Called Lightening of the Heavens in honor of one of Senesh’s most famous poems, some 150 officers and troops will head to three European countries to learn about and honor Senesh, paratroopers of the pre-state forces, the heritage of the partisans and the Jews of the former Yugoslavia and Hungary.
The trip will take place from July 18-22. It was organized in cooperation with the Witness in Uniform program, which brings IDF soldiers and officers to Europe to commemorate and learn about the Holocaust.
The delegation will include OC Paratroopers Brigade Col. Yuval Gez, OC Military Colleges Maj.-Gen. Itai Veruv and Brig.-Gen. Ofer Winter, commander of the 98th Paratroopers Division, a.k.a. the Fire Formation. It will also have troops from commando units and the IAF.
About 100 of the participants will take part in a multinational joint jump with representatives from the militaries of Hungary (five to 10 participants), Slovenia (five to seven participants), Croatia (five participants) and England (one participant).
The mission will strengthen ties with the countries participating in the jump, Gez told reporters.
The delegation will visit Slovenia, Croatia and Hungary. On the second day of the trip, paratroopers will jump into Slovenia, close to the spot where Senesh parachuted into Nazi-occupied Europe 77 years ago.
After the jump, the paratroopers will march toward where Senesh joined the partisans to fight the Nazis.
The members of the delegation will be divided into four teams of 27 participants, including a commander with a rank of lieutenant-colonel and above, as well as a guide who deals with the Holocaust, who will accompany the troops throughout the journey. One of the guides will be Lt.-Col. (ret.) Simcha Goldin, the father of Lt. Hadar Goldin, whose remains are being held by Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
Goldin joined previous IDF delegations to Europe, including in 2017, when he participated alongside his wife, Leah, and former IDF chief of staff Lt.-Gen. (ret.) Gadi Eisenkot in the March of the Living.
The mission’s goal is to bring the participants to Europe, where they can feel the history and understand the importance of what Senesh and her fellow paratroopers did during the Holocaust.
“The main goal of this journey is to strengthen the sense of mission and the memory of heroism,” Gez said, adding that “we understand how historic this mission is.”
Senesh joined a group of parachutists organized by the Hagana in 1942 to rescue prisoners of war and organize Jewish resistance against the Nazis. In 1944, she parachuted into the former Yugoslavia and was arrested by Hungarian police when she tried to cross into Hungary.
She refused to reveal anything except her name, despite being tortured in prison, and in October 1944 she was tried for treason. She was executed by a firing squad in November 1944.