Max Auschnitt

Max Carol Auschnitt,

Together with his brother Edgar, Max owned several steel and munitions businesses including the Titan-Nădrag-Călan (TNC) chain, which is claimed to have employed over 4,900 workers.^[4][21] Through this group, formed in 1924, Max was connected to Vickers-Armstrongs, making him a participant in the European arms trade. This reflected his Anglophile outlook, first brought up when he defended Vickers against rivals at Škoda Works.^[22] Auschnitt was especially successful as owner of the UDR, which had amassed 1 billion lei in capital.^[4] This enterprise alone had 17,000 salaried workers,^[4][21] covering 80% of Romania's steel production, and 50% of locomotives, while acquiring most of Astra Brașov, an automotive plant, and minority shares in Galați shipyard.^[23] From 1930, a syndicate comprising the TNC, Creditanstalt, and Chrissoveloni Bank controlled 60% of UDR shares, while Vickers had an additional 13%.^[22] From 1934, the UDR agreed to co-sponsor all state orders for Vickers canons and ammunition.^[24]

Auschnitt claimed that Edgar alone ran TNC from 1929, but his connections to that company surfaced in later talk about his

From 1929 to 1933, Auschnitt represented Galați Chamber of Commerce and Industry in the Senate of Romania.^[30] He could only qualify for this office after being first inducted into the Chamber's offices at Deva, at some point in 1928.^[31] Although he ran and won as an independent,^[32] he received official backing from the PNȚ administration in both the 1928 election^[31] and the 1932 reelection, running unopposed in the latter.^[33] In February 1932, Calendarul newspaper reported that Auschnitt had intervened to bloc senators from approving of a price ceiling on sugar. At the time, Auschnitt himself admitted that his Creditanstalt was trying to collect the 50-million schilling it was owed by Romanian sugar refineries, and would therefore oppose any reduction of their profit margin.^[34] During the subsequent electoral race, the same daily hosted allegations that he and Malaxa, who also ran in the elections with government support, were financially backed by the UDR; according to this source, Auschnitt had personally diverted 10 million lei from the salary fund, and was using it in the campaign.^[35] Balance sheets released in mid-1932, at the height of the Great Depression, showed the UDR having "a net profit of 47 million, in addition to a share capital of 750 million, despite huge unemployment and permanent downsizing."^[36]

In that context, Auschnitt was also becoming noted as the PNȚ's financial backer.

In late 1933, a Guardist death squad murdered Prime Minister Ion G. Duca, exposing the movement to Carol's violent retaliation. As reported by writer R. G. Waldeck, the Guardist leader Corneliu Zelea Codreanu, fearing for his life, messaged Auschnitt the warning: "If you don't find a way to save me, you'll be bumped off next."^[48] According to this account, Auschnitt and Lupescu, by then a royal mistress, hid Codreanu from the authorities, and also negotiated a truce; Waldeck also claims that Auschnitt and Malaxa agreed to finance the Iron Guard, thus ensuring its political survival into the post-Duca era.^[48] The allegation was also publicized by Panait Istrati, who sympathized with the anti-Codreanu group, the Crusade of Romanianism. He noted that Guardists took Auschnitt's money while still reining violence on lower-class Jews, who were powerless.^[49]

According to historian Grigore Traian Pop, the claim that Auschnitt was Codreanu's sponsor is fundamentally inaccurate, and planted in the public arena by Blank and Victor Iamandi, who were Auschnitt's rivals at the court.^[50] Several Guardists have independently confirmed that Auschnitt advanced sizable contributions to their cause over an unspecified period—though, as noted by historian Roland Clark, these merely showed that he wanted his business protected from harm.^[51] The conflict between Codreanu and Auschnitt was finally resumed in 1934, when the Guard's press referred to "Max Auschnitt the kike", "national bloodsucker", as the power behind the throne.^[52] This notion was also embraced by the Romanian Front (FR), a far-right dissidence of the PNȚ, whose newspapers claimed that "the kike Max Auschnit" had steadily raised the price of iron after 1930.^[37] As Damian argued: "He, the Jew from Galicia, determined whether of not the Romanian peasant deserved to own a plow [...]. He dictated the price of nails, of corrugation, of iron, or heating stoves, of gutter pipes, of anything iron-related".^[3]

