Hannah Szenes

Posted by Radical Jew on July 26, 2021
b. 17 July 1921 – d. 7 November 1944)

“In the mountains one involuntarily hears the query: “Where shall I send you?” And the answer, “Send me to serve the beautiful and good!”

Hannah Senesh


Eli, Eli (written in 1942 while in the land of Israel)

My God, My God, I pray that these things never end,
The sand and the sea,
The rustle of the waters,
Lightning of the Heavens,
The prayer of Man.


Who was Hannah Szenes and why did she parachute into occupied Europe? WJC

“One, Two, Three,” written in 1944 in her cell, not long after being captured in Hungary and not before she was tortured and murdered.

One – two – three… eight feet long
Two strides aOne – two – three… eight feet long
Two strides across, the rest is dark…
Life is a fleeting question mark
One – two – three… maybe another week.
Or the next month may still find me here,
But death, I feel is very near.
I could have been 23 next July
I gambled on what mattered most, the dice were cast. I lost.
cross, the rest is dark…
Life is a fleeting question mark

Long-lost poem by war heroine Hannah Szenes is found (Jewish Women’s Archive)

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