World War II Database

Contributor: C. Peter Chen

ww2dbaseHannah Szenes (given name in Hungarian: Anikó) was born to assimilated Jews Béla (a journalist and a playwright) and Catherina Szenes in Hungary in 1921. Her father passed away in 1927. She experienced the prejudice against Jews while attending a Christian school, thus became a Zionist through the Maccabea student organization. She emigrated to Palestine in 1939 and enrolled in the Girls' Agricultural School in Nahalal. In 1941, she joined the Sdot Yam kibbutz on the Mediterranean coast of Palestine. Shortly after, she joined the Haganah paramilitary organization. In 1943, she joined the British Women's Auxiliary Air Force at the rating of Aircraftwoman 2nd Class. Later in the same year, she was recruited into the Special Operations Executive (SOE) and received parachute training in Egypt. In Mar 1944, she was parachuted into Yugoslavia alongside fellow operatives Yoel Palgi and Peretz Goldstein with aims to cross the Yugoslavian-Hungarian border. The three were arrested by Hungarian military policemen after they discovered her British military transmitter. Szenes was tortured for three days at a border facility, and then she was transferred to Budapest, Hungary where the torture continued. Hungarian authorities arrested her mother as a means to persuade her to reveal information about her mission, but Szenes refused to talk. In Oct 1944, she was tried for treason against her home country of Hungary; found guilty, she was executed by firing squad in the following month. Her diary was published in Hebrew in 1946. In 1950, her remains were buried on Mount Herzl, Jerusalem, Israel. In 1993, a Hungarian military court exonerated her.

Photographs

Hannah Szenes Timeline