Auschnitt and then-fiancée Leonora Brook in 1932

Livia Pordea in 1934

Auschnitt's first marriage was to a Jewish woman,^[53] Nelly, who in March 1924 gave birth to a son, later known as Steve Aușnit.^[54] Her father, the banker Arnold Aronovici, cemented Auschnitt's links with British capital, and allegedly plotted with him to bring in a small British firm, Stewart & Partners, as builders of the Bucharest–Brașov highway; this scheme also involved some in the PNȚ, in particular Madgearu.^[55] Nelly died "after brief suffering" on February 16, 1927, aged 26.^[56] Max was then engaged to Leonora Brooke, daughter of the White Rajah, Charles Vyner Brooke, whom he was set to marry in September 1933.^[16] The wedding was called off, allegedly because Lenore favored another lover.^[13][57] Auschnitt remained noted for his escapades with film stars and high-society ladies,^[9] before finally marrying Livia Pordea (also rendered as Prodea or Pordeanu), from a political family of Cluj. His father-in-law was Augustin Pordea, at the time a serving as Vice President in the Senate.^[20][58]

The wedding came in January 1935, at the same time as Auschnitt's conflict with the Iron Guard, and therefore had to take place in secrecy, at

During September 1936, the Lupist Party formally asked Madgearu why he was spending time at Auschnitt's villa in Eforie.^[71] Auschnitt had remained discreetly involved in political life, a sponsor of the least radical nationalist platforms, leading to paradoxes. One such "incongruity" is noted by Pandrea, according to whom the PNȚ used Auschnitt's "recent subsidies" to publish Ernest Ene's calls to nationalize Romania's heavy industry.^[72] At a meeting of the General Union of Industrialists in November 1935, Auschnitt himself argued for tariffs on Romanian exports as a means of preventing "weak-currency countries" from competing with local factories.^[73] In August 1936, he published in La Roumanie Nouvelle a favorable review of Romania's industrial "autarky", demanding protectionist measures in agriculture and mining.^[74] He was reportedly rejected by the PNȚ rank-and-file. In September 1934, a Sovata rally of PNȚ figures who supported Iuliu Maniu declared Auschnitt and other figures of the camarilla to be "occult" and unwanted influences on the king.^[75]

In late 1936, rumors that Auschnitt had attended a hunting party with PNȚ leaders Maniu and Ion Mihalache were dismissed by the party press as "intended to stoke the people's animosity".^[76] With the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War, Auschnitt maintained a personal friendship with the Francoist ambassador, Pedro Prat y Soutzo.^[77] Prat claimed that Auschnitt sponsored his diplomatic mission, though, as noted by scholar Judith Keene, this too was an attempt by the businessman to appease the Romanian fascists.^[6] In August 1937, the FR's Alexandru Vaida-Voevod claimed that Auschnitt had even acknowledged employment discrimination favoring Romanians as a positive. Vaida hypothesized that Auschnitt's baptism had changed his perspective on Romanianization; he also hinted that such messaging was vetted by the PNȚ, which was courting the far-right.^[78] During that same interval, Octavian Goga noted that PNȚ figures were borrowing ideas from his own National Christian Party, and "posing as nationalist reformers, presumably with Mr. Auschnitt's blessing".^[79]

From September 1937, Auschnitt's activities became a main topic of scrutiny for the pro-fascist daily Universul, whose staff believed that he was behind Zaharia Stancu's left-wing newspaper, Lumea Românească.^[80] This claim was partly validated by another newspaperman, Tudor Arghezi, who also noted that Universul was moving away from a position in which it too had accepted Auschnitt's bribes (according to Arghezi, the industrialist only sought out Stancu after this relationship broke down).^[81] Ahead of national elections in December, Auschnitt became a Senate candidate for the PNȚ.^[37] As noted by Argetoianu, the Iron Guard believed that Auschnitt was maneuvering to set up a new government team under Mihalache, which greatly enraged Codreanu and his followers; however, the allegation was dismissed by Edgar, according to whom Max was "not up to anything".^[82] Eventually, Auschnitt retook a Senate seat in Romania's 1937 legislature.^[13] During the conflicts of that year, the Iron Guard reportedly threw an explosive device at the Aleea Alexandru villa; after this incident, Auschnitt dispatched Steve to safety in England.^[83]

Auschnitt confessed being taken by surprise when Carol appointed Goga as Premier, as the king never mentioned his plans to his poker partners.

