Eli, Eli, she loh yigamer leolam
Hachol vehayam,
Rishroosh shel hamayim
Berack hashamayim
Tfilat haadam

My Lord, my Lord let it never end
The sand and the sea,
The water’s whisper
The sky’s glitter
Man’s Prayer.



These are the words to a poem called Walk to Caesarea written by Hannah Senesh in Caesarea in 1943. It was later turned into this song.

When finding a topic for my report, I was first drawn to Hannah Senesh because her first name is the same as mine. But then, as I looked more deeply into her life and personality, I found that she was similar to me in other ways as well. She was an aspiring writer. She had a brother. And she wasn’t quite sure what she thought about her Judaism and where she stood.

Hannah also had many qualities that I would like to have: bravery, determination, persistence, spirit, love, and individuality. Her diary shows that she was honest to herself, which was one of her most enduring traits, as well as her intelligence. She even received about five marriage proposals in her short lifetime, which she refused.

On July 17th, 1921, Hannah was born to Bela and Catherine Senesh in Budapest, Hungary. Her father was a well-known writer, but when she was 6, he died. While she was growing up, her mother tried to shield her from the anti-Semitism that was starting to grow around her. Her family was still faithful to Judaism, but downplayed the role of religion in their everyday lives.

As Hannah grew up, no matter how hard her mother tried to protect her, she saw all the anti-Semitic things going on around her. In her diary she wrote: “Only now am I beginning to see what it really means to be a Jew in a Christian society.” “… You have to be someone exceptional to fight anti-Semitism, which is the most difficult kind of fight.” In 1938, at age 17, she decided to become a Zionist. Hannah loved the idea. To prepare herself, she took Hebrew lessons, started keeping her diary in stumbling Hebrew, and worked in her aunt’s hot garden during the summer to accustom herself to the hot climate. Her goal to reach the Homeland was bigger than anything else in her life was.

Her mother was somewhat less enthusiastic about the idea; in fact, she was devastated. Catherine tried to argue with her, but she paid no attention to that. Even though she believed she could have a successful career in Hungary, she felt it was not worthy of her. Catherine Senesh finally gave her permission. Hannah pleaded her mother to come to Palestine, but Catherine still loved and felt loyal to her homeland.

She got her exit visa on Sept. 1st, 1939, when the travel agencies were jammed with Jews and others trying to get away from the war. Her departure date was Rosh Hashanah, the New Year that also marked the start of a new part of Hannah’s life - but one without her mother - the person closest to her.

When she arrived in Haifa, Hannah was amazed to see that the seaport actually was a busy city. In the week she was there, she noted that Palestinian Jews, as opposed to Hungarian Jews, were obviously much more enthusiastic and happy about their work. They had work lines on their faces, not worry lines, and they were not afraid.

In Agricultural School, the students went out into the fields together every day. All her life, the Seneshes’ housekeeper had done all the chores for Hannah, but once she got used to the hard work, she found the tasks physically strenuous but boring.

Hannah started to feel guilty to be in Palestine while her family was in danger, people were suffering, and a war was going on in her home.

Three years later, Hannah graduated Agricultural School with the highest marks she could earn, and went to kibbutz Sdot-Yam, but here, she couldn’t fit in. Hannah felt that she needed a purpose in life and a goal to work towards, and it seemed that here, she had neither.

Hannah really wanted to go home, to go save her mother and other Jews. She tried to get the papers, but was denied. In February of 1943, she learned of a group of people starting an organization who wanted to form a rescue mission and go back into Hungary like Hannah did. The British were supplying them with weapons, planes, parachutes, and training to go behind the enemy lines of Hungary and rescue Jews on the condition that they first rescued shot down Allied pilots. Hannah immediately volunteered. However, it was still over a year before she got an interview to enlist.

There were three courses Hannah had to take: basic training (in firing arms and fighting), parachute training, and intelligence training. The 21-day basic and parachute training was now 10 days because things in Europe were happening very quickly. 32 of them passed the training, including Hannah.

Hannah also passed the intelligence training. She even convinced the instructor to join the mission.

On March 10th, 1944, after a February of Hannah’s cheering pep rallies, the team was ordered to get ready to leave.

The team of six wasn’t going to parachute directly into Hungary: it was too risky now. But they were going to drop into Yugoslavia, where the partisans would help them find their way across the border.

Hannah’s parachute blew her small body off target. She landed in a tree, freed herself with her knife, and waited until the partisans found her, with some more bad news: Hungary was now totally occupied by the Nazis. It would be almost certain death to cross now. With no concern for her own safety, Hannah almost immediately proposed that they go anyway. The Partisans, however, disagreed, and everybody was completely dependent upon their help, so they had no choice but to stay.

