Tamar (Ariane Koch) Ben-Or תמר בן אור

2006-12-30T12:59:00.000-08:00

RelatioNet BE AR 35 BU HU
Tamar (Ariane) Ben-Or (Koch)

Interviewer:

Liya Blomenkrantz, Ella Moshe, Alexandra Pavluchenco.
Email: Alex_rebelde@hotmail.com
ICQ: 173911356
Messenger: alex_rebelde@hotmail.com
Address: Kfar- Saba

Survivor:

Code: RelatioNet BE AR 35 BU HU
Family Name: Ben-Or (Koch)
First Name: Tamar (Ariane)
Father Name: Erich Daniel Koch
Mother Name: Marta
Birth Date: 1935
Town In Holocaust: Budapest
Country In Holocaust: Hungary
Status (Today): Alive
Address Today: Kfar saba, Israel

Relatives:

Family Name: Nagy
First Name: Marta
Father Name: Rudolf
Mother Name: Jolan
Relationship (to Survivor): Mother
Town In Holocaust: Budapest
Country In Holocaust: Hungry
Profession (Main) In Holocaust: Nurse
Status (Today): Dead
If Dead - Death Place: Ashkelon, Israel
Death Reason: Cancer
Year Of Death: 1963

Family Name: Koch (Ramati)
First Name: Erich
Middle Name: Daniel
Relationship (to Survivor): Father
town in Holocaust: Ramat Gan
Country In Holocaust: Israel
Profession (Main) In Holocaust:Army Man
Status (Today): Dead
Death Place: Israel

Ariane's Story
Ariane was born in the year of 1935 to a wealthy family. Her grandfather, Rudolf Nagy, was a lawyer, and her grandmother Julian Nagy was a song writer and wrote some articles in a newspaper. Her mother Marta was a nurse in the Jewish hospital and her father, Eric Daniel Koch, studied medicine in the university. In the third year of his studies he had to quit because Jews weren’t allowed to study free professions. Ariane's parents divorced when she was 3 years old, and she lived with her grandparents because her mother worked in a hospital, and her father immigrated to Israel.
Ariane's grandparents had lands in the country and every year it produced a lot of crop and had money. Her life was good until the war. Ariane learned how to play the piano, ballet and rhythmic gymnastic.
Ariane went to first grade in the year of 1939.
After the Germans invaded the Jews were sent to special houses which were called "Star Houses" because of the 'Star Of David ' that they had to wear. Afterwards the Jews were transferred into a ghetto. In the ghetto Ariane was with her family- grand parents, her aunt (who was close to her mother's age) and uncle. Her mother never entered the ghetto, never wore a yellow patch. She was a very brave woman and didn’t care if she got caught as long as she wasn't in the ghetto. She paid a lot of money to get Ariane out of there. Martha hid Ariane in the house of a Christian friend of her. After 3 days Ariane's Aunt Edith and her boyfriend got fake papers and changed their identity and their names. The papers said that they were Christians. Ariane's name was changed to Marishka and her Aunt Edith's name was changed to Iren. Until then, Ariane had long beautiful hair and now it had to be cut to prevent someone from recognizing her. They moved to Rocoshligat -18 Kilometers from Budapest and rented a country house.
It wasn’t possible to buy food because they didn’t want people to see them. They ate mostly corn flour. The food was running out, but in the garden of the house they grew fruits and they could enjoy them in the right season.
Ariane didn’t go to school because they were afraid that the secret would be revealed.
Their neighbors had farms, but Ariane's aunt didn’t want to have any contact with strangers. In the neighbor's house lived a Fascist- Nazi family; who were even willing to kill Jews. A young woman from this house; only 18 and already married and pregnant used to call Ariane (by the name of Marishka) to come to the railway which crossed the road near their houses and threw stones at trains with Jews. Arian then was only 8 years old and came home crying after each time she saw a train. She was imagining that she was seeing her grandmother on those trains. She also couldn’t understand the hate that the girl from the neighbor's house had for people she didn’t even know and hadn't done anything bad. On contrary, Jews were patriotic to the state. They weren’t religious, and had assimilated.
Ariane, her aunt and her uncle stayed in this country house from the end of 1943 until the end of the war.
Arian's grandmother was taken on the "Walk of Death". She pretended that she fainted and was thrown into a cart which collected dead or sick people during the walk. Arian's grandmother crawled to the man who was riding the cart and offered him Napoleons- gold medals which were once worth a lot of money. He let her jump from the cart and she entered a flower store. The Hungarian people in the store shouted at her and threatened to call the Germans. She went out rapidly and entered a pharmacy saying she didn't feel well. They took her to the back of the store and gave her something to calm down. When she was alone she had a chance to remove the yellow patch and then she said that she was feeling a lot better. She got out and got a train to Rocoshligat. Arian's aunt hid her in the basement. It was cold there, but in the nights she could go upstairs.
Ariane's mother stayed in Budapest, which was bombed by the Germans. Marta opened a clinic in the city in order to give first aid in the street.The hospital where she worked gave her equipment. Marta used to sneak into the ghetto and take children to the clinic. She gave them food and medicines. The clinic was full and everyone cooperated and knew what to do in case the authorities came.
Marta was also visiting Ariane in Rocoshligat. She told her sister (Ariane's aunt) that the Hungarian front was heading, and offered to convert the house into headquarters of the Hungarian army. This way the Hungarians wouldn't search the house, and the family will get food. The uncle accepted the idea and they closed half of the house for the headquarters and lived in the other half.
When the Hungarian army left, the aunt who spoke German fluently, invited the German army – the Nazis, to use the house as headquarters. Ariane used to sing to them and her aunt cooked for them.
Later on, Ariane's mother brought another girl, Veronica, into the house, who was younger than Ariane by two years. They said that she was a relative who came to visit. Veronica actually was a Jewish girl from Budapest, about 4 years old when she was brought to the house.
Since Marta was a nurse, she knew about what was going on in the camps and got information that her father (Ariane's grandfather) was ill with pneumonia. Marta, who was friendly with a German officer, took a very big risk and asked him to save a Jew. At first he refused but when she told him that it's her father he agreed to help. The officer got him out of the camp and brought him to Rocoshligat. Ariane was very glad to see her granfathr. She was very close to him – he was like a father to her. Her family trusted her to know the secret although she was only 8 years old.
After a while the Russian began bombing the Germans. The Germans left the headquarters and Ariane's family came out of the hiding and invited the Russians into the headquarters.
Marta bought a dictionary and learned to talk Russian. The family got a lot of food. Ariane also learned to talk Russian. The Nazis neighbor's house became the kitchen of the headquarters when the family ran away.
The Russians even made shoes especially for Ariane. Her grandparents weren't hiding anymore. The headquarters saved her family because the Russian soldiers were violent to other people – they drank a lot of alcohol and raped women.
When the Russian left the headquarters people began to come back to Budapest as did Ariane and her family. Ariane and Marta ran away from Hungary to Austria in September 1945. It was rainy and muddy, but they had to travel by foot 30 km a night. Ariane was very skinny and unhealthy.
In Austria they stayed with the "Unra" – an organization which helped the Jews who survived the war. The organization took the kids to the summer castle of Hitler, which became a camp for kids. Marta came with Ariane to the camp and worked there as a teacher.
Ariane's father came to Israel in 1938 and served in the British army, in the "Hagana" organization and in the IDF. At the end of the war the British government gave certificates to European Jews who had relatives in Israel. Ariane's father got a certificate for her and sent it to France. When Ariane got it she was sent to Israel on a very small ship. Marta asked a family on the ship to watch Ariane, but the family didn't treat her so well. Ariane's hair, which had grown since it was cut in Hungary, had filled with lice because of the low hygiene in the ship, and in Israel she had to cut her hair again.
Ariane's meeting with her father was very emotional. He was already married again and had a 3 years old son, who waited anxiously for Ariane to arrive.
Meanwhile Ariane's mother was already ill with breast cancer. She had to have an operation but she had no money. Desperately, she let medical students in France operate her. The operation went well, but after it she was constantly ill. Eventually the cancer spread all over the body, and when the doctors said she had very little time to live, Ariane, whose name was already changed to an Israeli name – Tami, brought her mother to Israel in 1963. For the one year Marta was in Israel, she was in bed for 11 months. She died at the age of 47 in December 1963.
Tami adjusted to the new life very well. She studied in the elementary school "Yehalom" in Ramat Gan. She entered directly 5th grade at the age of 10. When she got older, she decided to be a nurse like her mother.
Tami's grandparents remained in Hungary. In 1951 her grandfather, Rudolf Nagy, died. Only after his death Tami discovered that he was an educated man and a famous lawyer. She remembered only his store of art creations. Tami wanted to bring her grandmother, Jolan, to Israel, but then war broke out ("Sheshet Hayamim") and the plan was canceled.

