A Match Like Hannah Kindles An Undying Flame

A Tribute Memorial poem written in honor of a brave Jewish girl who died long before I was ever born, but whose courage & valor should never be forgotten.

A Match Like Hannah Kindles An Undying Flame

Written By Marvin Thomas Cox-Flynn de Graham

Copyright © 2013 Marvin Thomas Cox

DBA: Marvin Thomas Cox-Flynn de Graham

All Rights Reserved

They say she was just a Jewish girl, helping resettle the land,

but when World War II broke out, she wanted to give a hand,

by doing what few girls would dare, in jumping from a plane,

writing, “Blessed is the match consumed in lighting the flame,”

landing inside the border, of her childhood land of Hungary,

she was captured by the Nazis, to be charged with treachery,

as they claimed she was a spy, for returning to her own land,

to endure many beatings and torture, just like she was a man,

thrown into prison, because to spying she would not confess,

now to sit in a lonely prison cell, waiting it out like all the rest,

when she heard that Jews in Hungary, now wore yellow stars,

she drew a star of David on her window, behind her cell bars,

all wars end sooner or later, as finally this one neared an end,

the Nazis knowing it was over, empowered fascists as friends,

poor Hannah¹ now accused of treason, by her own countrymen,

Hungarian judges deciding by military trial, now her life to end,

crying, “You the Fascists, are the traitors to Hungary, and not I!”

she refused a blindfold offered, as she looked them in the eyes,

leaving her murderers to praise her amazing courage, as she died,

her poem, in her death, soon becoming a slogan of Jewish pride,

having now become the living match, of her girlish poetic lines,

Hannah Szenech's poetic sacrifice, to be remembered for all of time …

(Written March 27^th, 2013)

The true story behind this poorly written poem:

1 An excerpt from the book, The Story Of Israel, by Meyer Levin: “The most tenderly remembered, among the parachutists, was a young girl who was to become Israel's symbol of heroism. Hannah Szenech, the daughter of a Hungarian-Jewish playwright, had been sent off by her widowed mother, in 1939, to safety, in the Youth Aliyah. A shy, sensitive girl who secretly wrote poetry, Hannah spent two years at a farm school, then joined a new kibbutz on the seashore near the ancient ruins of Caesarea.

There Hannah mended fishing nets, tended poultry, and wrote poems in her new language, Hebrew, putting her writings away in a little suitcase.

When it was whispered that parachutists were being recruited for Europe, the quiet girl revealed her iron stubbornness. She could not rest until she was accepted.

On March 16,1944, Hannah made her drop, with a group of five, into a partisan area in Yugoslavia. Some of the unit, including the commander, Reuven Daphne, were to remain with the partisans. Hannah was to cross into Hungary and head for her native Budapest.

But on the very day of the parachute drop, as it happened, the Nazis had taken over the wavering Hungarian government, and the crossing of the border had become extremely dangerous. Hannah would not give up her mission. During weeks of waiting for a border contact, she even recruited three volunteers. One was a French war prisoner who had escaped from Hungary but was ready to return with her. And there were two Jewish boys who also had just escaped from the Nazi-held land, and were ready to go back.

At last the partisan guides agreed to take Hannah's group across the Driva River. In the night, at the river's edge, as she parted from her commander, Hannah slipped a bit of paper into his hand. When he looked at it later, Reuven Daphne found that it was no last-minute message, but that the bit of paper contained a poem. Why did he have to deal not only with a stubborn girl,but with a poet, to boot!

Reuven Daphne likes to tell, today, how he crumpled that bit of paper, in his moment of tension, and threw it away. But something made him go back and find it. The first lines, somehow made out in the night, had echoed through his mind.

Blessed is the match,

Consumed in lighting the flame--

He kept it.

The next day, as later became known, Hannah was caught. Just inside the Hungarian border, in a routine police check which they might somehow have got through, one of the new boys lost his nerve and shot himself. The police then made a thorough search and found Hannah's portable British radio transmitter, which she had already hidden in a field.

Taken to Budapest, she was put through brutal questioning sessions by Hungarians and Nazis in turn. They wanted her to reveal the radio code, so that they could lure other agents to destruction.

Like Sara Aaronson in the First World War, Hannah Szenech remained silent under beatings and torture. But when the gallant Frenchman who had returned to Hungary with her was tortured before her eyes, she revealed one thing--her real name. In her distress, Hannah did not realize that her mother, who was still living in Budapest, would then be arrested.

The startled Catherine Szenech, who believed her daughter safe in Palestine, was confronted with the girl in prison. “Whatever you have done,” she said when they were alone for a moment, “I know it was right.” Neither broke. After months, the mother was released. Even in prison, Hannah had become a legend. When she learned that the Jews of Hungary now had to wear the yellow star, she drew a Star of David in the dust on her prison window.

The end of the war approached. Through the International Red Cross, efforts were made to secure Hannah's release, but just as this was agreed to, and as the Russian armies approached to liberate Budapest, the Nazis took a final death grip on Hungary. The violently fascist Arrow-Cross party was installed in the government. At once, all Red Cross parleys were ended.

In November, as prisoners were being moved to another jail, before the oncoming Russians, Hannah was suddenly separated out and taken before a military court. She was accused of treason. Defiantly she cried to her three Hungarian judges, 'You the Fascists, are the traitors of Hungary, and not I.!'

Sentence was postponed. But a week later, on the personal order of only one of the three judges, she was suddenly taken into the courtyard. Hannah refused to have her eyes bandaged. Even her murderers, after she was shot, spoke of the amazing courage of the Jewish girl from Palestine.

After the war, Hannah's little suitcase of poetry was found in her kibbutz. Her heartfelt verses touch every heart. The most popular of her poems, set to haunting music, was the one she had handed to Reuven Daphne, that night at the Hungarian border. The first lines became the slogan of her generation …”

'Blessed is the match

Consumed in lighting the flame--'

Reviews

[jacob erin-cilberto]

I do not feel the poem poorly written. I was hooked from the very beginning and it gripped me tightly.
She is a hero, and treated as a traitor....War has rude consequences that cover a spectrum of unjust acts...
I think your tribute is heartfelt and very important.
j.

[Marvin Thomas Cox-Flynn de Graham]

Thanks Jacob!