Szenes was captured by Hungarian gendarmes on 7 June 1944 while attempting to cross from Yugoslavia into occupied Hungary to aid Jews and downed Allied airmen.
On 7 June 1944, Hannah Szenes was arrested by Hungarian border guards as she attempted to cross from Yugoslav partisan territory into German-occupied Hungary. She had parachuted into Yugoslavia in March 1944 as part of a small unit of Jewish parachutists organized by the Haganah and Palestine Jewish community in cooperation with the British Army and the Special Operations Executive (SOE). Her mission was to help organize resistance, assist downed Allied airmen, and, above all, warn and help rescue the Jewish population of Hungary, who were then being deported en masse to Auschwitz-Birkenau under the direction of Adolf Eichmann.
Upon capture, Hungarian authorities discovered a British military transmitter in her possession, confirming her role as an Allied agent. She was imprisoned and subjected to brutal interrogation and torture, including beatings that left her with facial disfigurement, in an attempt to force her to reveal the codes used by her fellow parachutists and details of the British mission.
Despite the torture, Hannah refused to divulge any information, even when her own mother, Katalin, was later brought to the same prison and threatened in front of her. Her steadfast silence protected her comrades and became a central pillar of the heroic narrative later built around her in Israel. This arrest marked the beginning of the final five-month chapter of her life, ending in her trial and execution.