100th anniversary of the birth of Hannah Szenes

100th anniversary of the birth of Hannah Szenes

19. 07. 2021 

A ceremony on the occasion of the Day of Slovene-Israeli Friendship and the 100th bnniversary of the birth of the Israeli national heroine and poet Hannah Szenes.

The Day of Slovenian-Israeli Friendship will be celebrated for the first time, on the 100th anniversary of the birth of Hannah Szenes, an Israeli national heroine and poet. The President of the Republic Borut Pahor will be the keynote speaker at the ceremony. Eyal Sela, Ambassador of the State of Israel, and Martina Legan Janžekovič, Deputy Mayor of Metlika, will also address the audience. Before the start of the ceremony, Slovenian and Israeli parachutists will honour the memory of Hannah Szenes with a parachute jump.

Hannah Szenes (July 17, 1921, Budapest-November 7, 1944, Budapest) is the best known of the 37 Jewish paratroopers from Palestine sent by the British during World War II to the occupied territories with the task of helping the persecuted Jews. On March 14, 1944, she parachuted to the partisan descent Oklinak in Žumberk or Gorjanci. The base was on the Slovenian side of the border in the village of Drage (Metlika municipality), and the descent itself was on the Croatian side. The paratroopers were received by Slovene partisans, commanded by Stane Vrhovnik – Marjan. The original plan was for the partisans to take Hannah to Murska Sobota along with another paratrooper. There she was supposed to simply board a train and drive to Budapest. Hannah’s plan to get to Budapest via Murska Sobota was prevented by the German occupation of Hungary on March 19, 1944. Certainly, soon after that date, the paratroopers went to the Croatian partisans. On June 9, 1944, immediately after crossing the border to Hungary, Hannah was captured near the village of Mala Subotica. On October 28, 1944, she was sentenced to death in Budapest and there, on November 7, 1944, she was also executed.

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