PURELY COMMENTARY

PHILIP SLOMOVITZ

World Jewry's Debt To The Heroic Hanna Senesh

Heroism that terminated in martyr-
dom, Zionist identification that emerges as
a guideline in Jewish idealism for the gen-
erations of our youth, poetry with an inspi-
ration in time of stress — these are the
basics of one of the most glorious chapters
in courageous dedications spelled out
under the name of Hanna Senesh.
Since her murderous execution by the
Iron Cross anti-Semites of her native Hun-
gary when she returned there from her
Kibbutz in Israel on a rescue mission, in
1944 at the age of 23, scores of articles and
several books have been written in tribute
to her. Now two important publishers have
added volumes that spell out the name
Senesh. Different spellings have utilized,
depending on the Hungarian in which it is
Szenes and the Anglicized Senesh. The
echo of the idealism is alike wherever her
name is repeated.
Now, currently, simultaneously, we
have the two new ones about this heroic
figure in Jewish history:
From Wayne State University Press,
The Testing of Hanna Senesh, edited by
Ruth Whitman. Ordinary Heroes: Chana
Szenes and the Dream of Zion," by Peter
Hay, published by G. P. Putnam's Sons.
The WSU Press volume, with an his-
torical background by Livia Rothkirchen,
is a selection of the heroine's brief poems.
They combine to introduce the courageous
woman who left her native Hungary for
Israel, built a life for herself there and then
left on the ill-fated mission as a
parachutist.
The Whitman edited compilation of
poems covers the vast field of information
about the brilliant young woman as poet
and as devoted Jewish idealist.
The Hay volume is among the earliest
available and provides a totality about
Hanna's family. Peter Hay, who was born
in Budapest in 1943, the year of Hanna's
martyrdom, and was intimately identified
with the Seneshes, utilized available
documents, Hanna's diary, the knowledge
about her and her family among acquain-
tances.

Prof. Hay, who teaches at UCLA, ad-
miringly portrays the life of the heroine.
The title of the book nevertheless invites
criticism. Was Hanna an "ordinary"
heroine? Extraordinary comes closer to
fact and realism.
For a total appreciation of the heroine
and the admiration for her, it is necessary
to recall the previous volumes available
about her.
In 1971, Schocken books issued a
translation of the Hebrew text of Hannah
Senesh: Her Life and Diaries, with an in-
troduction by Abba Eban.
St. Martin's Press published The
Summer That Bled, a Biography of Han-
nah. Senesh, subtitled "The Most Ambiti-
ous Rescue Attempt of World War II," by
Anthony Masters.
The Jewish Publication Society pre-
ceded them all, in 1947, with the deeply
moving Blessed is the Match: The Story of
Jewish Resistance by Marie Syrkin.
It is the title of the last listed book that
is echoed in everything written about
Hanna Senesh. Hannah reached Yugos-
lavia with fellow parachutists before going
on to Hungary for the planned mission to
rescue oppressed Jews from Nazis. Reuven
Dafni who later held inportant Israel gov-
ernment positions, stayed behind in
Yugoslavia for further rescue activities
there, and as she left, rejecting some advice
about her well-being, she handed him a
sheet of paper with a verse. He crumbled it
momentarily but later smoothed it and Is-
rael and world Jewry now can read it as one
of her last legacies to her people. It is the
now famously acclaimed "Blessed is the
Match." It is widely referred to. It is so

Continued on Page 24

translated from the Hebrew
by Marie Syrkin

There exists a precedent for these
lines. It is an emphasis on Hanna's poetic
skills. It recalls the influence upon her of
her Zionist ideal as a heritage from her
youth. The earlier text reads:
As a little child
I heard a voice
calling me, commanding me:
it was dim at first,
but I knew I was chosen:
it called me, called
until I folloWed:
now I hear it clearly:
I must be the match
to strike the flame:
I must be the flame.

Hanna merits an even more impres-
sive tribute. She was a master of prose and
poetry and she had begun writing when
she was six. It was an inheritance from her
father, a dramatist, and his literary talent
was in evidence in her writings. He died
when she was a mere child and his drama-
tic skill was a deep-rooted memory for her.

Bitburg Sensationalism, Agony

Centenary Of AFL
Keeps Alive Memory
Of Samuel Gompers

It was on Dec. 7, 1886 that Samuel
Gompers, then vice president of the Cigar
Makers Union, presided at the meeting
held in Columbus, Ohio for the formation
of the American Federation of Labor.
As the organizer of the powerful labor
movement, Gompers wrote his name inde-
libly into American history, and gained
recognition on that score internationally.
It was as organizing president that
Gompers became for the initial years of the
movement its only paid employee, at
$1,000 a year. In that capacity he drew into
the task the leading labor organizers and
strongest labor movements in the nation.
Labor unions are now believed to be
either experiencing or approaching dif-
ficult times. Yet, the creative, pioneering
tasks of Samuel Gompers are expected not
only to survive but also to regain strength
as time goes on.
The early years of struggles in behalf
of the movement of which he truly was the
founding father were not easy ones. He
made it his life's ideal and progress was
imminent. In an article in the Jewish For-
ward, about Gompers and the AFL, Davis
L. Pearlman wrote:
The AFL-CIO's first office was
a tiny room with a brick floor,
"cold in the winter and hot in
summer." The furniture was a
kitchen table brought from home

significant that Marie Syrkin used it as the
title of her JPS book. Thus, with its brev-
ity, the powerful "Blessed is the Match":
Blessed is the match consumed in
kindling flame.
Blessed is the flame that burns in
the secret fastness of the heart.
Blessed is the heart with strength
to stop its beating for honour's
sake.
Blessed is the match consumed in
kindling flame.
Sardice, Yugoslavia May 2, 1944

Reagan and Kohl at Bitburg.

