[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":14},["ShallowReactive",2],{"event-g2tngqzsz7z1iws1qj9id2gr":3},{"id":4,"title":5,"slug":6,"description":7,"content":8,"date":9,"endDate":9,"category":10,"location":-1,"image":-1,"ticketUrl":9,"price":9,"createdAt":13,"updatedAt":13},"g2tngqzsz7z1iws1qj9id2gr","Hannah Senesh (Szenes), 1921-1944","hannah-senesh-szenes-1921-1944","Hannah Senesh, diarist, poet, playwright and parachutist \nin the Jewish resistance under the British Armed Forces during World War II \nwas born and died in Budapest Hungary.","\u003Ca id=\"top\">\u003C/a> \n\u003Ch1 class=\"h1title\">Hannah Senesh (Szenes), 1921-1944 \u003C/h1>\n\u003Cdiv class=\"plus\">\n\u003Cp lang=\"en-gb\">Hannah Senesh, diarist, poet, playwright and parachutist \nin the Jewish resistance under the British Armed Forces during World War II \nwas born and died in Budapest Hungary.  \u003C/p>\n\n\u003Cp lang=\"en-gb\">Considered a symbol of\ncourage during the Holocaust, her life has been eulogized as a \u003Ci>lesson in\ncourage\u003C/i>. Hannah Senesh is one of seven parachutists from a group of thirty-two\nwho died. She is the only one whose fate after capture is attested to with any\nclarity. \u003C/p>\n\n\u003Cp lang=\"en-gb\">Now part of the popular\nheritage of Israel, the diary and letters of Hannah Senesh provide a primary\nsource of information for Jewish life in Budapest during the rise of Nazism in\nEurope and in the work of early Zionists in Palestine. Her literary work also\nincludes several poems, most notably, \u003Ci>Blessed is the Match\u003C/i>, and two plays,\n\u003Ci>The Violin and Bella gerunt alii\u003C/i>, \u003Ci>tu felix Austria nube\u003C/i>. Senesh won even\ngreater renown after suffering torture and death for her role as a parachutist\nin a l944 Hagana campaign to assist Jews in Nazi-occupied Hungary. \u003C/p>\n\n\u003Cp lang=\"en-gb\">Hannah was born in l921, in\nBudapest. The daughter of a well-known playwright and journalist Bela Senesh\nand his wife Katherine, Hannah was raised and educated in Budapest. Assimilated,\nmiddle-class Jews, Hannah's parents were not observant. Hannah, therefore,\nlearned little of Judaism during her childhood. She enjoyed a comfortable\nstandard of living in Jewish-Hungarian upper-class society, despite the death\nof her father in l927 when she was six. She continued to live with her mother\nand brother. \u003C/p>\n\n\u003Cp lang=\"en-gb\">When she was ten years old,\nthe tall, blue-eyed girl with brown, curly hair flowing about her elongated face,\nentered a private Protestant girls' high school. The school had recently begun\nto admit Catholics and Jews. Catholic youngsters paid double the normal\ntuition; Jews, triple. Nonetheless, Hannah's mother never considered sending\nher daughter to the Jewish high school. The girl inherited her father's\nliterary talent and began to excel in school at an early age, writing plays for\nschool productions, tutoring her peers, and winning a scholarship that defrayed\nthe inflated tuition for Jewish students. \u003C/p>\n\n\u003Cp lang=\"en-gb\">In her first year, Hannah\nreceived excellent grades. But, her mother complained to the principal about\nthe discrimination practiced against her daughter despite her academic success.\nThe principal showed some flexibility; he lowered Hannah's tuition so that it equaled\nthat paid by the Catholics. One instructor at the school was the chief rabbi of\nBudapest, Imre Benoschofsky, who was a great scholar and a zealous Zionist. His\ninfluence was great on Hannah's burgeoning interest in Judaism and Zionism. \u003C/p>\n\n\u003Cp lang=\"en-gb\">She began a diary at the\nage of thirteen - recording her travels, relationships, day-to-day life, and\ndesire to become a professional writer. As anti-Semitism increased in Europe,\nHannah, now seventeen, was deposed from an elected post as president of her\nschool's literary society. \u003C/p>\n\n\u003Cp lang=\"en-gb\">Official anti-Semitism grew\nin Hungary. Anti-Jewish legislation was passed. Hannah was informed that she\ncould not take office. She was told that a Jew could not hold the presidency. What\nshould she do, fight or hold her peace? \u003C/p>\n\n\u003Cp lang=\"en-gb\">\"You have to be\nsomeone exceptional to fight anti-Semitism...,\" she confided to her diary.\n\"Only now am I beginning to see what it really means to be a Jew in a\nChristian society, but I don't mind at all...we have to struggle. Because it is\nmore difficult for us to reach our goal we must develop outstanding qualities. Had\nI been born a Christian, every profession would be open to me.