num_pages: 349
description: Six million Jewish men, women and children were exterminated by the Nazis during the Second World War. In the summer of 1944 a million of these were cornered in Hungary, which had become an island of sanctuary for the persecuted European Jewry. But in 1944, Hungary was occupied by the Nazis and in with them marched the sinister, mile-long column of the Sondereinsatzkommando - the Eichmann Death machine. It had finally been decided that, during the course of a few months, all the these remaining Jews were to be deported and exterminated. Two groups of would-be rescuers attempted the task of wrenching away a million Jews from the Death Machine. The first group was a Jewish parachutist mission emanating from Palestine. After huge plans, only 6 people (5 men, 1 woman) ended up on the mission; all under the age of 25. The girl was Hannah Senesh. She had emigrated to Palestine from Hungary in 1939 at the age of 18. She was idealistically determined to help save her people. Hannah was arrested at the Hungarian border, then imprisoned and tortured, but refused to reveal details of her mission. She was eventually tried and executed by firing squad. She is regarded as a national heroine in Israel, where her poetry is widely known and the headquarters of the Zionist youth movements Israel Hatzeira, a kibbutz and several streets are named after her. The second group was the Hungarian Rescue committee in Budapest. Their job was to bargain with Eichmann for the lives of Hungarian Jews. Eichmann had said that he was prepared to exchange one million Hungarian Jews for 10,000 Allied trucks, but their mission was thwarted by the Allies who had no intention of being blackmailed by Eichmann. "The Summer That Bled" is one of the strangest stories to emerge from WWII. It is an account of one of the biggest massacres of all times - and the people who strove to prevent it.
language: English
title: The summer that bled: The biography of Hannah Senesh
titlecomplete: The summer that bled: The biography of Hannah Senesh
ratings_count: 6
publisher: St. Martin's Press