''I was attracted by the future of Sdot Yam, the tasks ahead of it, to be there at its beginnings!''
In the Kibbutz, Hannah lived a creative existence of work and fulfillment. She had but little time for herself and her diary, but when she takes up pen, her special. character is revealed before us, still uncertain - yet at peace with her deeds, searching for her way, hesitating, yet pacing confidently down the path she chose.''Nine hours a day I stand and so the laundry, and I ask myself if this is indeed all I can contribute?... I feel a lot of unused power inside me''.
At the beginning of 1942, when Hannah wrote these words, the Nazi destruction machine was at the height of its operation. Hundreds of thousands of Jews were murdered every day. Hannah, like the rest of the yishuv, the Jewish settlers in Eretz Israel, was not aware, at first, of the extent of the catastrophe. But in the fall of 1942 information was beginning to arrive regarding the holocaust taking place in Europe. Horror took hold of the yishuv. They tried to alert the leaders of the allied nations to take action, but with no success. The leaders of the Zionist movement planned to establish a rescue unit that would be sent to Europe. For over a year they begged but only at the beginning of 1944 were they answered - parachutists from Eretz Israel were to be dropped in Yugoslavia, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Romania and Austria - with a double mission: a formal mission - gathering intelligence for the British army and another, secret mission: saving Jews.''Suddenly, the idea grabbed me that I must go to Hungary, and be there during these days, To lend a hand to the ''Aliyat Ha'noar'' organization and also to bring out my possible and vital and I decided to rise and act'' (8.1.43)
Hannah kept these thoughts to herself, but the idea of lending a hand to her brothers abroad, left to the mercy of the Nazis, did not leave here mind.''Weird things happen at times. A month ago I wrote a few words in my diary about the sudden idea that grabbed me, and just a few days ago a member of the Palmach visited here... and during a conversation we held, he told me that a ''Palmach'' unit is being organized that was designated to do... exactly what I felt sough be don't then. The coincidence is eerie'' (22.2.43)
Two hundred and forty boys and girls were selected for the mission in Europe, they went through rigorous training: parachuting, weapons, radio, sabotage and more. Twenty-six were sent on their way, after completing training in Cairo: 24 men and two women, on of whom was Hannah Senesh.''This week I am to leave for Egypt,enlisted, a soldier... I want to believe that I did, and am going to do, the right thin. A s for the rest - only time will tell.''(11.1.44)
This is how the diary ends - placed in a suitcase and deposited for safekeeping in the storage room of Sdot Yam Kibbutz, together with then notebook featuring her poems, the play she write, her many letters and much more. Her friends in the Kibbutz were quite unaware of this side of her personality.Next Back