\" \u003C/p>\n\n\u003Cp lang=\"en-gb\">Hannah thought about\nconverting to Christianity in order to be able to take office. Rather than\nconvert, however, she decided to sever her connection with the literary\nsociety. She was a determined person who stuck to her beliefs. \u003C/p>\n\n\u003Cp lang=\"en-gb\">Hannah joined Maccabea, the\nmost established Zionist student organization in Hungary. Toward the end of\nOctober 1938, she wrote in her diary: \"I've become a Zionist. This word\nstands for a tremendous number of things. To me it means, in short, that I now\nconsciously and strongly feel I am a Jew, and am proud of it. My primary aim is\nto go to Palestine, to work for it.\" Hannah's teachers tried\nunsuccessfully to dissuade her from leaving for Palestine. \u003C/p>\n\n\u003Cp lang=\"en-gb\">Graduating at the top of\nher class in March 1939, she could easily have entered the university. Instead,\nshe applied for a place at the Girls' Agricultural School at Nahalal in\nPalestine. Her interests soon turned to Zionist appeals for Jewish immigration\nto Palestine. Though raised in a secular household, Senesh yearned to join\nJewish pioneers in Palestine. She resolved at age seventeen to learn Hebrew,\nand wrote: \u003Ci>it is the true language, and the most beautiful; in it is the\nspirit of our people\u003C/i>. She resolved to leave for Palestine upon her high school\ngraduation: \u003Ci>What I love is the opportunity to create an outstanding and\nbeautiful Jewish State\u003C/i>. Increasing anti-Semitism, news of her suffering people\nand the besieged country of Israel inspired her with dedication, with\nrecognition of her nationality. She was deeply imbued with the Zionist ideal.\u003C/p>\n\n\u003Cp lang=\"en-gb\">Hannah departed for\nPalestine shortly after the outbreak of war in Europe, before the formalization\nof legislation restricting economic and cultural opportunities for Hungarian\nJews. Reaching Nahalal that September (where she was to spend two years), in\nher first letter to her mother, she wrote: \"I am home... This is where\nmy life's ambition, I might even say my vocation, binds me, because I would\nlike to feel that by being here I am fulfilling a mission, not just vegetating...\nthis fulfillment of a mission.\" \u003C/p>\n\n\u003Cp lang=\"en-gb\">In 1941, Senesh joined both\nKibbutz Sdot Yam, was there for two years. She encountered the rigors of\nfarming and authored her most passionate poetry. She also wrote a\nsemi-autobiographical play about the sacrifices made by a young artist after\njoining a collective. Her diary chronicles wartime Palestine, detailing the\ninflux of refugees under the British Mandate, the report from Europe and\nhardships experienced by the kibbutz members. \u003C/p>\n\n\u003Cp lang=\"en-gb\">Concern for the fate of\nfellow Jews after Jewish immigration to Palestine was curtailed, and awareness\nof the mounting persecution in Europe, Palestinian Jews proposed the active\nengagement of a Jewish force to be allied with the British. In l943, the\nBritish allowed a limited number of Palestinian Jewish volunteers to cross\nbehind enemy lines in occupied Europe. \u003C/p>\n\n\u003Cp lang=\"en-gb\">By 1942, Hannah Senesh was\neager to enlist in the Palmach, the commando wing of the Haganah. She also\nthought of returning to Hungary to help organize youth emigration. She was\ndetermined to liberate her mother from the hardships long discussed in their\ncorrespondence. Hannah Senesh enlisted with the resistance, joined the Women's\nauxiliary Air Force along with several other young Jewish women. She enlisted\nin the British army in 1943. Their male counterparts joined the Pioneer Corps. \u003C/p>\n\n\u003Cp lang=\"en-gb\">She wrote: \u003Ci>I must go to\nHungary, be there at this time ... and bring my mother out.\u003C/i> The day before she\nleft Israel on her mission, Hannah visited her beloved brother who had just\narrived from the Diaspora. \u003C/p>\n\n\u003Cp lang=\"en-gb\">Hannah took the code name\n\u003Ci>Hagar\u003C/i> for her mission and after entrusting her poems to a friend at the\nkibbutz, she departed for intelligence training in Cairo. In January 1944,\nHannah began training in Egypt as a paratrooper who would operate behind enemy\nlines. She was the first woman volunteer in the parachutist group. To her\ncomrades she asserted: \"We are the only ones who can possibly help, we\ndon't have the right to think of our own safety; we don't have the right to\nhesitate... It's better to die and free our conscience than to return with\nthe knowledge that we didn't even try.