Receiving the Hannah Senesh Archive at the National Library of Israel
November - December 2020
‫We find ourselves now at the end
of a long journey, which stretched nearly 100 years,
and the final stop on the journey has been reached, just now,
with the [archive's] arrival in Jerusalem, at the National Library.
‫Hannah Senesh's archive
was very well-preserved
by her family,
and we're honored that they felt we were the right place
to deposit these documents.
‫The archive is actually a combination
of the private family archive, preserved in Budapest by Hannah Senesh's mother,
which includes materials from her childhood,
along with the archive in Israel
from after her death. After her friends returned to
Israel from ‫Europe in 1945
they found her estate in Kibbutz Sdot Yam,
her literary estate.
Her letters, her journals, and her poems,
some of which we are all familiar with,
and here, today, we are returning to the original materials.
This is a truly exciting moment,
as we open the suitcase, ‫which contained
Hannah Senesh's entire literary estate,
which arrived at the National Library two days ago.
My God, this is so exciting...
How wonderful...
"My God,
May this never end." (written with the letter Aleph, so lovely)
"The sand and the sea...
The rustle of the water...
The lightning of the sky...
The prayer of man.‎"
‎‎‫On the one hand, we can sense ‎‫history in the making‎ here
‫but this archive also expresses ‫the pen and the sword
embodied by Hannah Senesh, ‫who was both
a young woman, a wonderful writer...
a woman of letters, who created exquisite things,
as well as a paratrooper, a fighter...
‫who gave her life
While we were working, we found her certificates, her birth certificate,
‫her matriculation certificate
This is her fourth grade report card.
‫1931
‫Senesh, Hannah
A letter from Bella Senesh, Hannah's father,
for Hannah's fifth birthday
in 1926. This is Hannah Senesh's last poem,
which was found in her clothing,
her clothing was sent to her mother, after she died.
The two notes that were found in her coat pocket,
which were received later by her mother, in Budapest,
are definitely the most stirring ones.
"God, show me a sign. Show a sign on his forehead,
For in the fire, in the flames, and in the blood,
‫I shall, indeed, recognize ‫the pure, eternal spark
that I sought, son of man."
All in all, what we see here is a fascinating figure.
Undoubtedly, the complete archive can shed much light on that figure.
‫Our goal is that
anyone who wishes to
will be able to read the poems, letters, diaries
‫and anything else in the archive
for themselves, directly.
And, of course, we want to invite everyone to come
to see the materials themselves, inside the library building,
in better days.
‫Congratulations to the National Library ‫and the Senesh family
upon the receipt of this archive.
I hope the entire Jewish nation will be able to view it
and enjoy it, as well as the entire world.
Congratulations.
Video: Udi Alfasi, Tranquilo Productions Graphics: Amir Percia