Alene was his youngest sister. George Mardikian was a famous Armenian Philanthropist. In 1951, President Harry Truman had awarded George Mardikian the Medal of Freedom for supplying food to Coalition forces and civilians during World War II and the Korean War. He also was responsible for the migration of over 5,000 Armenian's from German refugee camps to the United States after World War II. In 1938, he had opened his own restaurant called Omar Khayyam. In 1935, Haiganoush and her daughter Alene fled to the United States. A year later, Haiganoush would die from pneumonia. World War II During World War II, Amirian and his family dealt with Nazi occupation of the oil fields. All the men who ran the oil refineries were against the Nazi Regime, including Amirian. They were forced to supply the armies of Nazi General's Erwin Rommel, Friedrich Paulus, Hans-Jürgen Bernhard Theodor von Arnim, and Albert Kesselring with basic supplies, such as oil, gas, food, and water. The oil refineries also supplied the armies of the infamous Romanian Dictator Ion Antonescu. They also had to supply the German and Romanian forces during the Battle of Stalingrad. German Chancellor Adolf Hitler had received over 80% of his oil and gas supplies from Ploiești. Because of the major importance the Ghoukasian Oil Refineries and the other surrounding oil refineries had on the war, American President Franklin D. Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill worked with General Jacob E. Smart at the 1942 Casablanca Conference to discuss Operation Tidal Wave. Operation Tidal Wave was a massive air bombing of the Ploiești refineries by British and American Forces. Prime Minister Churchill called the Ploiești refineries as "the taproot of German might,".The Operation left complete and utter destruction in Ploiești. During the day 200 British bombers raided the city and at night 178 American bombers would arrive. Close to 100 bombers would not return home. On the other hand, Amirian and his management team had to deal with the massive devastation after 40% of the fields were destroyed. After relentless bombardment from the Allied Forces, Hitler would turn his attention to the refineries in Baku. Yet, the German's were able to rebuild the refineries. In a desperate attempt to destroy the heart of the German war machine, the Royal Air Force deployed 700 bombers to flatten the city. The British Empire had succeeded in finally destroying the refineries. This event