Some 100 IDF paratroopers and commandos will travel to central Europe later this month to take part on a military mission commemorating the centennial birthday of Hanna Szenes, the Hungarian-born soldier and poet who was captured and killed by the Nazis after she parachuted into Hungary during World War II.
During the five-day exercise - named "the Lightening of the Heavens" after one of Szenes' poems - the soldiers together with some 50 Hungarian, Slovenian, British and Croatian troops will recreate the parachute jump by Szenes and 31 other Jewish fighters.
The visit is also set to include visits and ceremonies at Jewish and partisan historical sites in Slovenia, Croatia and Hungary.
The delegation will be led by the head of the IDF's Depth Corps, Maj. Gen. Itay Virov, along with the commander of the Paratroopers Brigade, Col. Yuval Gaz, the commander of the 98th Division, Brig. Gen. Ofer Winter and a number of other senior officers.
"We will strengthen ties between the IDF and local countries, and try to recreate the heroism of the 37 Yishuv paratroopers," Gaz said.
Szenes joined a group of parachutists organized by the Haganah in Mandatory Palestine in 1942 in order 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 give anything but 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.