Customer Reviews

Blessed Is the Match: The Life and Death of Hannah Senesh

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I was fairly well acquainted with the story of Hannah Senesz and her bravery, but this movie captured it better than I possibly could have imagined. Tears were streaming down my face as the ending credits rolled. The photographs, photography and other images portayed this heroines life in an amazing and captivating way. I highly recommend this film for any type of Holocaust Studies or Women's Studies venue. Extremely well done and a wonderful tribute to a well deserving and often unsung hero.

This is a fine documentary about one of the most outstanding personalities of the 20th Century, Hannah Senesh. Through the efforts of director Roberta Grossman and producer Marta Kauffman, viewers of "Blessed Is the Match" are offered a rare and long overdue glimpse into the life and experiences of the famed Hungarian-Jewish heroine of World War II. A mix of period footage, never-before seen family photographs and artful reenactments enhance Senesh's story, related here by Historians, Sir Martin Gilbert and Judith Tydor Baumel-Schwartz; Senesh's nephews, Eitan and David; two of her parachutist colleagues (Reuven Dafni and Surika Bravermann), and several other witnesses from her past, including former schoolmates; members of her Kibbutz, and even fellow inmates who spent time with her in prison before her execution death in 1944.

Hannah Senesh is one of those exceptional human beings - brilliant and brave - who had so much to give to the world, but whose life was extinguished far too soon. Although she was only 23 years-old when she died, Senesh left behind a wealth of writings that reveal a dynamic, keenly intelligent, sensitive and solidly moral character. These documents include letters, a personal diary and a treasure-trove of beautiful and inspiring poetry that has been widely-read and admired throughout the world for decades. Her image has long been shrouded in myth, but the real-life Hannah Senesh was far more intriguing and complex, and her experiences far more compelling, than any myth could hope to portray. The film, "Blessed Is the Match", imparts this very well and serves as a modern memorial to a remarkable young woman who was not only a gifted writer, but also a devoted daughter and sister, a courageous heroine and a truly great soul whose untimely death was a loss to us all.

I also recommend: Hannah Senesh: Her Life and Diary, the First Complete Edition

A woman, an idealist, a resistance fighter...a cross between Anne Frank and Sophie Scholl...an inspiration to Jews and to others in peril. You must see this film. "Blessed is the Match" is the title of one of Hannah Senesh's last poems. She handed the scrap of paper with the poetry to a member paratrooper in case she did not finish her mission. Like the match itself, SHE is the spark that fires the world from a darkness of misery into a light of goodness and courage.

By way of comparison, another biography of her life can be seen in the VHS "Hanna's War".

Imagine being safe in Palestine, away from the Holocaust, yet deciding to parachute back to the maelstrom to help other Jews. No group of persons...other than the Jews of Palestine...attempted such a rescue. Only 30 Jews had the courage, including 3 women. and one of the three was Hannah Senesh. Even though she did not succeed in her defined military mission, she continued the mission, nonetheless in prison. Here, through her friendship and courage, she offered other imprisoned Jews hope that others might come after her to rescue them from Fascist death. What is the meaning of hope? Hannah Senesh provides an answer - her indomitable spirit is the answer.

I had tears by the end of the film...but some of the salt of my weeping was also the sense of joy in the goodness that still resides in humanity. "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed it is the only thing that ever has."- M. Mead.

This is a generally well done documentary on the great heroine Hanna Senesh;however it's missing one important piece regarding Hungarian Jewish collaborater Dr. Rudolph Kastner -assassinated in Israel in '57,following a libel/Nazi collaboration trial and his relationship to Sennesh.Recent projects revised Kastner into a hero, who saved Jews are put on trial in the late great Ben Hecht's 'Perfidy'(Co. 1961,pp.118-);Hanna's mother testified that Kastner refused to meet with her.Hanna's fellow parachutists Joel Palgi and Peretz Goldstein met their former "mentor" in the Zionist Youth Movement of Kluj,Hungary(Perfidy p.124-125).Palgi and Goldstein took Kastner's advice and turned themselves in;both were tortured-and put on a train.Palgi escaped and made it into the documentary...this along with jazz singer Sophie Milman's take on
Hanna Senesh's 'Eli,Eli' from her 'Make Someone Happy' cd...then hopefully an
Academy Award for a Hanna Senesh movie.

