.
4. 7 November 1944 She was executed by firing squad in Budapest, aged 23 (USHMM, English Wikipedia, Jewish Virtual Library).

After the Cold War a Hungarian military court exonerated her, and her relatives in Israel were informed on 5 November 1993 (English Wikipedia). The Hebrew site has pages on Haviva Reik and on the parachutists from Palestine.

Burial, diary and memory

In 1950 her remains were brought to Israel and reburied on Mount Herzl in Jerusalem (English Wikipedia, Jewish Virtual Library). USHMM says the seven parachutists who died were buried in the National Military Cemetery in Jerusalem. Her original tombstone arrived in Israel in November 2007 and was placed at Sdot Yam (English Wikipedia).

Her diary was published in Hebrew in 1946 (English Wikipedia), and many of her poems were set to music (Jewish Virtual Library). Her life has been told on stage and screen:

• A play by Aharon Megged (Jewish Virtual Library).
• The Legend of Hannah Senesh, a stage work from 1964 (English Wikipedia).
• Hanna's War, a feature film, 1988 (English Wikipedia).
• Blessed Is the Match, a documentary film, 2008 (English Wikipedia).

For the wider story of Jewish fighters in the war see Jewish partisans. Yitzhak Arad reached Palestine in 1945 on an immigrant ship named after her; see Yitzhak Arad.