Hannah Szenes was a Hungarian-Israeli poet and special forces member. Born in Budapest to an assimilated Jewish family, she was immersed in Hungarian culture from a young age. Her father, Béla Szenes, a journalist, author, and playwright, died when she was six. Influenced by rising antisemitism and her Zionist convictions, she immigrated to Mandatory Palestine in 1939 at age 18. There, she trained with the Palmach, a branch of the Haganah, and became one of the founders of Kibbutz Sdot Yam. In 1943, Szenes volunteered for a secret mission organized by the Jewish Agency and trained as a radio operator and paratrooper with the British Special Operations Executive (SOE). She was one of 37 (or 32, per some accounts) Jewish volunteers from Palestine parachuted into Nazi-occupied Europe in 1944 to aid partisan groups, gather intelligence, and rescue Hungarian Jews from deportation. Dropped into Yugoslavia in March, she crossed into Hungary around June 7-9, 1944, but was captured soon after by Hungarian authorities collaborating with the Nazis. Imprisoned and tortured for months, Szenes refused to disclose her mission's codes or betray comrades. She was court-martialed and executed by firing squad on November 7, 1944, at age 23. Her mother was also arrested and survived after intervention. Szenes's Hebrew and Hungarian poetry, including 'Blessed Is the Match Consumed in Kindling Flame' ('Eli, Eli'), gained posthumous fame, symbolizing Jewish heroism during the Holocaust.