Century Productions

Century Productions was the theatrical company which produced the play, "Hannah Senesh: Portrait of a Woman Warrior." The one-woman play, written and directed by David Schechter, starred Lori Wilner as the title character. The script, based on the diaries and poems of Hannah Senesh, included songs and music composed and arranged by Steven Lutvak with additional music by Schecter and Elizabeth Swados. The play ran at the Cherry Hill Theater in New York City from 1984-1985 and traveled throughout the U.S. and Israel for another two years.

The script was based on the true story of the extraordinary life of Hannah Senesh (1921-1944; also spelled as Hannah Szenes or Chana Senesh), a young, pretty, and carefree Hungarian-Jewish girl, before and during World War II. Senesh, who was frustrated by anti-Semitism in her native Budapest, was eventually executed as a partisan by a Nazi firing squad at the age of 23.

Senesh, fleeing an ever-repressive Europe, emigrated from Hungary to Palestine in 1939 where she joined others who shared her idealistic Zionism and lived on a kibbutz. When the war in Europe broke out, she volunteered to serve as a paratrooper to provide assistance to partisans in Yugoslavia for the British.

In 1944, Hungary was occupied by the Nazis. Senesh, along with two other paratroopers were assigned a mission to cross over the Yugoslavian border into Hungary. She and her companions learned on the ground that Hungary had been occupied by the Nazis and her companions abandoned the mission. However, Senesh went forward to the border where she was captured by the Nazis. She endured unbelievable torture, but in spite of her beatings, she would not betray her comrades, the secrets of her mission, or the radio code connected to the transmitter that had been found on her as she attempted to cross into Hungarian. At the end of the play, the Nazis barbarously execute her. Her death and her life have served as an inspiration for later generations, effectively making her a wartime heroine and martyr, and she is hailed as the "Jewish Joan of Arc."

Lori Wilner's portrayal of "Hannah Senesh" was described in numerous newspaper articles as "brilliant," "riveting," "stirring," "compelling," "powerful," and "moving." Richard Shepard of The New York Times said of the play that, "Hannah Senesh is a memorial worthy of its subject; powerful without being superhuman, tracing how a warm person develops into a hero symbol. We propose a film worthy of its subject: a truly great and compelling film of this young Jewish heroine, this poet/warrior." Wilner was nominated for a Drama Desk Award in 1985 during the show's off-Broadway run.

Hannah Senesh stays forever in the hearts of Jews as the epitome of a strong spirit who suffered martyrdom to save her people - people who would have been otherwise tortured during the Holocaust. "Hannah Senesh" has been compared to the Diary of Anne Frank in that Hannah depicts a Jewish heroine who kept a diary during the Holocaust and wrote poetry, leaving her own record of her life.

From the guide to the Century Productions, records, undated, 1983-1987, (American Jewish Historical Society)