In poetry and prose, Ruth Whitman recreates the last nine months in the life of Hanna Senesh—poet, pioneer, and hero of World War II.
Having immigrated to Palestine in 1939, Hanna later decided to return to her native Hungary to help save its Jewish population from the Nazis. She trained with the British Intelligence, parachuted into Yugoslavia, and eventually slipped across the border to Hungary. Tragically, the very next day she was denounced by an informer. After nine months of imprisonment, interrogation, and torture, Hanna Senesh, aged twenty-three, was executed. She left behind a legacy of poems and her diary. Her work is now part of the folk heritage of Israel.
Ruth Whitman has written an inspiring postscript to Hanna's diary. Based on research and interviews with Hanna's family, friends, and fellow parachutists, the book begins where time and circumstance forced Hanna to leave off. The result is a sensitive portrait of a remarkable woman.