Elchanan Poupko
Marlene Engelhorn, a wealthy German-Austrian heiress, is facing fierce backlash after announcing she would join a Gaza-bound flotilla and speak out against Israel. Critics say her activism is especially offensive given her family’s wealth is tied to BASF, a German chemical company whose wartime profits were linked to slave labor and the production of Zyklon B — the gas used in Auschwitz and other Nazi death camps to murder millions of Jews.
The revelation has sparked anger and disbelief among Holocaust survivors and descendants of victims, with some referring to Engelhorn derisively as “Zyklon Barbie.”
“It is disgusting that they have money from the production of Zyklon B,” said Felicia Newman Azut, whose great-grandmother was killed in Auschwitz. “She should be ashamed of herself and support Israel. She should keep her mouth shut and ask God to forgive her family for the sins of the past.”
Sagi Simchon, who lost most of his family in Auschwitz, called Engelhorn’s actions “beyond infuriating.” He said, “The hypocrisy and the chutzpah to lecture Israel when her family is living on the ashes of our nation… The thought of a great-granddaughter of someone directly responsible for the industrialized extermination of Jews now supporting the new Nazis is sickening.”
Michael Schwarzberg of Florida, whose father survived Auschwitz after enduring slave labor, echoed that outrage: “My father always said it can happen again, and her activism just proves the point.”
For Beno Blass, whose grandfather and great-uncles were gassed to death in Auschwitz the day they arrived, Engelhorn’s stance is unsurprising. “She was just waiting for an excuse to show her hatred for Jews,” he said. “I’d like to see her held accountable.”
Gil Feldberg, whose grandmother was murdered in Auschwitz and whose father survived both Auschwitz and Sachsenhausen — where he was subjected to hepatitis B experiments — dismissed Engelhorn as “another dishonest and hypocritical activist using Gaza as a pretext. The whole family should be accountable.”
James Patterson, whose late wife Evelyn Y. Davis was a Dutch Holocaust survivor, condemned Engelhorn’s alignment with the flotilla: “Her ‘activism’ is the glorification of Hamas, Hamas sympathizers, Nazis, and Nazi sympathizers. As long as people like Marlene Engelhorn perpetuate violence, Holocaust denial, and inflict pain on Holocaust survivors and their families, she should be considered an international outlaw.”
Engelhorn, who has been outspoken about wealth redistribution in the past, has yet to respond to the wave of criticism over her participation in the flotilla and the renewed scrutiny of her family’s wartime legacy.
