Uri Ben Ari

Uri Ben Ari was born in 1925 in Berlin

Ben-Ari was born Heinz Benner in 1925 in the Schöneberg district of Berlin, to a Jewish family. His mother died when he was a child. After Kristallnacht he was expelled from his school in a public ceremony.

In March 1939 he came alone to the Land of Israel with Youth Aliyah and grew up in Kibbutz Ein Gev. His father and most of his family were killed in the Holocaust.

He joined the Palmach in 1946 and fought in the battles for Jerusalem in the War of Independence. He later commanded the 7th Brigade, which fought at Abu Ageila in the Sinai campaign, and became commander of the Armored Corps in December 1956. He soon left the IDF after being given a choice between standing trial and retiring, in a case over a subordinate's theft.

As a reservist he led the Harel Brigade in Jerusalem in the Six-Day War and was deputy to the head of Southern Command in the Yom Kippur War. He served as Consul General in New York from 1975 to 1978 and managed several companies.

He wrote books on his military service and his childhood in Germany. He died in Tel Aviv in 2009 and was buried at Kibbutz Shefayim.