Excerpt:
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. -Hannah Senesh, poet, playwright, and paratrooper (1921-1944)
Dear Hannah:
Hannah Senesh: Her Life and Diary, the First Complete Edition
By Hannah Senesh, Marge Piercy, Roberta Grossman Lajos Jekely…Lajos Aprily
p. 169, ‘Letters’…
I slept quite well last night, and this morning after breakfast I went by bus to the Carmel. On the way up we passed beautiful modern shops,…
The Mission
The Last Border
I had the privilege of serving with Hannah during WWII, slogging through the land of the Ygoslav partisans for months until the terrible day she crossed the Hungarian border and fell into Nazi hands.
…in Cairo…She was happy, cheerful, joked…Her changes of mood astounded me. One moment she would be rolling with laughter, the next aflame with fervor. I felt that a kind of divine spark must be burning in the depths of her being…I’ll never forget the way she helped me overcome my enormous psychological tension during our training. Hannah seemed utterly fearless. …on the night of March 13, 1944, we were told to get ready to leave, she was overjoyed. She sang the whole way…That song…became our group’s theme song.
….Hannah was to continue on into neighboring Hungary, but we encountered a wall of reality at the very outset. We had to reach the Hungarian border on foot, and the partisans informed us that there was no possibility of crossing, because the Germans had recaptured the border region. “You’ll just have to wait,”…A few days later we learned that the Germans had occupied Hungary as well. It was catastrophic news for all of us---and it was the first time I saw Hannah cry…amidst her sobs she exclaimed, “What will happen to all of them…to the million Jews in Hungary? They’re in German hands now---and we’re sitting here…just sitting.”
Her conscience knew no rest. It was as if the earth beneath her were on fire. She constantly sought ways to cross the border, but we were entirely dependent upon the partisans, and our objective was foreign to them. Meanwhile we roamed that beautiful land of mountains and forests beset by rebellion and battle, awed by the magnificent landscape. We lived through amazing experiences---some disillusioning and depressing, others encouraging and inspiring. Our emotional fare was certainly varied. …exciting as the beat of the music…it was exhilarating to watch the men and women dancing, rifles strapped to their soldiers, hand grenades swinging from their belts. Hannah slipped into the main circle, quickly adapted to the beat, and danced for hours. We also endured fearsome, endless days under fire….We were completely alone, cut off, surrounded by the enemy. …continued running in an open valley, entirely exposed to the firing from the encircling hills. We tried desperately to catch up with the retreating partisans. All around we heard cries of fear from clusters of bewildered civilians who stumbled along, clutching pathetic belongings, their children, driving their thinning herds of cattle. The cries of the wounded and the groans of the dying filled the stillness; people dropped like wounded birds. All about us there was horrible panic. In the mad race to save my own life I forgot everything. Suddenly I stopped, horrified at the thought that I had been cut off from Hannah, I turned, saw her running behind me, breathing wildly, gasping for breath. Her instinct for self-preservation, goaded by the firing and sounds of battle, spurred her on. With our last ounce of strength we reached the forest and, we hoped, protection from enemy fire. We fell to the ground, exhausted but safe. For a short while we lay silently in the bushes,, clutching our rifles, listening to the incessant tattoo of bullets, the moaning of the wounded. …Our nerves were at breaking point. At the edge of the forest the Germans, shooting wildly in all directions, were so close they could have stepped on us.
…..
One evening we found ourselves in a village under the command of a woman partisan. When she stepped into the room where we were seated, I was astounded. I knew her! We had been childhood friends, had lived in the same district, had played together in the streets of the capital. The years of terror had left their mark on her face, and…her hair was streaked with gray. …it turned out that all of us in the room were Jews. We became very excited by this discovery and felt united by an almost sacred bond. She revealed the horrible suffering of the Jews in the Diaspora to us, who had been so protected in Palestine, ….
…later she handed me the four-line poem, “Blessed Is the Match,”…
…June 9, 1944…the day for her to cross into Hungary….dreams for the future…”We’ll arrange celebrations…and we’ll tell them everything that happened to us, and spin tall tales. …we’ll visit the entire country…We left the house together but walked in the opposite direction from the border…”Till we meet again---soon, I hope, in enemy territory.”…she turned and waved farewell. I didn’t know I would never see her again. Reuven Dafne
p.239 The Mission: How She Fell
May 13, 1944, the very day---….that the expulsion of the Jews from most of Hungary’s cities had begun….we were unaware…agreed to meet after the Sabbath service at the Great Synagogue in Budapest. And if Jewish services were no longer being held there, we would meet on the same day, at the same time, at the Cathedral.
I waited in vain for her…When I was thrown into jail, battered and broken in body and spirit, I kept thinking, it’s a good thing she doesn’t have to suffer all this. Who knows whether she could have stood it…it’s a good thing she isn’t here….
…arrested…in same prison…solitary cell…Her window became an information and education center, and from morning till evening prisoners looked toward it for news…She gave them new heart.
Her behavior before members of the Gestapo and SS was quite remarkable. She always stood up to them, warning them plainly of the bitter fate they would suffer after their defeat. Curiously, these wild animals, in whom every spark of humanity had been extinguished, felt awed in the presence of this fearless young girl. …We were moved to the Hungarian prison together…I heard how they had tied her…whipped her palms and the soles of her feet, bound her and forced her to sit motionless for hours on end, beaten her all over the body until she was black and blue. …only one thing, “What is your code?”…”You are state property; we’ll do away with you when we no longer need you, not before.”…They brought her to Budapest…there, to her horror, she found her beloved mother. …They threatened to torture her mother…and kill her. Still Hannah would not yield….Hannah’s fortitude saved her mother. …Sept 11 we parted..
Oct 28, 1944 the day of her trial…she explained boldly what had brought her to Hungary, analyzing in a penetrating way the political-moral decline of Hungary during the preceding years. And she stressed---in the very midst of Fascist rule---the great crime in which the Hungarians had participated…then the dark moment of execution in the gray courtyard beneath our cell window.
…her cell…Cell 13, the Condemned Cell…the letters she wrote were never delivered.
…
Senesh returned to her native Hungary in 1943 to help rescue Jews. She was captured by the Nazi's and executed at the age of 23.
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