I had never heard of Hannah Senesh before viewing this. After seeing this, I find this to be such an amazing example of a human beings desire to not only survive, but to fight. I still cannot understand how a human being can treat an entire race of people with such hatred and violence. And to think it happened not that long ago.......this is a video....a story that should be told to every child regardless of religion. People like Hannah and her comrades are few and far between.

Hannah Senesh was a hero not only for her people and her country, the Jews and Israel, but for all free men and women, and all who are not but would be. This movie is particularly powerful because it does not shy away from showing pictures of the real Hannah. Rather than making her Hollywood attractive, she is presented as the kind of girl who describes herself as not so attractive but wishes she were. Nevertheless, in spite of a history, a face, and a figure that do not go well with common current understanding of heroes and superheroes, Hannah Senesh was a woman of rare courage, dignity, honor, and pride. She faced the worst the Nazis threw at her, including beatings, maiming, imprisoning her mother and threatening her with death, and months of torture and interrogation. She never gave up her comrades, never gave up the SOE codes, never betrayed herself, her comrades, her people, or her country. She was executed, murdered, as the Russian Red Army entered the suburbs of Budapest, even as the Nazis and the Hungarian fascists grabbed their files and fled. The scenes in the movie of Hannah's body being brought home to Israel in 1950 and presented in State around the country, buried with high honors in a Israel's military cemetery on Mt. Hertzl in Jerusalem, are inspiring and an apt ending for her story. Also the bravery of her mother is presented with the dignity and honor she deserves. An inspiring movie about a time of desperation, misery, and death.

If Hannah were alive today , I might have known her. I lived in Zichron Yacov a neighboring town and visited the beach by Sdot Yam many times. Although I use to go fishing right in the spot near Cesarea where Hannah was photographed in the movie, I had only heard of her. By the years I lived in Israel there were so many others like her. However, my mother Edith Alster would visit me in Israel from the USA and asked to go to Sdot Yam to visit the museum to Hannah Senesh. After all these years, I still did not know much about her story but was interested in Hanna's story in rememberance of my mother's wish. Now back in the USA, I watched the movie "Blessed is the Match". I was truely moved by the inspiration to all of her story. However, I was really surprised to find out that this was the "only" military rescue attempt of Jews in Nazi Europe and in here lies the deeper story behind the story. On the same day I saw this movie I watched an interview by a British journalist for Al-Jazeera wondering why Israel and South Sudan a brand new country have such good relations. Amazingly, he proposed that Israel wanted to "divert the water of the Nile" . The Israeli, called it a conspiracy theory, and the South Sudan and Egyptian being interviewed did not go along with the idea either. Hannah, lived in British mandated Palestine, where the British were suppose to help the Jewish people build a homeland, yet only sent one mission out to attempt to save European Jewery, and that with a main mission to find an escape route for British pilots and connect with other partisan fighters. Was there a conspiracy by Britain to change her mind and not help the Jews build a homeland? Well, we know the answer to that because soon after the war, Britain was chased out of mandatory Palestine and the BBC is not always a welcomed news channel in Israel. Today, modern Great Britain and Israel are friends, yet I would suggest that reporter and the staff of the BBC see the movie Blessed Is The Match and ask some questions about their own role and conspiracies in the present conflict between the Palestinians and Israelis today. I really wished I had met Hannah. Leaving Home, Going Home, Returning Home: A Hebrew American's Sojourn in the Land of Israel

I really liked the movie. Very sad. I did not know the story of Hannah Senesh that well. Now, I do. I recommend this movie to people of all faiths and all ages.