Tami says:" I will always remember the heroic things that my mother did, her brave decision not to play their game and to save as many people as she could. Though I wasn't put in a concentration camp I felt humiliated when I had to deny my Jewish identity and the basic character of human beings. But I had my revenge – I have 4 children, 9 grandsons and a good education. I came out from a dark tunnel and lifted my head. Though today I see only the good things that have happened to me in my life, the war has left a hole somewhere inside".

Budapest, Hungary

2005-11-17T00:17:00.000-08:00

Budapest is the capital city of Hungry and the country's
principal political, industrial, commercial and transportation center. It is the sixth largest city in the European Union. In 1872 three autonomous towns: Obuda, Buda and pest had grown into one big city - Budapest.
In the period between 1967 until First World War was the most glorious period of Budapest in which the population grew rapidly, the economy, industry and transportation (railways and ports) developed significantly and Budapest became a center of modern large – scale industry.
In the First World War the Austro-Hungarian monarchy, in which Budapest was included, was broken up and lost its power. By 1930 Budapest began to overcome the results of the war, but then came the Second World War.
At the beginning of the war Hungary sided with Germany and wasn't occupied until March 1944. More then 15,000 Jews from the Jewish population of Budapest were killed in labor camp and deportations before the German occupation. After the occupation the Jews of Budapest were forced to wear a yellow badge and in June 1944 a Jewish ghetto was formed. Furthermore, the Hungarian fascist took violent action against the Jews. They shot Jews and threw them to the river, and arranged death-walks in which many people died.
Meanwhile the neutral states took action in order to save as many people as they can. They issued international identity papers, formed international ghetto and houses for Jews who got the papers.During the holocaust nearly 50% of the Jewish population in Budapest perished. After the war, Budapest continued to develop at a steady rate, and once again is becoming a central European capital. Moreover, Budapest has the largest Jewish population in Eastern Europe and hosts the largest synagogue in Europe. Jewish schools, Yeshivot and even a university and hospital have been established in Budapest. The Jewish community nowdays is prosperous.