"Bitburg" became a byword when
President Ronald Reagan went to Bitburg,
Germany, and to visit a neighboring mili-
tary cemetery there. The visit created a
horror. The implied tribute to the SS crim-
inals buried in that cemetery drew serious
protests, and there were the expected de-
fenders of the President.
The entire record, in the media of this
country, Germany, Israel and nearly all
the countries in Europe and on this conti-
nent gave voluminous space to the occur-
rence. The total record of it has been com-
piled in 750-page book, Bitburg and Be-
yond (Shapolsky Publishers). It is edited by
Ilya Levkov, a noted political analyst,
author of books and many articles on the
USSR, who now resides in Israel and is
chairman of Liberty Publishing Co.
Compiler-editor Levkov shows re-

markable skill as archvist in assembling
the data about the most controversial issue
involving the SS guilt in the Holocaust, the
American-German disputes, the positives
and the negatives that arose in mid-1985.
Notable in the dispute was the con-
frontation on the subject between Elie
Wiesel and president Reagan.
It is the Wiesel attitude, with his de-
mand that the President abandon the
planned visit, that emphasized the courage
of the famous survivor from Nazism.
Evident also is the attitude of West
German Chancellor Helmet Kohl, which
was viewed by many as arrogant.
Unlimited attention is given to the
leadership in the issue, in the protest that
also asserted a condemnation of the SS
cruelties, in the interview with Wiesel by
the German magazine Der Spiegel. Then
there was the outspoken Wiesel declara-
tion to Reagan: "Your place is with the
victims." It was Wiesel's response to the
President upon receiving the coveted Con-
gressional Gold Medal of Achievement,
April 19, 1985.
In the interview with Der Spiegel
there are these notable Wiesel statements:
Spiegel: How do you explain
that the President of the U.S. and
his staff so wrongly estimated the
reaction of large groups of people
in America to the Bitburg visit?
Wiesel: It is indeed particu-
larly disquieting that neither on
the American or German side did
anyone ever think that graves of
Waffen-SS might ever become a
problem. Instead, the planners
seem to have thought the chapter
was closed, a page had been
turned, and a new era could begin.
Spiegel: But President Reagan

Continued on Page 24

Hanna Senesh

Hanna was not a Zionist until she was
17. That's when she left for kibbutz life in
Israel, becoming integrated with her fel-
low youth. When, concerned about the fel-
low Jews she left in Budapest, she decided
to become a parachutist and in that role to
go on a rescue mission. She was urged not
to undertake the dangerous mission. She
pursued her goal, was trained in Cairo,
then came the tragic end when she was
captured, tortured and then confronted
with the pro-Nazi firing squad.
Her mother Catho was arrested with
her, but was miraculously spared death.
She went to Israel where she, in her 90th
year, still relates the story of her and Han-
na's experiences. Hanna's brother Gyurd
managed to escape the Nazi terror and set-
tled in Israel as a youth and shares the
family memories there with their mother.
Such is the story of heroism that is also
genius. It is good for Israel, Jewry and the
world that the name Hanna Senesh is not,
and never will be forgotten.

Fame As USSR Authority
Attained Nationally
By Dr. Marshall Shulman

Former Detroiter Marshall D. Shul-
man has attained national repute on high a
scale that he merits remembering in the
city and state in which he commenced his
professional and diplomatic career.
Columbia University has just an-
nounced the establishment of the Endowed
Professorship of Soviet Foreign Policies in
honor of Prof. Shulman who is rounding
out his 40-year career as one of this na-
tion's most distinguished authorities on
Russia and Russian policies.
The establishment of the professor-
ship was announced at a formal dinner at
the School of International Affairs, and
Columbia University President Michael I.
Sovern made it known that friends and
colleagues pledged $1 million in gifts for
the honor of Prof. Shulman who also is now
marking his 70th birthday. Simultane-
ously Dr. Sovern announced that a $1 mil-
lion gift from Pepsico Inc. is establishing a
scholarship program in Soviet studies at
Columbia.
Prior to his academic career at Colum-
bia, where he was the W. Averell Harri-
man Professor at the Institute for Ad-
vanced Studies of the Soviet Union at
Columbia, Shulman was at the White
House during the presidency of Harry
Truman. He wrote many of the important
Truman speeches on public policies.
It will be remembered by many that

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