Max Carol Auschnitt,Cerasela Moldoveanu, "În căutarea lui Schwartz... Contribuția evreilor la Războiul de Întregire Națională a României (1916–1919)", in Revista de Istorie Militară, Issues 5–6/2017, p. 90 also known as Ausschnitt, Auschnit or Aușnit (February 14, 1888 – January 18, 1957),"Max Ausnit Dies", in The New York Times, January 19, 1957 was a Romanian businessman and political figure, one of his country's most prominent industrialists during the interwar period. Born to Ukrainian Jewish immigrants, he spent much of his youth abroad, returning in the 1910s to set up business as an importer of sheet iron, greatly expanding his father's fortune after World War I. Auschnitt was caretaker, and from 1929 managing director, of the Iron Domains and Factory (UDR) of Reșița, as well as founder of Titan-Nădrag-Călan (TNC), regional partner of Vickers-Armstrongs, and investor in many other fields. Primarily known as the "iron king" of Greater Romania, he had a business connection, and later a consuming rivalry, with manufacturer Nicolae Malaxa. The two were associate owners of Creditanstalt, which established their presence in Europe.
First elected to the Senate as an independent corporate member, Auschnitt turned to partisan politics as a financial backer of the National Peasants' Party; he had enduring collaborations with Virgil Madgearu and Dem I. Dobrescu. In tandem, he joined a camarilla formed around King Carol II, constantly bribing him and his mistress, Elena Lupescu. Such behavior drew negative attention to his businesses, particularly since Auschnitt used his political connections to secure Romanian state contracts, on which his fortune largely rested. His alleged corruption, along with his ethnicity and his publicized anti-fascism, made him a target for verbal and physical attacks by the far-right movements, in particular the Iron Guard. Auschnitt attempted to diffuse this threat by paying public tributes to Romanian nationalism and, more discreetly, by sponsoring the Guardist network. His 1935 marriage to Augustin Pordea's daughter, and his conversion to Roman Catholicism, elicited additional controversy.
Auschnitt found himself at odds with Carol after a string of matrimonial, economic, and geopolitical disputes. Marginalized by the passage of racial laws in 1937, he was further maligned when Carol's National Renaissance Front pursued a rapprochement with Nazi Germany. He was arrested shortly after the start of World War II, and imprisoned following a show trial. In the process, he lost his UDR shares, which went to Malaxa and Albert Göring, and then his citizenship. Carol himself fell from power in 1940, with Ion Antonescu replacing him as dictator. Despite being antisemitic, this new regime bargained over TNC shares, and finally cleared Auschnitt of all charges in 1942. Once freed, he turned to sponsoring underground opposition groups, and was also involved in helping fellow Jews to escape the Holocaust. He had a minor role in plotting the anti-fascist coup of 1944, though he himself had to flee Romania before the event, and was sentenced to death in absentia. Returning to assist the Allied Commission, he was slowly pushed back into exile by signs that the Romanian Communist Party was establishing a new dictatorship.
The new communist regime again withdrew Auschnitt's citizenship, before pronouncing him guilty of treason. This charge referred to Auschnitt's involvement with anti-communist resistance groups, including his allegedly financing Nicolae Petrașcu's Iron Guard cells. Stripped of his Romanian properties, Auschnitt relaunched himself as an entrepreneur in the plastics industry, and obtained American citizenship. His final political activities were as a sponsor of the Romanian National Committee, which split into pro-Auschnitt and pro-Malaxa factions, respectively led by Constantin Vișoianu and Nicolae Rădescu.
Biography Beginnings
Auschnitt was the scion of Ukrainian Jewish immigrantsRomulus Damian, "Cetățenii noștri clandestini", in Gazeta Transilvaniei, Issue 97/1939, p. 4 Dani Dancea, "Fiul marelui industriaș Max Aușnit a primit cheia orașului în care a construit cea mai modernă parcare de camioane din România", in Adevărul (Timișoara edition), July 18, 2014 listed as nationals of Austria-Hungary,"Jurnale ale Consiliului de Miniștri. Ministerul de Justiție", in Monitorul Oficial, Issue 286/1939, pp. 7135–7136Vidran, p. 269 though he may have claimed Sephardic ancestry.Keene, p. 223 A hostile piece by journalist Romulus Damian claims that the Auschnitts, including Max's father Olias, his mother Clara, and his elder brother Edgar, had illegally crossed into the Romanian Kingdom from Galicia, and then bribed the authorities into obtaining citizenship. This claim was repeated in 1939 by Justice Minister Istrate Micescu, who described the Auschnitts' naturalization as based on "dubious certificates". Known in early records as "Osias Ausschnitt", Max's father had a background in the iron trade. He registered his own import–export firm in the port city of Galați on June 14, 1884."Anunciurĭ judiciare", in Monitorul Oficial, August 18 (30), 1884, p. 2492 Olias steadily amassed a large fortune, which in 1908 included one of Romania's two largest entrepôts,"Bibliografie", in Tribuna, Issue 250/1908, p. 6 and which Max would later treble."El rey de las tres mujeres", in Mundial, Vol. IV, Issue 48, April 1943, [n. p.] The family home in Galați was situated across from that of Panait Malaxa, uncle of Auschnitt's lifelong business rival, Nicolae Malaxa.Mihai Sorin Rădulescu, "Aperçu sur la généalogie de la famille Malaxa", in Archiva Moldaviae, Vol. VI, 2014, p. 61
According to one account, Max grew up in Galați, his native city, and attended the same school as Virgil Madgearu, who was to become his political associate.Pandrea (2011), p. 227 This is contradicted by other records, which note that Olias had been moved back into Austria-Hungary "shortly after Max's birth", meaning that the latter spent all his childhood years in Vienna, only returning to Galați in 1910.Békés et al., p. 96 It is known that he studied abroad, in Vienna and London,"Max Auschnitt, Zaharov 1938. L'homme le plus riche de Roumanie s'exile volontairement en Angleterre", in Ce Soir, February 2, 1938, p. 7 graduating from the Academy for Advanced Commercial Studies.Vidran, pp. 269, 272 Upon regaining Romania, he formed a commercial firm dealing in Austrian sheet-iron imports, and then set up the Kingdom's first wire manufacturing plant. Rumors surfaced that such ventures were being propped up financially by the Austrian secret police. Several members of the Auschnitt family served in the Romanian Army during the campaigns of World War I, which resulted in the establishment of Greater Romania; Max was a volunteer in a signals' regiment. Edgar had been bypassed for the 1915 draft, after presenting himself as an Austro-Hungarian subject.
