"Blessed is the Match" Screening Held as Part of Annual Jewish Israeli Film Festival

“Blessed is the Match”

By Hannah Senesh

Blessed is the match consumed in kindling flame.

Blessed is the flame that burns in the secret fastness of the heart.

Blessed is the heart with strength to stop its beating for honour's sake.

Blessed is the match consumed in kindling fame.

The National Catholic Center for Holocaust education (NCCHE) and the 16^th annual Jewish Israeli Film Festival con-sponsored a screening of Roberta Grossman’s film “Blessed is the Match” at Carmike Cinemas in Greensburg, PA on March 23, 2009. Grossman, who produced and directed, was on hand to introduce the film and to respond to questions afterward.

The film tells the story of the 22-year-old poet Hannah Senesh, who was caught parachuting into Hungary as part of a resistance movement.  The mission Senesh participated in was the only military rescue mission for Jews.

Hannah Senesh was born into a middle-class family in Budapest, Hungary in 1921. Her father was a prominent playwright in the country. In May 1927, Hannah’s father died. She began writing poems as a way of coping with her father’s death. Hannah continued to write as the years passed.  Her father’s spirit motivated her. “I always feel like he’s with me. I would like to be worthy of him as a writer,” wrote Hannah in her diary.

Hannah was elected to her school’s literary society in Budapest in 1937, only to be informed that a re-election was being held almost immediately because Jews couldn’t hold an office. It was then that Hannah realized “what it means to be a Jew in a Christian society.”

Hannah’s brother Giora was not allowed to attend the University in Hungary, so he was sent to study in France. Giora asked his friends in the Arrowcross, the Hungarian Fascists movement, to look over Hannah and their mother Catherine. Hannah saw it was “naive to think these boys will do anything for us.”

Hannah began searching for something to believe in, give her life meaning. She found that in The Zionist movement and planned to immigrate. For many European Jews, British Palestine was “a vision of an alternative to the impending doom of Europe.”

In March, 1939, Hannah applied to the Girls Agricultural School in Israel because she saw that “the great need is for workers to build countries.” Her certificate of immigration arrived that July, but all official roads to Palestine were soon closed. Hannah attached herself to a party of Slovakians who arrived in Palestine on July 21, 1930. On arriving in the country, Hannah said “I am home.”

For the next year, Hannah was able to communicate steadily with her mother in Hungary and brother in France. On June 28, 1940, her communication with Giora cut off permanently. The letters home to Catherine arrive infrequently and were restricted to telegrams by the summer of 1941.

The first victims of the Holocaust from Poland began arriving in Palestine in 1942. Hannah felt “an obligation to Israel, to do something great for it.” She was struck by the idea of going to Hungary and organizing youth resistance.

“A voice called, a feeling of destiny,” wrote Senesh.

On February 22, 1943, the Haganah, a Jewish military organization under the British Mandate of Palestine, organized a unit to liberate Jews in Europe. The last safe Jewish community in Europe was in Hungary.  Hungary had openly refused Hitler’s face-to-face command to deport Jews.  The British needed agents who knew the language and territory.  The plan was to work their way through Yugoslavia to escape routes, make contact with the resistance, and rescue the surrounding Jews in Hungary. Thirty people were chosen for the mission. Hannah was one of three women.  Since Palestinians who entered into Nazi territory as civilians would be automatically shot, the parachuters were given status in the Royal Air Force.

Before the mission took place, Hannah wrote in December 26, 1943 of her feelings about what she was about to do:

“Perhaps it’s madness, perhaps it’s fantastic….sometimes one is commanded to do something even at the price of one’s life. In my heart are two great loves: one is love of my nation, my people, and my second love is my mother”

Through March 14-19, Germany managed to occupy Hungary. Hannah and the parchutists arrived during this time, remarking “we are late, we are late.”  From May 15-July 18, nearly ½ million were put on trains; all humiliating laws that the rest of the European Jews had been subjected to were put into effect with fantastic speed. This all happened at the point when everyone knew Germany was going to lose.  Hannah said that “we are the only ones would could possibly help.”

Was the mission a success in any way?

“No,” said director Roberta Grossman. “The circumstances on the ground had changed. There was no way they could have done anything”

On June 9^th, 1944, Hannah and her fellow officers made their way towards the Hungarian border from Yugoslavia. Some met Gendarmes, who intended to take their prisoners to the police station and then release them. The man hiding with Hannah did not hear the last part; he reached into his pocket and accidently fired his gun. The shot gave away their position; Hannah was found with a British radio transmitter. She refused to give away the code to the radio.

Catherine Senesh was brought to the prison holding Hannah, and was told by a prison officer if Hannah “doesn’t tell everything she knows, this will be your last meeting.” Catherine was subsequently thrown in jail.

Hannah’s frequently interrogations slowed by the summer of 1944. In September of 1944, Catherine was released from prison.

On Oct. 15, 1945, the destinies of Hungary’s remaining Jews were sealed; Hungary was overthrown, and the Arrowcross took over. They could not deport Jews because Germany was crumbling, but they could torture and murder them at home. Jews were rounded up, roped, and put in the Danube; the Arrowcross shot every other person to same ammo. Those who weren’t shot drowned.

Hannah’s trial took place on Oct. 28, 1945. Catherine Senesh was not allowed inside. Hannah said to prosecutors,”Remember, the war will end, and you will be tried for what you’re doing to me.” Catherine received a visitor’s pass to the prison. She waited in an official’s office to be informed of the status of her daughter’s sentence. At 11:45 A.M., the man returned from Hannah’s execution.

Catherine escaped a forced death march, and refused to depart for Palestine without Hannah’s body. Hannah had initially been buried in the martyr section of a Jewish cemetery in Hungary.  In 1950, the body of Hannah Senesh, a symbol of hope of the new nation of Israel, was moved to Palestine and buried on Mt. Herzl with the other parachutists.

To make the film, Grossman traveled to Israel to meet with survivors. “This”, said Grossman, “was the last possible moment to have them.” She was introduced to people who knew the Senesh family. Giora’s sons took her to what had been Catherine’s room. There, in 1300 pictures, Hannah’s entire life was laid out.