WWTW Interview: ‘Blessed is the Match’ director Roberta Grossman

Not all heroes are given their due.

Take Hannah Senesh, the courageous Jewish woman who parachuted into Nazi-occupied territory during World War II to help her fellow Jews.

Her remarkable story is mostly unknown outside Israel, something “Blessed is the Match” may help correct.

The documentary, just released on DVD, recalls Hannah’s formative years as well as her decision to risk her life for a mission fraught with danger.

“Match” director Roberta Grossman checked with with WWTW to talk about the making of the film and what Senesh meant to her as a young woman.

WWTW: What was your reaction when you first learned about Hannah Senesh’s story in middle school? And, later, when you became a filmmaker, did you always have this type of project in mind?

RG: All during my growing up, I was obsessed with the Holocaust.  I didn’t have family that perished or any survivors I knew, I just couldn’t stop reading about the Holocaust.

I suppose when I read Hannah’s diary, it provided some sort of counterweight to the horrors and painful memories I was reading about.  Hannah was someone who, because of her circumstances, had the choice to act and did so.  I suppose I thought she was a heroine, which is how I would have portrayed her had I been able to make a film about her right out of college when I started making films and started wanting to make a film about Hannah.

In the intervening years, I learned a lot about filmmaking, but even more about life, I suppose.  I still see Hannah as very beautiful, deep and brave, but I also see her as a young girl who saw the world in black and white  -  I see her from the perspective of being a mother of two daughters and one son – This is why we chose to tell Hannah’s story from the POV of her mother Catherine.  It was a POV that now aligns most closely with my own view of Hannah.

WWTW: Can you talk about the work involved in gathering all the material for the film – the photographs, the archived footage? Were there any unusual places you found some of the material seen in your movie?

RG: The film was made in full collaboration and partnership with the Senesh family in Israel.  Today, the bearers of Hannah’s legacy are Hannah’s brother Giora’s sons, Eitan and David Senesh.  Eitan, in particular, worked very closely with me during the entire process of making the film.  Aside from his passion for the subject matter and insistence on accuracy in every regard, Eitan also brought to the table an amazing unpublished archive including over 1,000 photos (over half taken by Hannah herself), family letters, and unpublished portions of Hannah’s diary.

As part of making the film, we worked with a scholar in Israel who catalogued the photographs, describing date and place and linking, when possible, the photographs to Hannah’s diary.  We also created hi-resolution scans of the entire archive.  These materials obviously enriched the film, but also, I hope, helped to preserve Hannah Senesh’s archive and legacy.

WWTW: “Blessed” could have gone straight into Hannah’s remarkable heroism and capture – but the film takes its time describing her early years and home life. Can you discuss why you took this approach to her story?

RG: Although the mission is why we are talking about Hannah, it was one small part of her life.  I guess we really wanted to get beyond the “warrior/hero” myth to reveal the person, the young woman.  Who was Hannah Senesh?  Her life makes sense only when you know where she came from, about pre-war Hungary where she grew up, about her famous father, his early death, her life with her mother, brother and grandmother.  We wanted people to know about Hannah’s sense of humor as well as her earnest beliefs.  We wanted to make a living biography, not a cold, dead sculpture of a hero.

WWTW: What, if any, modern day lessons can we take away from Hannah’s heroism and loyalty to her faith?

RG: Hannah came from a generation that believed in personal responsibility and also had high hopes for the impact faith and sacrifice could make on history.  We are impoverished in this regard today – we struggle to do anything in the face of so many overwhelming problems in the world.  We fear that any donation, sacrifice or effort will lead to naught.  So, if there is a lesson to be taken away from Hannah’s example, it would be that one is required to act, to make the effort, even if there is little hope that our actions will make a difference.  We can’t just “stand idly by.”

WWTW: Hannah’s story isn’t known well outside of Israel – is part of “Match’s” purpose to right that wrong? And how are you using the film’s DVD release to help change this oversight?

RG: When I first told Hannah’s story to Executive Producer Lisa Thomas, the founder of the Katahdin Foundation which produced the film, she started to cry.  She said “we have to tell that story, that’s our next film.”  Lisa shared my feeling that it was a bit outrageous that so few people knew about Hannah outside of Israel.  Anne Frank’s diary is the second most sold book worldwide behind the bible.  I love Anne Frank and her diary deserves to be read around the world.  But certainly, Hannah’s story and diary deserves to be know as well.  Hannah, unlike Anne Frank, because she was older, because she was in Palestine, was able to resist and gave her life for her choice to do so.

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