Hannah Szenes

Hannah Szenes
Szenes in 1939
Born	(1921-07-17)July 17, 1921 Budapest, Hungary
Died	7 November 1944(1944-11-07) (aged 23) Budapest, Hungary
Cause of death	Execution by firing squad
Resting place	Mount Herzl, Israel
Occupations	Poet Paratrooper Resistance fighter
Years active	1938–1944
Known for	Jewish parachutist with SOE; author of Eli, Eli
Parents	Béla Szenes Katherine Szenes
Military career
Allegiance	United Kingdom
Service / branch	British Army
Years of service	1943–1944
Unit	Special Operations Executive
Battles / wars	World War II
Website	hannahsenesh.org.il

Hannah Szenes (often anglicized as Hannah Senesh or Chanah Senesh; Hebrew: חנה סנש; Hungarian: Szenes Anna; 17 July 1921 – 7 November 1944) was a Hungarian-born poet, playwright, and resistance operative trained by the British Special Operations Executive (SOE). In 1944, she was one of 37 Jewish volunteers from Mandatory Palestine parachuted into occupied Europe to support Allied efforts and help rescue Jews facing deportation.

After crossing into Hungary from Yugoslavia, she was captured by Hungarian gendarmes, imprisoned, and tortured but refused to reveal mission details. She was later tried for treason by a court under the fascist Arrow Cross regime and executed in Budapest.

Szenes is remembered in Israel as a national heroine, known for her poetry and for her actions during the Holocaust. Her most famous poem, A Walk to Caesarea ("Eli, Eli"), is frequently recited in commemorations. In Hungary, her legacy has been slower to gain recognition, though she was officially exonerated in 1993.

Early life

Szenes and her brother in Budapest c. 1924

Hannah Szenes was born in Budapest on 17 July 1921 to an assimilated Jewish family. Her father, Béla Szenes, a well-known journalist and playwright, died when she was young. She was raised by her mother, Katherine, alongside her brother György.

She attended a Protestant private school for girls that also admitted Catholic and Jewish students, but where non-Protestant pupils were required to pay higher fees. After being identified as a gifted student, Szenes was permitted to pay the reduced Catholic rate. Amid growing antisemitism in Hungary, Szenes became increasingly aware of the precarious status of Jews in society. She joined the Zionist youth movement Maccabea and began learning Hebrew.

Immigration to Nahalal

Szenes graduated in 1939 and decided to emigrate to Mandatory Palestine in order to study in the Girls' Agricultural School at Nahalal. In 1941, she joined Kibbutz Sdot Yam and then joined the Haganah, the paramilitary group that laid the foundation of the Israel Defense Forces.

In 1943, she enlisted in the British Women's Auxiliary Air Force as an Aircraftwoman 2nd Class. Later the same year, she was recruited into the Special Operations Executive (SOE) and was sent to Egypt for parachute training.

The parachutists’ mission

Between 1943 and 1944, the Jewish community in Palestine (Yishuv) decided to send Jewish parachutists behind enemy lines to assist both Allied forces and the Jews in occupied Europe. The mission was a cooperation between the Yishuv and British forces to create a Jewish commando unit within the British army. The mission was supervised by SOE’s Middle East Headquarters in Cairo and coordinated with the British army and Haganah leaders in Palestine. The Jewish volunteers were trained in parachuting, sabotage, radio transmission, and survival in enemy territory. Szenes volunteered and was selected along with 32 others, out of 250 candidates, to be sent on active missions.

Arrest and torture

On March 14, 1944, she and two colleagues were parachuted into Yugoslavia and joined a partisan group. After landing, they learned the Germans had already occupied Hungary, so the men decided to call off the mission as too dangerous.

Szenes continued on and headed for the Hungarian border. At the border, she and her two colleagues, Yoel Palgi and Peretz Goldstein were arrested by Hungarian gendarmes, who found her British military transmitter, used to communicate with the SOE and other partisans. She was taken to a prison, stripped, tied to a chair, then whipped and clubbed for three days. She lost several teeth as a result of the beatings.

The guards wanted to know the code for her transmitter so they could find out who the parachutists were and trap others. Transferred to a Budapest prison, Szenes was repeatedly interrogated and tortured, but only revealed her name and refused to provide the transmitter code, even when her mother was also arrested. They threatened to kill her mother if she did not cooperate, but she refused.

Trial and execution

Memorial and bust of Hannah Szenes in Budapest

She was tried for treason in Hungary on 28 October 1944 by a court appointed by the fascist Arrow Cross regime. There was an eight-day postponement to give the judges more time to find a verdict, followed by another postponement, this one because of the appointment of a new Judge Advocate. She was executed by a firing squad on November 7, 1944. She kept diary entries until her last day. One of them read: "In the month of July, I shall be twenty-three/I played a number in a game/The dice have rolled. I have lost," and another: "I loved the warm sunlight."

Her diary was published in Hebrew in 1946. Her remains were brought to Israel in 1950 and buried in the cemetery on Mount Herzl, Jerusalem. Her tombstone was brought to Israel in November 2007 and placed in Sdot Yam.

During the trial of Rudolf Kastner, who was a controversial figure involved in negotiating with the Nazis to save a number of Hungarian Jews during the Holocaust, Szenes's mother testified that during the time her daughter was imprisoned, Kastner's people had advised her not to obtain a lawyer for her daughter. Further, she recalled a conversation with Kastner after the war, telling him, "I don't say that you could have saved my daughter Hannah, but that you didn't try – it makes it harder for me that nothing was done."

