Marak, Tamar

Daughter of Camille. She was born in 1922 in Vienna, Austria. From her youth she was a member of the Gordonia youth movement in the city and helped organize the immigration of youth to Palestine. Her kindness, her gentleness, and her help to others made her fond of all her acquaintances, and thanks to her qualities, she acquired many friends. After Austria’s annexation to the German Reich, she witnessed the Nazi abuse of the Jews and was herself a victim of humiliation. These abuses caused her deep shock and a firm decision to abandon the Diaspora and immigrate to the Land of Israel. She arrived in Israel in 1939 and initially lived in the village of Son of Shemen, where she qualified for a group life and at the end of the training she reached Shdemot and then moved to Lubuka and prepared to take part in the construction of the new site in Beit She’an. Her group members described her as a cheerful, lively, optimistic and enthusiastic young woman, dancing a lot, singing and listening to music. At the same time, she was steeped in pioneering passion and a strong faith in the Hebrew language. In October 1942, she enlisted in the British army and was assigned to the women’s auxiliary corps where she was known as a dedicated soldier. She was sent with her unit to serve in Egypt, and from there she often wrote to her friends in the kibbutz letters full of nostalgia, in which she emphasized the need to preserve the character of the Land of Israel and stand against the danger of assimilation in the army. In her last letter she wrote that she would soon be on leave. On the 18th of Adar 5703 (25.3.1943), she died in a car accident in Egypt and was laid to rest in the military cemetery in Tel el-Kabir. Her friends published a list of her character and her work in the group’s newsletter.