Hannah Senesh: Her Life and Diary, the First Complete Edition
Hero • Martyr • Poet
The inspiring story of a remarkable life cut short.
"I don't think Hannah wanted to die for the sake of having her memory exalted in history or to prove herself equal to a romantic image she conceived for herself. Her purpose wasn't to die. She died for her life's purpose."
—U.S. Senator John McCain, in Why Courage Matters
Hannah Senesh, poet and Israel's national heroine, has come to be seen as a symbol of Jewish heroism. Safe in Palestine during World War II, she volunteered for a mission to help rescue fellow Jews in her native Hungary. She was captured by the Nazis, endured imprisonment and torture, and was finally executed at the age of twenty-three.
Like Anne Frank, she kept a diary from the time she was thirteen. This new edition brings together not only the widely read and cherished diary, but many of Hannah’s poems and letters, memoirs written by Hannah’s mother, accounts by parachutists who accompanied Hannah on her fateful mission, and insightful material not previously published in English.
Described by a fellow parachutist as a "spiritual girl guided almost by mysticism," Hannah’s life has something of value to teach everyone. Now the subject of a feature-length documentary, Blessed Is the Match: The Life and Death of Hannah Senesh, Hannah’s words and actions will inspire people from each generation to follow their own inner voices, just as she followed hers.
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Book details
- Author
- Ginasra Senesh, Eitan Senesh, David Senesh
- Imprint
- Jewish Lights, an imprint of Turner Publishing Company
- Published
- Formats
- Paperback, Hardcover
- Subjects
- Religion › Judaism
- Topics
- Holocaust · World War II · Jewish heroism · personal diary · Hungary · poetry · biography · Palestine
- ISBN-13
- 9781580233422 (Paperback)9781683361046 (Hardcover)
About the author
HANNAH SENESH was a Hungarian-born Jewish poet, playwright, and resistance operative who began keeping a diary at age thirteen and demonstrated literary talent from an early age. Her diary and writings were first published in Hebrew in 1966 and in English in 1971.
Senesh is regarded as a national heroine in Israel, celebrated for her poetry and her courage.
Trained by the British Special Operations Executive, Senesh parachuted into Yugoslavia in 1944 as one of thirty-seven Jewish volunteers on a mission to rescue Hungarian Jews. She was captured, imprisoned, tortured, and executed by firing squad in Budapest at the age of twenty-three.