NEW YORK, New York – The National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene (NYTF), winner of a 2019 Drama Desk Award, will present “Hannah Senesh,” a play based on the diaries and poems of a heroic young woman who risked her life to save European Jews from the Holocaust, and who paid the ultimate price.

Performed in English, “Hannah Senesh” will be performed July 29 – August 18 at the Museum of Jewish Heritage – A Living Memorial to the Holocaust, Edmond J. Safra Plaza, 36 Battery Place in New York City. 

The performance is part of Folksbiene’s season of “Spiritual Resistance,” which features artistic and theatrical works that explore themes of struggle against oppression. The programming provides artistic expression concurrent with the exhibition Auschwitz: Not long ago. Not far away, being presented at the Museum of Jewish Heritage. 

Presented with music and song, this one-woman show tells the true story of Hannah Senesh, one of many Jews who escaped from Axis-allied Hungary in 1939 to the safety of British Mandate Palestine. There she joined the Haganah and volunteered for a daring special operations mission to parachute back into Europe to save Jews from Nazi hands. She was ultimately caught by Nazi forces, tortured, and executed at the age of 22. Despite these circumstances, she refused to betray her companions.

Written and directed by David Schechter, the script is adapted from Hannah Senesh’s diaries.

“This astonishing true story is a testament to the resilience of the human spirit,” said NYTF Artistic Director Zalmen Mlotek. “I can think of no better work to embody our current season’s theme of Spiritual Resistance.”

NYTF’s production of “Fiddler on the Roof” in Yiddish sold out for six months before moving to an Off-Broadway theater uptown. It has won a Drama Desk Award, an Outer Critics Circle Award and a New York Drama Critics’ Circle Award special citation and has been nominated for Lucille Lortel Awards, Drama League Awards, a Chita Rivera Award, and an Off-Broadway Alliance Award.

“Hannah Senesh” will preview July 24 – 28, with 21 performances July 29 – August 18. Tickets for previews start at $39; regular season tickets start at $49 and are available at www.nytf.org. For tickets to “Hannah Senesh” and other performances in NYTF’s season of “Spiritual Resistance,” visit NYTF.org or call (212) 213-2120 ext. 200.