Only days after, Carol II staged a self-coup, outlawing all political parties and replacing them with the National Renaissance Front; the antisemitic legislation, passed in 1937, was tightened and extended. This regime also formalized Carol's growing disdain for Auschnitt, which reportedly began when Livia refused Carol's sexual advances,^[9] or when Lupescu grew jealous that she would not.^[13][86] Pandrea alleges that "the Transylvanian tease Pordea" was publicly known as Carol's second mistress, and tolerated as such by Lupescu. He believes that the conflict between Malaxa and Auschnitt exploded when Malaxa's young daughter, seduced by Carol, came to usurp Livia's role at the court.^[87] Auschnitt himself was notoriously unfaithful to his wife, spending his money on sexual escapades in Vienna.^[13]

As reported by Jovan Dučić, in late 1938 Auschnitt and Malaxa were involved in undermining the Polish–Romanian alliance, favoring instead Czechoslovakia and the Little Entente; this was because of Poland's role in the partition of Czechoslovakia, and because of both industrialists being suppliers for Škoda Works. Dučić alleges that the two men played a crucial part in preventing Romania from annexing Carpatho-Ukraine, as proposed to Carol by the Polish government.^[88] From March 1939, Carol directed Romania's political and economic rapprochement with Germany. This move alienated Auschnitt, who feared Nazi racial policies. His memorandum on the matter reached Carol and Madgearu, but had no success.^[15] The same month, Romanian diplomat Viorel Tilea, who had once served as Auschnitt's employee, attempted to engineer a government reshuffle and steer Romania back into the anti-German camp. Auschnitt was often credited as the mastermind behind Tilea's action, though Tilea himself later revealed that he was urged on by people close to Malaxa.^[89]

In July, Carol shelved the plan for an Anglo–Franco–Romanian joint venture, reportedly objecting that its two would-be managers, Auschnitt and Oskar Kaufmann, were Jewish.^[90] Later that month, Orghidan, who was seen as "Auschnit's man", was voted off the UDR board.^[15][91] Soon after this, Auschnitt was no longer invited to Lupescu's poker evenings.^[15] On August 18, he resigned from the UDR, citing no explicit reason.^[92] The pretext was offered by his alleged conflict of interest: Auschnitt was claimed to have tampered with a signed UDR contract in order to obtain state compensation for TNC budgetary losses.^[15][93] Auschnitt is cited by Argetoianu as emotionally shaken by the interpretation of facts, openly denying that the document in question was ever modified.^[94] The diarist notes that Urdăreanu, who "has a nose for these things", had come to openly disrespect Auschnitt long before heading the investigation at Reșița.^[92] This issue is attested in other records, which, Scurtu notes, show Urdăreanu constantly engaged in undermining Auschnitt's reputation.^[15] Pandrea reports that Livia Auschnitt once insulted Urdăreanu, who enjoyed Lupescu's protection.^[95]

Commenting on Max Auschnitt's character in his own diary, Carol surmises: "A Yid is still a Yid, no matter how nice he might be as a man."^[96] Urdăreanu allegedly concluded that Auschnitt had also "clogged" the UDR with Jews and Hungarians, and insisted that this was additional proof of malfeasance.^[97] Argetoianu additionally reports that both Auschnitt and Kaufmann had by then been involved in insider trading at the Credit Bank, from which they drew a profit of 6 million lei between them. Their momentary success was offset by Edgar Auschnitt, who lost 3 million lei playing backgammon against Constantin Cantacuzino.^[98]

