Hanna Szenes remembered 100 years after birth

National Library uploads archive of her personal items

The National library of Israel on Tuesday uploaded to its website items never before seen from the hanna szenes archive to commemorate her 100th birthday.

among the documents are school notebooks and certificates, her bat mitzvah certificate, a list of books she read, and more.

although szenes was only 23 when she died, she left a wealth of important handwritten materials, such as her poems. The archive also includes documents, such as letters exchanged with her family and documents from her trial. There were also photographs of her personal items and her family.

some of the most important items are a notepad that was found in her pocket when she was executed, the last poem she wrote and a note to her mother.

szenes was born in Budapest in 1921. The antisemitism in hungary pushed her toward Zionism, and she made aliyah in 1939. after spending two years at an agricultural school, she joined Kibbutz sdot yam, where she farmed and wrote poetry and a play about life on a kibbutz.

on march 9, 1944, szenes parachuted into then-yugoslavia with four comrades, and in june she crossed into her native hungary, where she was caught and arrested by the Nazis.

For months, szenes was subjected to brutal questioning under torture, and even though she knew her mother was at risk because of her arrest, she resisted and did not divulge information to her Nazi interrogators.

szenes was tried for espionage and, as a hungarian citizen, high treason. she was sentenced to death and executed on November 7, 1944. In 1950, her remains were repatriated to Israel, and she was buried with full military honors on mount herzl.