Hannah Szenes

Kiddush ha-Shem Hero: Hannah Szenes

Zion ist

Hannah Szenes (pronounced Shenesh) was born in Budapest, Hungary on July 17, 1921. She and her brother were raised by their mother after her father died. While attending public school she experienced anti-Semitism. She then began to attend an all-girls Protestant high school where one of her teachers was the chief rabbi of Budapest. It was his influence that encouraged Hannah to join Maccabea, a Zionist youth group in Hungary. From the age of thirteen Hannah kept a diary, and at the age of nineteen, when she immigrated to Palestine, she wrote in her diary, “I’ve become a Zionist. This word stands for a tremendous number of things. To me it means, in short, that I now consciously and strongly feel I am a Jew, and am proud of it. My primary aim is to go to Palestine, to work for it.” Hannah moved to Eretz Israel by herself. She went to an agricultural college and then joined a kibbutz called Sdot Yam near Caesarea, by the sea.

Sol dier

World War II had begun. Hannah was happy living in Palestine, but she could not give up on the Jews being killed in Europe. She felt the need to help them escape the Nazis. Hannah joined a group of Palestinian Jews who were being trained by the British army as parachutists. She was the first woman volunteer, and she joined the British Royal Air Force. Their mission was to go into countries that were controlled by Nazis and work with partisan groups there to fight the German army. A second mission was to save as many Jews as possible from concentration camps. In addition, Hannah was to help British pilots who had been shot down. In March of 1944 Hannah parachuted into Yugoslavia. She spent three months living there, trying to find a way to sneak into Hungary. In June she and three others crossed the Hungarian border. Once in Hungary she was

quickly captured by Germans and imprisoned in Budapest.

Hero

After being captured Hannah was tortured repeatedly in the hope that she would reveal her secret communication codes. She never did. She was determined to stay true to what she believed in. They tried to get her to speak by capturing her mother and threatening to torture her in front of Hannah’s eyes. She still would not give in. Her mother was later released unharmed. Hannah never revealed her code to her captors. On November 7, 1944, Hannah Szenes was killed by a firing squad. She refused the blindfold and stared squarely at her executioners. She gave her life to save other lives and to protect the Jewish people.

Kiddush ha-Shem activity: Happy Is the Match

Here is a poem that Hannah wrote after she parachuted into a partisan camp in Yugoslavia.

Happy is the match that burns and kindles the flames. Happy is the flame that burns inside the hearts. Happy are the hearts to know when to stop with dignity. Happy is the match that burns and kindles the flames.

1. What is this poem about? 2. What does it say about kiddush ha-Shem? 3. When is sacrificing one’s life a good thing?