First trial

News of Auschnitt's defeat by Malaxa were recorded by socialite

In October, the king allowed Iamandi to draft new regulations for sociétés anonymes, specifically designed to harm Auschnitt; the latter was being interrogated by prosecutors regarding his UDR contracts.^[103] Business rivals where then allowed to engineer a trial against Auschnitt, who was accused of fraud and money laundering. Various observers believed that he was no longer willing to share his profits with the camarilla, which made him a target for retribution.^[29] Argetoianu adds speculation that Carol was resentful because his stocks in the Lujani sugar refineries, obtained from Auschnitt, had been subject to litigation; or that the king intended to please Adolf Hitler by "sacrificing his own kikes".^[64] The interpretation is partly backed by sociologist Mictat Gârlan, according to whom "Max Auschnitt, a man close to the Royal House", was arrested "only because he was Jewish."^[104] The disgraced courtier kept in his desk a document showing that Carol was fully responsible for the sugar debacle.^[105]

A "public enemy number 1",^[106] Auschnitt was also expected to relinquish his UDR shares. According to one account, he agreed to sell only if he was guaranteed immunity from prosecution and allowed to settle in France, where Livia had already relocated. A deal was reached, but Auschnitt was still arrested on the border.^[9] Argetoianu partly backs this rumor, by relaying a story allegedly told by Iamandi, according to which Auschnitt agreed to cede his stock if promised immunity from prosecution. His proposal, Argetoianu notes, was simply denied.^[107] Though selected by Carol to serve as Prime Minister during the same interval, Argetoianu still viewed the affair as a settling of scores, and asked not to be involved on either side.^[108] With Auschnitt's taking into police custody on the evening of November 8, the censorship office was instructed to allow the publication of "any reportage that would detail the reasons behind [his] arrest."^[109] As he was being relocated to Văcărești Prison that same day, Argetoianu read his grounds for indictment and concluded that his friend was not in fact innocent, though the trial he faced was likely to be unfair.^[110] Writer Radu Tudoran, who covered the trial as a young reporter, contrarily noted that Auschnitt was not guilty, and that his "concise", "hard-hitting" self-defense was proof in itself.^[111]

The matter was personally handled by

In September 1940, following public outrage over the Second Vienna Award, Carol was deposed and exiled, alongside his mistress; the "National Legionary State" was established as a partnership between the Iron Guard and General Ion Antonescu. The Guard opened up Lupescu's residence, reportedly showing that she still kept Livia Auschnitt's portrait.^[119] According to Petru Groza, who served time in Malmaison prison in 1943–1944, Max Auschnitt had spent some time there, and had been allowed to refurbish a bathroom, which became the communal laundry room.^[18] Antonescu was lenient toward Auschnitt, dispatching him to a sanitarium,^[118] but also continued to enforce and enhance antisemitic laws. Such policies remained unchanged when the Guard was ousted in January 1941, as Romania remained closely aligned with Germany. In April, Livia obtained that the seal be lifted on her Bucharest home, but the regime used this occasion to inspect the premises. Prosecutors reportedly found a trove of foreign currency, which they confiscated, preparing to have Max Auschnitt placed on trial for tax evasion.^[120]

In December 1941, Antonescu noted of Auschnitt: "once a kike, always a kike".^[118] He openly acknowledged that Auschnitt was in fact innocent of any crime, and favored allowing him to leave Romania if he would transfer all his property to the state; this attempt was foiled by protests from Joachim von Ribbentrop, the German Foreign Minister.^[118] Despite further outrage from such circles, Antonescu's courts commuted Auschnitt's sentence into forced labor at the TNC, meaning that he was effectively on parole.^[104] In October 1941, Auschnitt had offered to donate his share of the TNC to a state company. His proposal caused much embarrassment for Antonescu's ministers, since accepting under the circumstances would have looked like their blackmailing a prisoner.^[121] Antonescu himself intervened to chide Orghidan and Alexandru Ottulescu for stalling. In January 1942, Auschnitt sorted the issue by appointing Orghidan as caretaker of his estate, which allowed for TNC stock to be issued and bought by the state using Auschnitt's money.^[121] In May 1943, the UDR, managed at the time by Göring and physicist Horia Hulubei, reported capital gains of 37.8 million lei obtained from the Auschnitt and CEPI transactions.^[122] Meanwhile, operating through the Cisatlantic and Cisoceanic consortia, Edgar was able to purchase an interest in the Romanian munitions manufacturer, IRMC.^[123] He finally moved to the United States in early 1942. Here, a forge equipment he had ordered in 1939 was confiscated by the Office of Alien Property Custodian, and made available for use by the United States Navy.^[123]

Eventually, Antonescu's review of previous court verdicts reached Auschnitt's case. Unusually for a Jew in that context, he was cleared of the charges and released on July 3, 1942.

