November 7: Hannah Szenes, executed at age 23 – by Axis allies in Hungary.
Born in Hungary, 1921, she makes aliyah (moves to Israel) 1939–1943; Palmach/Haganah member Senesh parachutes into Nazi–occupied Europe (Yugoslavia–Hungary border area) as part of British SOE—Special Operations Units—rescue commando units—hoping to interfere with Nazi deportations of Jews to concentration camps; but captured by Hungarian Axis allies…and tortured by same vainly trying to extract code to her British radio transmitter; executed by firing squad about half–a–year after her capture.
Her remains transferred to Israel National Military Cemetery on Mt. Herzl in Jerusalem in 1950—along with six other Jewish/Palestine parachutists executed by the Nazis in Slovakia, Hungary and Italy….
Szenes became emblematic of the parachutist group (32 originally parachuted + 5 infiltrated into Nazi–occupied Europe)—and a genuine consummate national heroine of Israel.
Her actual (Hebrew–inscribed) tombstone brought from Hungary to Israel (just recently) in November 2007 and placed in Sdot Yam kibbutz near Haifa.
Szenes was also a poet; two of her poems later turned into enduring–to–this–day Hebrew songs—“Ey–ly, she–lo yi–ga–mer me’olam” and “Ashrei Ha–Gafrur.”