Crash of the heavens The remarkable story of Hannah Senesh and the only military mission to rescue Europe's Jews during World War II

In this tightly researched history of a relatively unknown but important aspect of Holocaust history, the author details the 1943 plan to parachute a small group of Jewish men and women behind enemy lines in Europe to initiate uprisings against the Nazis. Century (The Last Boss of Brighton, 2022) focuses primarily on the story of Hannah Senesh, a young woman who emigrated to British Mandatory Palestine in 1939 from Hungary. In relating Senesh's decision to leave for what was then a territory under British control, Century delves into the history of Zionism and Senesh's participation in the Chalutza, the Jewish youth movement revered as agricultural pioneers in Israeli history. It was these young people who volunteered to be trained by the British military and who attempted to lead groups of Jewish fighters from behind enemy lines. Senesh was famously captured by the Hungarian military, tried for treason, and executed. Told from a Jewish perspective, the title celebrates the legend of the Chalutza as those who "made the desert bloom" while largely glossing over Palestinian viewpoints.

Flights of freedom. Hannah Senesh was a Jewish freedom fighter in the 1940s. Moving to British Mandate Palestine from Hungary in the late 1930s, she joined the Palmach, the elite military working to establish a Jewish political presence in the Holy Land. In 1943, she participated in a unique and dangerous mission. The British were considering sending "a unit of Jewish volunteers from Palestine behind enemy lines in Europe." The goal? "To establish contact with the local underground leadership and resistance fighters and, together with them, help downed Allied airmen and escaped prisoners of war get back to Allied lines. After the completion of those British Intelligence assignments, the volunteers could…assist them in fomenting armed resistance against the Nazis and their fascist collaborators." In breathless prose and cinematic detail, the book presents the men and women from all backgrounds joined in concert to save something of European Jewry. We hear the roar of airplane engines, feel the wind as they jump, and brace for impact as they land. We follow them through Eastern European woodlands and shadow them through city streets. But in the end, Hannah is captured and executed in Hungary. Was she a reckless martyr? The book ends with the judgment of the late John McCain: "I don't think Hannah wanted to die for the sake of having her memory exalted in history or to prove herself equal to a romantic image she conceived for herself. Her purpose wasn't to die. She died for her life's purpose." This is a book of inspiration for our time, when heroism and self-sacrifice have lost their luster. A tale of heroic self-sacrifice during the Holocaust, told in camera-ready action and detail. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.