In early 1943, Auschnitt was interned at the Târgu Jiu camp, where he was held alongside Tudor Arghezi, who described him as a "distinguished man when it came to his relations with others".^[81] The camp also held some leading members of the Romanian Communist Party (PCR). One of these was Lucrețiu Pătrășcanu, who became close friends with the industrialist.^[129] Upon release, the latter began financing the underground movement,^[130][131] which now intended to topple Antonescu. His donations, formally presented as humanitarian contributions for jailed militants, reached Pătrășcanu through PCR proxies Belu Zilber and Remus Koffler.^[131] Auschnitt's relative freedom still irked Nazi observers. In May 1943, the genocidal Obersturmbannführer Adolf Eichmann was working on the case, insisting that Nazi spies were to prevent Auschnitt from leaving Romania.^[104] During the early months of 1944, Auschnitt was reportedly allowed access into the Ministry of National Economy, alongside Orghidan. He was allegedly spotted there by jurist Constantin C. Stoicescu, who exclaimed: "There is that con artist Aușnit, walking about like it's nobody's business."^[132] A piece in The Jewish Herald described Auschnitt as: "an apostate Jew, close friend of the Nazi Puppet Premier of Romania General Antonescu".^[133]

Second trial and August coup

Also in early 1944, Auschnitt was reportedly dragged into the power struggles within the Communist Party—assisting

During the coup, Auschnitt's car was reportedly borrowed by Pătrășcanu, who used it to transport Groza out of Deva.^[143] Immediately following these events, Auschnitt sent letters home demanding that Antonescu aide Valentin Georgescu face punishment for his wartime activities.^[144] He also asked to purchase the archives captured from Antonescu's spy chief, Eugen Cristescu, which included minute details on communist networks active in Romania. Signaling his anticipation of a communist takeover, Auschnitt "mapped out a plan of action", including the creation of a pro-capitalist "information service within the workers' world".^[145] In September, the United States Army Air Forces flew him back to Bucharest,^[127] where he was awarded protection by the Allied Commission, and allowed to assist in reconstruction.^[135] His 1940 trial was again up for review in November, when another court confirmed his innocence.^[104] In December, Nicolae Rădescu took over as Prime Minister, noting with alarm that Auschnitt had resumed his conflict with Malaxa, to the point of paralyzing Romania's transport industry.^[146] In December 1944, when he founded a Swiss Balkan Finance and Trading Company, he was registered as residing on Câmpineanu Street, 2.^[147] He and Malaxa both entered a new Masonic Lodge, called Lanțul de Unire, where, in 1945, they initiated Hulubei.^[148]

Auschnitt was secretly backing Rădescu's coalition against the rising PCR, who wanted Groza as Prime Minister. In early 1945, the two rival camps clashed in the streets of Bucharest, leading to a communist takeover. As reported by Pandrea, Auschnitt unsuccessfully supported an anti-communist counter-coup, and was identified by other participants as Romania's would-be Finance Minister.^[149] On March 9, 1945, as Groza formed a communized cabinet, Auschnitt catered champagne for a pro-communist group, the Romanian Society for Friendship with the Soviet Union, later becoming Vice President of its Economic Section.^[150] He claimed to have been approached by Soviet General Ivan Susaykov, whom he advised to recruit economic experts from outside the PCR.^[151] According to Auschnitt's own data, the Soviet state took over 30% of UDR shares as part of the reparations plan, their assistance actually preventing the factories from going bankrupt.^[152] He and Malaxa were considered for a partnership in the forestry SovRom (Soviet–Romanian joint venture), until Groza vetoed the proposal.^[153] Auschnitt, who expressed his disdain for SovRoms and for Malaxa's willingness to participate in them,^[154] had recovered some of his UDR stock.^[155] He was still prevented from reusing his villa, which was requisitioned by the Red Army in 1946.^[57]

In tandem, Auschnitt served as Vice President of a rival club, called "Friends of America".

