A Brief But Noteworthy Life: The Story of Paratrooper Hannah Szenes

"Having a woman with us, a female paratrooper, made a huge impression on the partisans… It was pretty rare, and the parachute also wasn't what it is today, so a female paratrooper – the news spread like wildfire… there were female partisan fighters, but no paratroopers. … They knew we were from Eretz Israel, and that we were Jewish, and what the Jewish people had suffered, and they treated us very well and with respect."

- Reuven Dafni, a paratrooper who parachuted into Yugoslavia with Hannah Szenes

On November 7, 1944, Hannah Szenes was executed by firing squad, having been found guilty of treason against Hungary. Before the shots rang out and killed this hero of the Holocaust, Hannah remained committed to her courage. When the execution was set to occur, this twenty-three year old young woman refused the blindfold, staring straight into the faces of her executors and her fate. You may be wondering at this point: what exactly did Hannah Szenes do to deserve facing death at such a young age? Well, to find that out we will have to start at the beginning so let's travel back to the year 1921, when Hannah was born on July 17 of that year in Budapest, Hungary.

Her father, Bela, was a journalist, author and playwright, who passed away when Hannah was very young. His plays continued to be performed after his death, and one of them was made into a movie, the proceeds from which enabled his widow Katherine to provide for her children in a comfortable manner. Although Hannah's family was a wealthy, distinguished, and assimilated Hungarian family, they were also Jewish and Hannah was exposed to antisemitism during her high school years, inspiring her to learn more about her Jewish origins. In 1939, after finishing her high school studies, Szenes traveled to Palestine to study at the agricultural school in Nahalal.

In 1941, having completed a two-year course in agriculture, Szenes joined the Sedot Yam kibbutz in the town of Caesarea. A kibbutz is a voluntary residential community based on agriculture.  In 1943, Hannah enlisted voluntarily in the British Army and joined the Special Operations Executive (SOE), a secret British World War II organization. Officially formed on July 22, 1940, the purpose of this organization was to conduct espionage, sabotage and reconnaissance in occupied Europe (and later, also in occupied Southeast Asia) against the Axis powers, and to aid local resistance movements.

Hannah underwent parachute training, becoming one of several other Palestinian-Jewish volunteers in the British Army, and one of 3 women who requested to parachute into occupied Europe in order to help their Jewish brethren. In March 1944, approximately one week before the German occupation of Hungary, Hannah was parachuted into Yugoslavia with the other volunteers. Their goal was to aid the anti-Nazi forces until they were able to begin their true mission of entering the country of Hungary. On March 19, 1944, Nazi troops invaded Hungary, prime minister Miklós Kállay was deposed and soon mass deportations of Jews to German death camps in occupied Poland began.

With the Nazis standing in their way, Hannah and the other paratroopers lived with the Yugoslav Partisans, the resistance fighters, for about 3 months, trying at length to reach Hungary with their assistance. It was Hannah's unyielding belief that the paratroopers needed to act without worry about their own safety, since even if they didn't manage to save Jews, their personal sacrifice would be a symbol that would give strength and faith to the Jews of Europe.

In early June 1944, the opportunity finally arrived for Hannah and several others to cross the border to her former motherland of Hungary. Within hours of having stepped on to Hungarian soil, however, Hannah was caught by the Hungarian authorities and in her possession they found a transmitter. Desperate for information regarding Allied wireless codes, the Hungarian's had Hannah transferred to a jail in Budapest, where she was brutally tortured but refused to divulge any information about her mission. When the Hungarian authorities realized that Hannah would not be broken, they arrested her mother and for the first time in five years, mother and daughter were reunited.

Of that time, Hannah's mother Katherine would later have this to say: "The investigator asked me where Hannah was, and smiling, I answered that she was in an agricultural settlement near Haifa. He shook his head and said: "She is here, in the next room". The door opened. I was dumbstruck. Aniko [Hannah] was standing in the doorway, held by four men. Her disheveled hair did not conceal the blue contusions above her eyes. She escaped their grip and jumped on me, sobbing: "Mother, forgive me".

Once self-control kicked in, both mother and daughter refused to give the authorities the performance that would lead to the information they sought. Hannah Szenes' imprisonment lasted five months. On October 28, 1944, she stood trial for treason in a military court. Staunchly defending her activities, Hannah also expressed her Jewish faith in a boisterous and courageous manner. She was even bold enough to warn the judges that as the end of World War II drew near, their own fates would soon be decided upon. Convicted as a spy, Hannah was sentenced to death.

On the morning of November 7, 1944, the officer in charge gave Hannah two options: to beg for a pardon or to face death by a firing squad. A short time after this ultimatum was given, Hannah was led out to a snow-covered Budapest courtyard, having refused to beg for her life, and was executed in cold blood.

Hannah's last Hebrew poem, "Blessed is the Match", expresses her spirit of self-sacrifice for the sake of the Jewish people, and her willingness to fight to the last breath. She gave fellow paratrooper Reuven Dafni the poem, which can be found below in English, when they parted, on the night before she crossed the border into Hungary. She made this request of him: "If I don't come back, give this to my friends in Sedot Yam."

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.
2 May 1944

- Translated from the Hebrew by Marie Syrkin

In 1950, Hannah Szenes’ remains were brought to Israel where they were buried in the “Parachutists’ section” in the military cemetery on Mt. Herzl in Jerusalem. In the same year, a kibbutz was founded and called Yad Hannah in her memory. In 1986, Katherine Szenes, who miraculously survived the horrors of the war,  submitted a Page of Testimony to Yad Vashem in memory of her daughter Hannah. In November 1993, the first governing cabinet of Hungary after the end of Communism officially exonerated Hannah Szenes.