Search - Blessed Is the Match: The Life and Death of Hannah Senesh on DVD

Portrait of a Heroine

Amos Lassen | Little Rock, Arkansas | 01/18/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

""Blessed is the Match"




Portrait of a Heroine




Amos Lassen


To some people the name Hannah Senesh does not mean anything but after watching the incredible new documentary, "Blessed is the Match"; those who see it will become aware of a truly amazing woman.
Senesh was a World War II paratrooper who volunteered to become a resistance fighter along the same lines as Joan of Arc. She was also a poet and diarist. Living safely in what was Palestine (now Israel) in 1944, she volunteer to paratroop into Hungary (her native country) to rescue Jews who were doomed to experience the Holocaust, What is so important about this is that it was the only rescue mission to save Jews during the War. Senesh successfully landed in Hungary and behind enemy lines but was captured and tortured and then executed by the Nazi regime. What many do not realize is what she left behind--a body of written work that went on to inspire readers all over the world and she was only 23 when she died.
The film is brought to us by Katahdin Productions and Balcony Releasing and wonderfully directed by Roberta Grossman and this is the first documentary about Hannah Shenesh.
Director Grossman was allowed complete access to the archives of the Senesh family and she discovered over 1300 photographs that have never been seen publicly and a huge collection of unpublished letters. Grossman and her crew also interviewed the few survivors who knew Hannah Senesh and found friends from her childhood in Budapest and those that were with her in the Gestapo jail in the summer of 1944. For background information we hear from Holocaust scholars and we not only get a wonderful and illuminating picture of Hannah Senesh but also more insight into the darkest period of the history of the world.
I am rarely inspired by a film but this beautiful documentary reduced me to tears and reinforced my pride as a Jew. Even though I already knew why I served in the Israeli army, Hannah Senesh made me realize it even more. She was a great lady who died so that so many of us have the opportunity to live free. Watching her coffin being returned to Israel as her mother looked on is one of the finest moments I have ever seen on the movie screen."

Portrait of a Heroine

Amos Lassen | Little Rock, Arkansas | 02/27/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

""Blessed is the Match"

Portrait of a Heroine

Amos Lassen

To some people the name Hannah Shenesh does not mean anything but after watching the incredible new documentary, "Blessed is the Match"; those who see it will become aware of a truly amazing woman.
Shenesh was a World War II paratrooper who volunteered to become a resistance fighter along the same lines as Joan of Arc. She was also a poet and diarist. Living safely in what was Palestine (now Israel) in 1944, she volunteer to paratroop into Hungary (her native country) to rescues Jews who were doomed to experience the Holocaust, What is so important about this is that it was the only rescue mission to save Jews during the War. Shenesh successfully landed in Hungary and behind enemy lines but was captured and tortured and then executed by the Nazi regime. What many do not realize is what she left behind--a body of written work that went on to inspire readers all over the world and she was only 23 when she died.
The film is brought to us by Katahdin Productions and Balcony Releasing and wonderfully directed by Roberta Grossman and this is the first documentary about Hannah Shenesh.
Director Grossman was allowed complete access to the archives of the Shenesh family and she discovered over 1300 photographs that have never been seen publicly and a huge collection of unpublished letters. Grossman and her crew also interviewed the few survivors who knew Hannah Shenesh and found friends from her childhood in Budapest and those that were with her in the Gestapo jail in the summer of 1944. For background information we hear from Holocaust scholars and we not only get a wonderful and illuminating picture of Hannah Shenesh but also more insight into the darkest period of the history of the world.
"

Breathtaking

N. R. Johnson | Colorado, USA | 04/15/2010

(5 out of 5 stars)

"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."