The Summer that Bled; The Biography of Hannah Senesh

New York: St. Martin's Press, 1972. Presumed first edition/first printing. Hardcover. Very good/good. [2], 349, [5]p. 22 cm. Frontis and other Illustrations. Bibliography. Index. DJ has slight wear, tears, chips, damp staining, and soiling. Anthony Masters was renowned as an adult novelist, short story writer and biographer, but was best known for his fiction for young people. Many of his novels carry deep insights into social problems, which he experienced over four decades by helping the socially excluded. He ran soup kitchens for drug addicts and campaigned for the civic rights of gypsies and other ethnic minorities. Masters is also known for his eclectic range of non-fiction titles, ranging from the biographies of such diverse personalities as the British secret service chief immortalized by Ian Fleming in his James Bond books (The Man Who Was M: the Life of Maxwell Knight). Anthony Masters died in 2003. From Wikipedia: "Hannah Szenes (often anglicized as Hannah Senesh or Chana Senesh; (July 17, 1921 November 7, 1944) was one of 37 Jews from Mandatory Palestine parachuted by the British Army into Yugoslavia during the Second World War to assist in the rescue of Hungarian Jews about to be deported to the German death camp at Auschwitz. Szenes 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. Her diary was published in Hebrew in 1946. Her remains were brought to Israel in 1950 and buried in the cemetery on Mount Herzl, Jerusalem. Her tombstone was brought to Israel in November 2007 and placed in Sdot Yam."Hannah Senesh was the young woman who when Israel was still Palestine epitomized/symbolized her people's martyrdom. Idealistic and ""singleminded"" -- Masters persistently applies this word throughout, sometimes on two successive pages -- she became closely identified with the Zionist cause and her own Jewish past when still in school, emigrated alone to Palestine, and finally was trained as a parachutist so that she could be dropped in Yugoslavia to assist the Rescue Committee headed by Joel Brand and the arrogant, manipulative Rezso Kastner. Actually she accomplished little before she was arrested, tried and executed (her mother joining her in prison for a time). Brand and Kastner, whose story this also is, managed a certain delaying action in their negotiations with Eichmann (""trucks for lives""?) since after 1944 a million Jews were scheduled to be deported to their deaths. This story will be a film, also scripted by Masters, to be released on the 25th anniversary of the state of Israel -- it is based on many sources including the artlessly touching diary of the girl who felt that she was an ""emissary. . . entrusted with a mission"" and it is self-evidently a strong and stirring story.