Auschnitt still hoped that the Potsdam Conference would push back Soviet hegemony in Romania, but reassured Schuyler that he was prepared to leave the country at a moment's notice.^[160] His offices on Câmpineanu Street was frequented by British spies Archibald Gibson and Ted Masterson, both of whom were also Freemasons; Auschnitt allegedly informed them on the state of Romania's economy.^[161] In a November 1945 interview with Mark Foster Ethridge, he spoke about the communists' zeal and incompetence as being responsible for the massive inflation. He also contended that industrial workers and peasants, wishing to be left alone, had turned virulently anti-communist.^[162] He claimed to have personally solved a labor dispute at Astra Brașov once he prevented workers from sacking the managerial staff.^[152]

Under interrogation by communist authorities, several Freemasons reported that Auschnitt and Reșița engineer Alexandru Popp, as members of the Big Finance Club, had agreed to sponsor opposition groups, including the PNȚ, in preparation for parliamentary elections in November 1946. Also to these sources, the effort was coordinated by American envoys.^[163] Alexandru Grigoriu, himself an industrialist and a Mason, noted that Auschnitt personally handled grants for Titel Petrescu and Anton Dumitriu, who had by then formed an Independent Social Democratic Party.^[164] Auschnitt reportedly approached Mihai Ralea, who served as Romanian ambassador to the US, and whom he mistakenly identified as an anti-communist, with a plan to sabotage Romania's maize production; when his offer was rejected, Auschnitt "tried to demoralize Ralea, telling him that he held information [...] that Ralea was viewed with suspicion by the Soviets."^[165]

Working as a diplomat, Gustave Pordea sensed the changing of fortunes, and opted to defect in 1947.^[58] According to historian Dinu Zamfirescu, the Pordeas were actually protected by Groza, who allowed both Gustave and Livia safe passage when their father promised to donate all his assets to the Romanian state. Gustave was sent to an "obscure post" in The Hague precisely because he could then escape, together with his "many children".^[86] Sources differ as to where his brother-in-law was living at the time. A report by the Soviet spy S. Pivovarov, issued in June 1947, claims that Auschnitt "has been in the US for over a year", and that, with Malaxa, he was attempting to channel American funding for Romania's industrial effort.^[166] Other accounts suggest that Auschnitt remained in Romania for several years, although being singled out by Groza's government as a sponsor of the anti-communist underground. As such, he was briefly detained in 1947.^[30] Schuyler finally warned him that his life was in danger, prompting Auschnitt to relocate in France^[135] at some point before August 15, 1947.^[167]

Records kept by the new

This clampdown was closely followed by a purge of Social Democrats from the UDR's trade union. Traian Cercega and Georg Hromadka were arrested, while Eftimie Gherman managed to escape.^[177] Scînteia, the communist party organ, depicted Popp and Auschnitt as "common criminals who, for years on end, have been robbing and demeaning thousands of working men and women, exploiting the blood out of them."^[178] Although Auschnitt was the richest among alleged conspirators, and therefore "afforded great attention by prosecutors", his name was not included on the spurious list of would-be coup leaders.^[179] He was also the only in absentia defendant at that trial,^[178] and was sentenced to life imprisonment "for the crime of high treason" on November 2, 1948^[30] (though believed by some authors to have received a second death sentence).^[135]

Speaking at a public rally on November 1, Finance Minister Vasile Luca proclaimed that the trial had exposed Romanian capitalists for colluding against the Soviet Union and "our democratic regime's economy". This, Luca inferred, made Romanian–Soviet economic cooperation all the more imperative.^[180] In July 1952, a UDR trade unionist wrote in Scînteia that he and his colleagues had been liberated from being "exploited by Auschnitt and other bandits".^[181] Auschnitt's entire estate had by then been confiscated, and the villa on Aleea Alexandru was assigned to Groza, who lived there for the rest of his life; it later housed the Argentinian Embassy.^[57] Gazeta Literară, the communist literary magazine, took over Edgar's flat outside Piața Romană, including its furniture.^[182] The brothers' Galați home was also taken over by the state, and from 1968 was used as a museum, showcasing the labor movement in Romania.^[183]

