LiveWire

To most Americans, the name ‘Hannah Senesh’ is unknown.

But to several generations of Israelis, Hannah’s name immediately evokes sorrow over the loss of six million lives.

And pride in the bravery of this heroine of Israel.

Here is her story:

Hannah Senesh (Anglicized from the original Hungarian ‘Szenes’) was born in 1921 in Budapest, to an affluent, secular Jewish family. Her father was a well-known playwright. He died when Hannah was six years old.

Hannah was enrolled in a prestigious Protestant girls’ school in Budapest, where she stood out as a gifted student. She had been elected to the school’s Literary society as her grade representative, and it was a severe blow to her when she was informed that the school rules barred a Jew from holding office in the society. She began to gravitate towards the Zionist movement, and as anti-Semitism intensified in Hungary, her identification as a Zionist grew. In September of 1939, at eighteen years of age, she moved to Palestine (as Israel was called, before 1948). She attended the Nahalal Agricultural School, and then joined a kibbutz, working in the kibbutz kitchen and laundry.

And she wrote poetry.

In 1943, Hannah was approached by the Palmach (the fighting force of the Jewish community’s underground army in Palestine under British rule) to join a commando unit in conjunction with the British Army. The plan was to send a group of European Jews to Nazi-occupied Europe in order to collect intelligence data, to rescue Allied airmen, and to assist in the rescue of Hungarian Jews about to be sent to Auschwitz. Hannah trained as a radio operator, and then trained as a parachutist.

Hannah and her unit were dropped into Yugoslavia in March 1944, and they spent three months with the Yugoslavian partisans. In June 1944, Hannah and several comrades crossed into Hungary. She was soon arrested, with a radio transmitter in her possession.

Hannah was imprisoned and tortured for several months, but she refused to reveal any information about the mission. Even when her mother, Katherine, was arrested and taken to her daughter, Hannah refused to cooperate. When her captors realized that they would not get any useful information from her, she was put on trial and sentenced to death for “treason against Hungary.”

On November 7, 1944, Hannah was executed by firing squad. She refused a blindfold, and in the last moments of her life, she stood silently, facing her executioners.

She was 23 years old.

Hannah’s mother, who had escaped from the infamous Budapest “Death March,” hid until Budapest was liberated by the Soviet army in January 1945. She emigrated to Palestine, joining her son, George, who had also survived the war.

In 1950, Hannah’s remains were brought to Israel. She was buried in Jerusalem, in the paratroopers’ section of the military cemetery.

Hannah’s poems are studied by Israeli schoolchildren. One of her most famous poems, ‘Eli Eli’ (‘My God, My God’) was put to music by composer David Zahavi. This song figures prominently in Holocaust memorial events. In Israel, on Yom Ha’Shoah (Holocaust Remembrance Day), regular radio music programming is suspended, and ‘Eli Eli’ is played on radio stations.

Many Israeli singers have performed the song. Here is Ofra Haza’s rendition of the song. You can hear members of the audience, who are obviously moved, as they sing along in the background.

Ofra Haza was one of Israel’s most beloved entertainers. The daughter of Yemenite Jews, she arose from a poor neighborhood in Tel Aviv to great international success, with many “gold” albums.

In 2000, she was hospitalized, and two weeks later, the nation was stunned at the news of her death, at 41, from AIDS-related pneumonia.

But that really is another story…

My God, My God

May these things never end:
The sand and the sea

The rustle of the water
The lightning in the sky

Man’s prayer.

Eli, Eli

Shelo yigamer le’olam:
Hachol vehayam

Rishrush shel hamayim
Berak hashamayim

Tefilat ha’adam.