b'BC_5782_2021final_cmyk_Layout 18/8/219:47 AMPage 32Hannah Senesh was born in Budapest in 1921 to an assimilated, well-to-do family. She was anoutstanding student and became a Zionist while studying Jewish history, which she was impelled to doafter encountering antisemitism. Just after graduating in 1939, she emigrated to Palestine, where shestudied at an agricultural school. Two years later, after completing her studies, she joined a kibbutz nearCaesarea. In 1943, she was asked to join a secret project whose purpose was to liberate some of Europes Jews. Shetrained in Egypt as a paratrooper, and in March 1944 parachuted into Yugoslavia together with several otherJewish Palestinians. Their mission was to cross into Hungary and provide assistance to partisans there. InJune, she and four others entered Hungary, but they were betrayed and arrested the next day. Tortured inprison for weeks, she refused to reveal any secrets, including the code for her radio transmitter. She wastried for treason and eloquently defended herself. Sentenced to death by firing squad, she refused a blindfoldand was executed on November 7.A prolific writer and poet, Senesh kept a diary from age 13 until shortly before she died. She left most ofher writings in a suitcase at the kibbutz, where they were discovered after her death. Among them was apoem,A Walk to Caesarea, which was set to music in 1945 by David Zehavi. Better known by the Hebrewopening words Eli, Eli, it is sung throughout Israel on Yom Hashoah (Holocaust Remembrance Day):Hannah Senesh on My God, my God,her first day in may it never end Palestine, 1939. the sand and the sea,the rustle of the water,the brilliance of the sky,the prayer of man.'