After the Cold War, a Hungarian military court officially exonerated her. Her kin in Israel were informed on November 5, 1993.

Poetry, songs and plays

Szenes was a poet and playwright, writing both in Hungarian and Hebrew. The best known of these is "A Walk to Caesarea", commonly known as Eli, Eli ("My God, My God"). The well-known melody was composed by David Zahavi. Many singers have sung it, including Ofra Haza, Regina Spektor, and Sophie Milman. It was used to close some versions of the film Schindler's List.

Szenes in Budapest, c. 1937

• 
  Szenes with members of Kibbutz Sdot Yam. (4th from left)
• 
  Szenes in a Hungarian army uniform as a Purim costume
• 
  Szenes in 1940
• 
  Szenes's gravestone on Mount Herzl

In popular culture

A poster in memory of Szenes

• The Legend of Hannah Senesh, a play about Szenes written by Aharon Megged, was produced and directed by Laurence Merrick at the Princess Theatre in Los Angeles in 1964. Szenes was played by Joan Huntington.
• Hanna's War, a film about Szenes's life directed by Menahem Golan, was released in 1988. Szenes was portrayed by Maruschka Detmers.
• Blessed is the Match: The Life and Death of Hannah Senesh, directed by Roberta Grossman, is a documentary film that recounts the events of Szenes's life. It was released in 2008.
• Darkness (one two three), a musical pilot project of the Association of Global Art, led by the musician and singer Pazit Nuni, in which Szenes's last poem was composed and sung (English and Hebrew, 2019).
• Romanian composer Serban Nichifor released the song cycle "Four Poems by Hannah Szenes" for soprano and piano (2023).

See also

• Jewish Parachutists of Mandate Palestine

References

Bibliography

• חנה סנש: חייה, שליחותה ומותה, in Hebrew. 1952.
• Diario, cartas, iniciación literaria, misión y muerte, memorias de la madre, 1966. in Spanish. 396 pages.
• Hannah Senesh, Her Life & Diary, Schocken Books, 1972.
• Masters, Anthony. The Summer That Bled; The Biography of Hannah Senesh. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1972. OCLC 677086
• Goldenberg, Linda. In Kindling Flame: The Story of Hannah Senesh, 1921–1944. New York: Lothrop, Lee & Shepard Books, 1985. ISBN 0688027148 OCLC 10302495
• Hay, Peter. Ordinary Heroes: Chana Szenes and the Dream of Zion. G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1986. ISBN 0399131523 OCLC 13395114
• Whitman, Ruth. The Testing of Hannah Senesh Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1986. ISBN 0814318533
• Maxine Rose Schur, Hannah Szenes: A Song of Light, Philadelphia, 1986. ISBN 0827606281
• Betzer, Oded. The Paratrooper Who Didn't Return. World Zionist Organization, 1989.
• Ransom, Candice F. So Young to Die: the Story of Hannah Senesh. Scholastic, 1993. ISBN 0590446770 OCLC 28137831
• Senesh, Hannah, and Marge Piercy (foreword). Hannah Senesh: Her Life and Diary. Jewish Lights Publishing, 2004. ISBN 9781580233422 OCLC 269444258
• Gozlan, Martine, Hannah Szenes, l'étoile foudroyée. Paris: Ed. de l'Archipel, 2014. ISBN 9782809815818 OCLC 897806840 In French.
• Shalom, Avner, Hannah Senesh, Poems within the Depth, שירים מן המעמקים, The Association of Global Art Publishing House, Budapest and Caesarea 2018 ISBN 9786150033730 in English and Hebrew, appendix A and B in Spanish and Lithuanian
• Baumel-Schwartz, J.T.; Baumel-Schwartz, J. (2010). Perfect Heroes: The World War II Parachutists and the Making of Israeli Collective Memory. WWII history / Judaica / Cultural studies / Israel. University of Wisconsin Press. ISBN 978-0-299-23483-6.
• Laqueur, W.; Baumel, J.T.; Baumel-Schwartz, J.T. (2001). The Holocaust Encyclopedia. The Erwin and Riva Baker Memorial Collection. Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-08432-0. Retrieved July 17, 2021.
• Senesh, H.; Piercy, M.; Grossman, R.; Senesh, E. (2007). Hannah Senesh: Her Life and Diary. Jewish Lights Publishing. ISBN 978-1-58023-342-2.

Web sources

• Walker, Shaun (July 16, 2021). "Hungary's forgotten wartime heroine remembered 100 years after her birth". the Guardian.

External links

• Video Lecture by Dr. Henry Abramson on Hannah Szenes
• Teacher's Study Guide Archived August 30, 2009, at the Wayback Machine
• Hannah Senesh Legacy foundation
• Jewish Community Day School, Brooklyn, New York
• Blessed Is The Match, a documentary film about Hannah
• Blessed Is The Match at Women Make Movies
• Hannah Szenes Biography at J-Grit: The Internet Index of Tough Jews
• Hannah Szenes: Poet, Hero, Martyr: Video lecture on Hannah Szenesh by Dr. Henry Abramson
• Hannah Szenes on Jewish.hu's list of famous Hungarian Jews
• Chana Szenes – The Match That Burns Forever
• The Heroism of Hannah Senesh - Eli, Eli by Sophie Milman