Hannah Szenes
Hungarian resistance fighter
Died when: 23 years 113 days (279 months)Star Sign: Cancer
Hannah Szenes (often anglicized as Hannah Senesh or Chanah Senesh; Hebrew: ??? ???; Hungarian: Szenes Anna; 17 July 1921 – 7 November 1944) was a poet and a Special Operations Executive (SOE) member.
She was one of 37 Jewish SOE recruits from Mandate Palestine parachuted by the British into Yugoslavia during the Second World War to assist anti-Nazi forces and ultimately in the rescue of Hungarian Jews about to be deported to the German death camp at Auschwitz.
Szenes was arrested at the Hungarian border by Hungarian gendarmes. She was imprisoned and tortured, but refused to reveal details of her mission.
She was eventually tried and executed by firing squad. She is regarded as a national heroine in Israel but has largely been forgotten in her birthplace of Hungary according to The Guardian.
In Israel her poetry is widely known and the Yad Hana kibbutz, as well as several streets, are named after her.