Two months passed, and March turned into April, which turned into May. Hannah decided that she had to go, even if it meant she went alone. The leader, who felt he could not hold her back anymore, finally gave her and two others permission to leave. Just before parting, Hannah gave her good friend a slip of paper. It was her famous ‘Blessed is the Match’ poem:

Blessed is the match consumed in kindling flame
Blessed is the flame that burns in the secret fastness of the heart
Blessed is the heart with strength to stop its beating for honor’s sake
Blessed is the match consumed in kindling flame

Today, Israeli schoolchildren know this poem by heart and recite it at their Yom Hashoa ceremonies.

The partisans accompanied her to a village nearby the border, dodging German units along the way. The journey was 50 miles and took 26 days.

After much persuasion, Hannah convinced 3 refugees at the border to go with her back into Hungary, the country from which they had just run away and been saved.

Finally, after much wandering, Hannah and arrived. The Germans burst into the forest and took them to the SS headquarters so that they could be interrogated.

For 2 days, Hannah was tortured nonstop for the location of the radio, which she had buried in the forest. She would not give in, but the Germans found it anyway.

Next, Hannah was put on a train to Budapest. There, after days of torture, Hannah finally gave the interrogators her name, hoping they might stop for a while, but when they got that information, all they wanted was to get more: why was she here, who did she know in Budapest, what were her contacts, etc. Hannah refused to reveal any more information.

One day, four guards took her to a room. There, she saw her mother for the first time in 5 years. Catherine Senesh had been arrested that morning. After not even a few minutes together, the guards separated mother and daughter once again.

The next day, a friendly guard brought a chair to Hannah’s cell and told her to step up and look out her window. There was her mother, in the cell across from her window! From their silent conversations writing letters in the air, she found out that her mother was being tortured as well. Hannah never gave in, although she felt the end was near. She wrote this poem about her time in the jail:

One - two - three . . . eight feet long,
Two strides across, the rest is dark . . .
Life hangs over me like a question mark.

One - two - three . . . maybe another week,
Or next month may still find me here,
But death, I feel, is very near.

I could have been twenty-three next July;
I gambled on what mattered most,
The dice were cast. I lost.

Eventually, Hannah’s physical torture stopped. Her guard started arranging for Hannah and her mother to meet together on occasion. All the prisoners admired her, and even the guards would sit back and relax as she told them stories of Palestine. Hannah even made a few people Zionists. She tried to teach her mother Hebrew. For a short time, she was moved into a communal cell with children, and she made them dolls, played games with them, and taught them to read and write.

The Allies were winning, and the Germans wanted to get as many Jews to the camps as possible. Only the Hungarian Jews were still protected from this.

Soon, Hannah’s case was to be brought to trial. She got an attorney, who told her that most prisoners like her received a sentence of ten or twenty years, or even life, but she would be released after the war was over. On October 28th, 1944, Hannah’s trial was held. She said that she did not commit treason to Hungary. In her fervor, she made a speech: “You cancelled my citizenship with your hate! You also raised your hand against my people. Thus it is not I who is the traitor! They are traitors who brought calamity upon our people, and upon themselves. I implore you, don’t add to your crimes. Save my people in the short time it remains in your power to do so. Every Jew who remains alive in Hungary will make the judgement against you after you fall!”

Sentencing was to take place on November 4th.

With every bomb the Allies dropped, the more confusing everything in the prison became. Judges fled. Nazis were destroying documents and running away in order to save themselves.

On November 7th, 1944, Captain Simon, the courtroom judge of Hannah’s case, came to her cell and told her that she had been sentenced to death and wanted to know if she wished to ask for clemency. Reportedly, Hannah replied, “Clemency - from you? Do you think I’m going to plead with hangmen and murderers? I shall never ask you for mercy.” Hannah was given one hour in which to write good-bye letters and prepare to die.

Hannah Senesh actually received no sentence, but it is believed that Captain Simon took it upon himself to have Hannah killed. Her mission had ended, but her legacy had not.

Why is Hannah remembered? There were many people who risked their lives and died trying to save Jews and others. First of all, she was a woman. Also, she was part of the only mission from outside Europe that went back into Nazi-occupied territory to save Jews. She had a diary, which leaves pieces of her mind that you can see into and understand and relate to. And even up to her death, she stood up for what she believed in, and did so with spirit, intelligence, and bravery.

Now Hannah is a famous writer like she wanted to be (for her diary and poems). She is not as well known as she should be, or any of the others who fought and went back for others.

Hannah once wrote: “There are stars whose radiance is visible on Earth though they have long been extinct. There are people whose brilliance continues to light the world though they are no longer among the living. These lights are particularly bright when the night is dark. They light the way for humankind.”

References

Atkinson, Linda. In Kindling Flame: The story of Hannah Senesh, 1921-1944. New York: Lothrop, Lee and Shepard Books, 1985

Hannah Senesh: Her Life and Diary. London: Mitchell Vallentine, 1971

Masters, Anthony. The Summer That Bled. London: Michael Joseph Ltd, 1972

Ransom, Candice F. So Young to Die. New York: Scholastic, 1993