Economist Nicolae Păvălucă suggests that Max Auschnitt built his personal wealth around the Galați nails factory that was sold to him by Niță Caltofeanu "not long after the first world war".Nicolae Păvălucă, "Dragă brețcancă (II)", in Cuvântul Nou, March 31, 2000, p. 3 After originally serving as that enterprise's envoy in Bucharest, he founded enterprises such as Socomet and Metalunit, which he used to corner the sheet-metal market. Young Auschnitt then moved his offices to the Banat—once that region united with Romania, entrusted with the administration of the Iron Domains and Factory (UDR). According to his own account, he was asked to become full manager of that company in 1929, after stocks had plummeted. Ioan Scurtu, "Max Auschnitt, de la pocherul regal la închisoarea Văcărești", in Historia, January 2012Vidran, p. 272 Journalist Al. Vidran argues that both he and Malaxa were called in as experts by the National Liberal Party's banking lobby, and that they used their influence to destroy local competitors.Vidran, pp. 269–270 Auschnitt established an empire that included the UDR, as well as smaller factories or mines in such places as Anina, Armeniș, and Bocșa. His land property was said to cover 150,000 acres,"La fille du rajah de Sarawak va épouser un millionaire roumain", in La Liberté, September 24, 1932, p. 3 including 11,000 hectares of forest outside Nădrag. Romulus Căplescu, "Richard Nixon a intervenit pentru Malaxa în războiul cu Auschnitt", in Historia, February 2012
Auschnitt went on to serve as President of the Banat's General Association of Industry and Vice General of the Union of Industrialists of Romania. Dubbed "iron king"Petru Groza, În umbra celulei. Malmaison, 1943–1944, iarna, p. 83. Bucharest: Editura Cartea Rusă, 1945Pandrea (2011), p. 107; Wallersteiner, p. 10 and "Romania's Zaharoff", he was overall "the greatest power in Rumania's armament, mining and metal industries.""Arms Mogul Defies Iron Guard, Weds Rumanian Girl Secretly", in the Jewish Daily Bulletin, June 21, 1935, pp. 1, 3 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.Wallersteiner, p. 10 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.Davenport-Hines, p. 275 Auschnitt was especially successful as owner of the UDR, which had amassed 1 billion lei in capital. This enterprise alone had 17,000 salaried workers, 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.Lachmann, pp. 34, 40 From 1930, a syndicate comprising the TNC, Creditanstalt, and Chrissoveloni Bank controlled 60% of UDR shares, while Vickers had an additional 13%. From 1934, the UDR agreed to co-sponsor all state orders for Vickers canons and ammunition.Davenport-Hines, p. 276
Auschnitt claimed that Edgar alone ran TNC from 1929, but his connections to that company surfaced in later talk about his conflicts of interest. He was also among the managers of various foreign companies in Central Europe, as well as of Romanian-based companies, including Chrissoveloni and the Romanian Telephone Company.Andrei Popescu, "The Romanian Telephone Company under the Administration of Grigore Filipescu (1930–1938)", in Studia Universitatis Petru Maior. Historia, 2015, p. 90 In 1931, he allied himself to Malaxa in order to acquire controlling interest in Creditanstalt. This business was overseen through their consortium, the Compagnie Européenne de Participations Industrielles (CEPI), which operated out of Monaco. A "brainchild of the Aușnit brothers", CEPI also provided security for Vickers' return on investments, which, in Monaco, were "free of currency restrictions and political danger". Vidran additionally notes that CEPI broke good practices by being at once the UDR's creditor and debtor.Vidran, pp. 272–273, 274
Clash with the Iron Guard