1-198-759 - From the Jewish Chronicle Archive/Heritage Images

Hannah Senesh (1921-44) relaxing on Kibbutz Sdot Yam which she helped to build, c1943. Hannah Senesh was born in Budapest, Hungary, in 1921. In 1939 Senesh emigrated to Palestine where she studied agricultural. Having studied Hebrew in Hungary, she soon began keeping her journal and writing poetry in Hebrew. When she heard about the Jews in Europe being placed in concentration camps she went to Britain and offered her services in fighting against fascism. In 1944 she was parachuted into Yugoslavia where her task was to join the partisans. Her main objective was to persuade the partisans to cross the border into Hungary in order to rescue Jews from the extermination camps. Senesh was captured by the German Army soon after arriving in Yugoslavia. She was tortured by the Gestapo for several months before being executed in Budapest in November, 1944.