Born in Budapest, Hungary, to a wealthy Jewish family, her father was a journalist and playwright (his influence clearly demonstrated in her keeping a regular diary for years) and her mother a housewife. Although the family was thoroughly assimilated into Hungarian society, Hannah experienced anti-Semitism for herself whilst at school – her family had to pay triple the fees of other students simply for being Jewish.
Undeterred by the hatred, she instead turned her energies into learning more about her Jewish heritage, joined a Zionist youth movement, learned Hebrew and emigrated to Palestine in 1939. Of her immediate family, only her mother and brother would survive the Second World War.
After studying agriculture, she joined a kibbutz in Caesarea before being approached by members of the Jewish Agency. They wanted her for a secret military project, backed by the British – to get the Jews out of Nazi-occupied Europe to save them from the concentration camps and help captured Allied airmen.
She became a member of Palmah, (the underground Jewish military) learnt how to use radios and undertook a paratrooper course. The day before she left for Cairo for additional training by the British, she was reunited with her brother in Palestine for a few short hours. They would never see each other again.
The only woman of five Haganah members, Hannah was parachuted into Yugoslavia to support the forces fighting against the Nazis before crossing back over into her country of birth in June of 1944. Germany had invaded in March. She was captured and tortured in a Budapest prison but refused to reveal any information about her radio codes.
Her captors then arrested Hannah’s mother Katharine and the two women were prisoners for three months. Although kept separate, it was the first time in five years the two had seen each other. Katherine, suddenly freed in September 1944, desperately sought legal help for her daughter, who as a Hungarian national, was tried as a traitor and sentenced to death for spying.
Whilst the court was in no hurry to carry out the sentencing, the military officer in charge, Colonel Simon, gave her two options: beg for mercy and a pardon or be shot. Hannah chose the latter. She refused the offer of a blindfold.
She was executed by firing squad at the age of 23 in Budapest and buried in a Jewish cemetery. A poem found in her cell reads:
‘I gambled on what mattered most.
The dice were cast. I lost.’
Her mother survived a death march from Budapest to Austria. She was determined that daughter’s bravery should not be forgotten and together with her surviving son Giora, fought to have published Hannah’s plays, diaries and poetry. Hannah’s remains were brought to Israel in 1950 and buried alongside other parachutists in the military cemetery on Mount Herzl in Jerusalem.