RNC and later years

After his departure, Max Auschnitt was mentioned in the 1954 show trial of Pătrășcanu, whom the communist leadership now identified as an enemy of the regime; his "trusted man" inside the Communist Party, Samuel Margulies, was brought in as a celebrity witness for the prosecution.^[184] The exiled industrialist lived for a while with Livia and Gustave's family in Biarritz, but grew estranged from his wife, and decided to settle as a bachelor in the US.^[86] He joined Edgar and Steve in New York City, where he acquired American citizenship,^[135] though he continued to send money to Livia and his child by her.^[86] Malaxa also headed for America, but Auschnitt repeatedly sought to prevent him from settling there.^[17][38] As part of this conflict, he directed a press campaign which alleged that Malaxa was a communist asset.^[185] The press he sponsored overstated Malaxa's links with the Iron Guard, including unsubstantiated charges that Malaxa's home had been a mass-murder hub for the 1941 pogrom.^[17] According to journalist Romulus Căplescu, this allegation was not proffered by Auschnitt ("a decent, common-sense person"), but was rather the product of spontaneous sensationalism.^[17]

Malaxa was finally admitted to the US in 1953, after purchasing support from US Senator Richard Nixon.^[17][186] Auschnitt's allegations were partly successful, in that Malaxa never applied for naturalization.^[17] Both rivals became engaged with the anti-communist Romanian diaspora, though from different angles: Auschnitt sought to align the Romanian National Committee (RNC) as an outlet for the PNȚ, while Malaxa backed the more right-wing Rădescu as leader of the movement. After negotiations overseen by the exiled king Michael I, the two wings reached an agreement in May 1949, but again quarreled and split up in December 1950.^[38] During the subsequent row, Rădescu opened a civil lawsuit against members of Michael's retinue, alleging that, on Auschnitt's orders, they had dilapidated 3 million Swiss francs from the RNC's pool.^[187] In parallel, the RNC successfully called in the Central Intelligence Agency to examine Nixon's deals with Malaxa, until Walter Bedell Smith ordered his agents to step down.^[188]

The dispute was closely followed by Romania's new secret police, the Securitate. In 1953, it took clues from a piece in the Washington Times-Herald that Auschnitt was a "guardian angel" for the RNC Chairman—his old acquaintance Constantin Vișoianu.^[189] According to Pandrea, Auschnitt had purchased Vișoianu's services, preventing him from returning to Romania, and was using "such political beggars" for personal gain.^[190] As seen by Pandrea, "Max I is the real king, having formed his own tiny court in New York."^[191] The connection was seen as scandalous by Rădescu's League of Free Romanians. Its sources indicated that there was reason to view Auschnitt as a liability, since he had been "recently implicated in a scandal with loose women."^[192] Edgar was also noted for picking up girls from Barbizon 63 and getting them to attend "impromptu parties in his Fifth Avenue penthouse, where he would entertain pals such as Cary Grant."^[193]

During his final years, Auschnitt reoriented himself toward the budding plastics industry. He and his son Steve worked on improving plastic-bag zippers (originally a Danish invention)^[4] by founding Minigrip, Inc., which, from 1951, was under contract with Dow Chemical Company.^[21] According to Căplescu, it remained a "modest enterprise", never matching the success of his earlier ventures in iron and steel.^[17] Auschnitt spent the remainder of his life at a luxurious home on Park Avenue.^[17] He died there after a prolonged illness, on January 18, 1957^[2] (though several sources cite 1959).^[4][17][156] His death was closely followed by the publication of Olivia Manning's Balkan Trilogy, where he probably appears as the banker Druker,^[194] and by I. Peltz's novel, Max și lumea lui ("Max and His World"), where he is caricatured as the eponymous Max Gros.^[195] In 1985, the Romanian communist authorities allowed Radu Tudoran to publish an autobiographical novel, Victoria neînaripată, in which he stated his belief that Auschnitt was a victim of Carol's machinations.^[196]

Gustave Pordea was left destitute by his brother-in-law's departure, and for a while only made a living selling