\" \u003C/p>\n\n\u003Cp lang=\"en-gb\">On the 11th March, 1944,\nshe flew to Italy; on the 13th she parachuted to the land of the Partisans, to\nthe former Yugoslavia where she successfully crossed the Hungarian border with\nthe aid of a partisan group, only to be denounced the following day by an\ninformer and taken to a Gestapo prison in Budapest. While in prison, she found\nan ingenious way of communicating with prisoners whose cell windows faced hers:\nshe cut out large letters and placed them, one after the other, in her window\nto form words. \u003C/p>\n\n\u003Cp lang=\"en-gb\">A comrade wrote about her:\n\"Her behavior before members of the Gestapo and SS was quite remarkable. She\nconstantly stood up to them, warning them plainly of the bitter fate they would\nsuffer after their defeat. Curiously, these wild animals, in whom every spark\nof humanity had been extinguished, felt awed in the presence of this refined,\nfearless young girl.\" \u003C/p>\n\n\u003Cp lang=\"en-gb\">This observation\nnotwithstanding, both the Gestapo and Hungarian officers brutally tortured\nSenesh. They demanded her radio code; she refused. They threatened to torture\nher mother in front of her eyes, then kill her. She still would not buckle. Her\nmother, whom they had also imprisoned, was, in the end, released rather than\ntortured. \u003C/p>\n\n\u003Cp lang=\"en-gb\">A \"trial\" was\nheld on October 28, and Hannah Senesh was executed by a firing squad ten days\nlater. Eyewitnesses from among her prison mates testified to her bravery. Hannah's\nlast note to her mother, written in her prison cell, just prior to her\nexecution, November 8, 1944 were: \u003C/p>\n\n\u003Cblockquote>\u003Cspan class=\"lang\">\nDearest Mother, I don't know what to say - only\nthis: \u003Cbr>\na million thanks,\u003Cbr>\nand forgive me, if you can. \u003Cbr>\nYou know well why words aren't necessary. \u003C/span>\u003C/blockquote>\n\n\u003Cp lang=\"en-gb\">Her final words to her\ncomrades were: \u003C/p>\n\n\u003Cblockquote>\u003Cspan class=\"lang\">\n...Continue the struggle till the end\u003Cbr>\nuntil the day of liberty comes\u003Cbr>\nthe day of victory for our people.\" \u003C/span>\u003C/blockquote>\n\n\u003Cp lang=\"en-gb\">Her remains, along with\nthose of six other fellow paratroopers who also died, were brought to Israel in\n1950. They are buried together in the Israeli National Military Cemetery on\nMount Herzl in Jerusalem. \u003C/p>\n\n\u003Cp lang=\"en-gb\">Hannah Senesh's diary and\npoems were published in Hebrew in 1945. They have been translated and published\nin other languages including Hungarian. The last poem she wrote in prison in\nBudapest was: \u003C/p>\n\n\u003Cblockquote>\u003Cspan class=\"lang\">\n...death, I feel, is very near.\u003Cbr>\nI could have been twenty-three next July;\u003Cbr>\nI gambled on what mattered most,\u003Cbr>\nThe dice were cast.\u003Cbr>\nI lost. \u003C/span>\u003C/blockquote>\n\n\u003Cp lang=\"en-gb\">Nearly every Israeli can\nrecite from memory Senesh's poem \"Blessed is the Match\" : \u003C/p>\n\n\u003Cblockquote>\u003Cspan class=\"lang\">Blessed is the match consumed in kindling flame.\u003Cbr>\nBlessed is the flame that burns in the secret fastness of the heart. \u003C/span>\u003C/blockquote>\n\n\u003Cp lang=\"en-gb\">* \u003C/p>\n\n\u003Cp lang=\"en-gb\">On November 5, 1993 Hannah\nSenesh's family in Israel received a copy of a Hungarian military court's verdict\nexonerating her of the treason charges for which she was executed. Israel's\nthen Prime Minister, the late Yitzhak Rabin, attending the Tel Aviv ceremony\nwhere the document was turned over to the family, noted that for Hannah Senesh,\n\"there is little use for the new verdict. Nor does it offer much comfort\nto her family. But historic justice is also a value and the new\nverdict...represents a measure of reason triumphing over evil.\" \u003C/p>\n\n\u003Cp lang=\"en-gb\">Hannah Senesh remains an\ninspiration to young writers; her work ensures her place as a national heroine. \u003C/p>\n\n\u003Cp lang=\"en-gb\">* \u003C/p>\n\n\u003Cp lang=\"en-gb\">Several monuments to Hannah\nSenesh have been erected throughout Israel. Numerous streets, a forest,\nsettlements and a species of flower were given her name. A museum, established\nby the Hannah Senesh Legacy Foundation, was built at her former home in Kibbutz Sdot Yam. \u003C/p>\n\u003C/div> \u003C!-- plus -->\n\u003Ca href=\"#top\"> \u003Cimg class=\"arrow\" src=\"images/arrw06b.png\" alt=\"Haut de page\">\u003C/a>",null,{"id":11,"name":12,"slug":12,"description":9,"color":9},"j0ctgo2dhyd69kvxdof9fv33","2004","2026-03-07T20:12:13.938Z",1775484752845]