Prof. Dina Porat, Head of the Jewish History Department in Tel Aviv University, spoke with Arutz-7 today about the new Chanah Senesh file given to Justice Minister Yosef Lapid by the Hungarian authorities. Asked if she had seen the file, she said, "Of course not. First of all, it's no doubt written in Hungarian, and it will have to be translated by the people at Yad Vashem; and then her family will probably get to see it first - she has a nephew..."
On March 13, 1944, at midnight, Chanah Senesh and three others volunteered to join the British forces and parachute into eastern Europe. Her goal was to join the partisans and to help rescue Jews from the extermination camps. After spending three months with Tito’s partisans, she crossed into Hungary - and was caught almost immediately by the Hungarian police. She was executed by a firing squad on November 7, and in 1950, her remains were brought to Israel and re-interred in the Mt. Herzl Military Cemetery in Jerusalem.
Prof. Porat said that based on what we know of the case until now, "Chanah Senesh withstood the interrogations and the tortures very bravely and did not give in. In their attempt to get her to divulge details of her fellow paratroopers or of the transmitter codes, they even brought in her mother at one point and threatened to kill her - but she did not break. Contrary to some intimations, there is absolutely no evidence that she divulged anything." Prof. Porat explained that if her captors had found out the transmitter codes, it would have been obvious to all, as the damage would have been great - including the likely capture of some of her fellow paratroopers.
"After the war [World War II]," Prof. Porat said, "a senior Israeli figure - I don't remember who - met one of the Hungarian judges who sentenced Chanah Senesh to death, and he spoke about her with warmth and with admiration, saying that she was offered ways of avoiding the death sentence - but that she refused." Arutz-7's Haggai Segal interjected that the new file shows that she could have asked for a pardon, but that she did not.
Continuing her point that Chanah did not betray her colleagues, Prof. Porat said, "It also did not fit the times, or her personality, to break or betray others. She wanted very much to parachute into Hungary, even though she was told that it would be suicidal to do so. She said, 'Even if we die, our very deaths will be a symbol and a source of strength.'"
On March 13, 1944, at midnight, Chanah Senesh and three others volunteered to join the British forces and parachute into eastern Europe. Her goal was to join the partisans and to help rescue Jews from the extermination camps. After spending three months with Tito’s partisans, she crossed into Hungary - and was caught almost immediately by the Hungarian police. She was executed by a firing squad on November 7, and in 1950, her remains were brought to Israel and re-interred in the Mt. Herzl Military Cemetery in Jerusalem.
Prof. Porat said that based on what we know of the case until now, "Chanah Senesh withstood the interrogations and the tortures very bravely and did not give in. In their attempt to get her to divulge details of her fellow paratroopers or of the transmitter codes, they even brought in her mother at one point and threatened to kill her - but she did not break. Contrary to some intimations, there is absolutely no evidence that she divulged anything." Prof. Porat explained that if her captors had found out the transmitter codes, it would have been obvious to all, as the damage would have been great - including the likely capture of some of her fellow paratroopers.
"After the war [World War II]," Prof. Porat said, "a senior Israeli figure - I don't remember who - met one of the Hungarian judges who sentenced Chanah Senesh to death, and he spoke about her with warmth and with admiration, saying that she was offered ways of avoiding the death sentence - but that she refused." Arutz-7's Haggai Segal interjected that the new file shows that she could have asked for a pardon, but that she did not.
Continuing her point that Chanah did not betray her colleagues, Prof. Porat said, "It also did not fit the times, or her personality, to break or betray others. She wanted very much to parachute into Hungary, even though she was told that it would be suicidal to do so. She said, 'Even if we die, our very deaths will be a symbol and a source of strength.'"