CONTRIBUTED

In observance of Holocaust Remembrance Day, the entire community is invited to join with the Sandhills Jewish Congregation to screen the new documentary film, "Blessed Is the Match: The Life and Death of Hannah Senesh," at Temple Beth Shalom Sunday, April 26, at 4 p.m.

There will be a short memorial service prior to the showing of the 85-minute documentary film.

Holocaust Remembrance Day is a time for remembrance, education and advocacy on behalf of the six million Jews, and five million non-Jews throughout Europe, who were killed by the Nazis from 1933 to 1945. It is a day that has been set aside for remembering the victims of the Holocaust and to serve as a reminder of what can happen to civilized people when bigotry, hatred, and indifference reign.

Shortlisted for the Academy Award for Best Documentary, the film has recently won audience awards at the Atlanta, Washington, Tucson, Denver, San Diego and Hong Kong Jewish film festivals. Executive-produced by Emmy Award-winner Marta Kauffman (co-creator of the hit series, "Friends") and narrated by Academy Award-nominee Joan Allen, "Blessed Is the Match" is the first-ever documentary feature on the World War II-era poet and diarist who became a paratrooper, resistance fighter and modern-day Joan of Arc.

Safe in Palestine in 1944, Hannah volunteered for a mission to rescue Jews in her native Hungary. Shockingly, it was the only outside military rescue mission for Jews during the Holocaust. Hannah parachuted behind enemy lines, was captured, tortured and ultimately executed by the Nazis. Incredibly, her mother Catherine witnessed the entire ordeal -- first as a prisoner with Hannah and later as her advocate, braving the bombed-out streets of Budapest in a desperate attempt to save her daughter.

The filmmakers were given unprecedented access to the Senesh family archive -- including hundreds of unpublished letters and over 1,300 never-before-seen photos. They interviewed the few remaining survivors who knew Hannah -- her classmates at a Budapest girls' school, fellow pioneers in Palestine (including former Israeli President Shimon Peres, who knew Hannah in the 1940s), parachutists from Hannah's mission and prisoners from Hannah's time in a Gestapo jail in 1944.

They also assembled a team of top scholars, including Holocaust expert Michael Berenbaum (creator of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum) and World War II historian Sir Martin Gilbert. Principal photography took place from 2006-2007 in Israel, the U.S., Hungary and the Czech Republic.

For more on Hannah Senesh and "Blessed Is the Match," visit www.blessedisthematch. com.

"The film is not suitable for children under the age of 13," says a spokesman.

The Temple is located at the corner of Jackson Springs and Hoffman roads in Foxfire. For further information, call 673-5224.