Hanna Szenes

1921–1944

Resistance fighter, Zionist, and poet Hanna Szenes (Senesh) was born into an assimilated Jewish family in Budapest. In the 1930s, Szenes moved to Palestine, where she joined Kibbutz Sedot Yam. In 1942, she became a parachutist and was trained by the underground Haganah organization to rescue prisoners of war and organize Jewish resistance in Europe. In March 1944, Szenes was dropped into Yugoslavia. She made her way across the Hungarian border, where she was arrested and killed by the Hungarians. In 1950, her body was interred on Mt. Herzl in Jerusalem. Her diary from her teenage years was published in 1971.

Entries in the Posen Library by This Creator

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Blessed Is the Match

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Blessed is the match, consumed in kindling flame. Blessed is the flame that burns in the heart’s secret places. Blessed is the heart that knows, for honors sake, to stop its beating. Blessed is the…