“Not only did she give her own life, she tried to protect the lives of thousands”

The memorial program “Lightning of the Heavens” was born out of Israeli–Slovenian–Croatian–Hungarian cooperation. In the framework of the program series, the participants commemorated Hanna Szenes, one of those 17 Hungarian Jews who were trained by the British armed forces in then Mandatory Palestine for trying to prevent the deportation of Hungarian Jews after being inserted as paratroops in Yugoslavia. On reaching the Hungarian border, she was arrested, imprisoned and tortured, but she did not reveal the details of her mission. In what followed, she was sentenced to death by firing squad.

The Israeli, British, Slovenian, Croatian and Hungarian soldiers embarking on the commemorative expedition followed the route taken by Israeli national heroine Hanna Szenes in the areas of Slovenia, Croatia and Hungary. The program series started in the Republic of Slovenia, where the participating nations revived her story by performing a joint parachute jump. Besides the Chief of the IDF General Staff, several military leaders participated in the jump. The Hungarian Defence Forces were represented by a Hungarian airborne team led by Maj. Gen. Tamás Sándor, Inspector of Special Forces at the Hungarian Defence Forces Command.

The commemorative expedition terminated in Budapest, where the delegation visited the Dohány Street Synagogue, the Carl Lutz Memorial, the Liberty Square and the memorial “Shoes on the Danube Bank”.

In what followed, a commemorative event was held in the Kozma Street Israelite Cemetery, where Yacov Hadas-Handelsman, Ambassador of the State of Israel to Budapest delivered a speech, in which he pointed out that Hanna Szenes has become a heroine and a symbol. “She has inevitably turned into a heroine whose life story and poems have been valuable for the people of Israel and the Jews of the world. Of course, she deserves respect and recognition all around the world and in Hungary, too, because she was born in Hungary and closed her life with Hungarian identity, so her life and fate are an integral part of Hungarian history.”, emphasized the ambassador.

In his speech, Brig. Gen. Lóránd Szűcs, Head of the MoD Military Control and Crisis Management Department said that Hanna Szenes was the ideal of human attitudes and honesty.

“Today, when it is so hard to find a role model, she could be that for all of us. After all, her humanity and Hungarian identity still teaches us. Whoever becomes a soldier chooses the noblest calling since he or she serves his or her nation, he or she makes an oath on a sublime matter in order to become its defender even at the price of his or her life.”, stressed the general. He also pointed out the importance of mutual understanding and respect between generations so that there be no more wars.