Árpád Plesch
 Árpád Plesch    (lawyer) | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | 1889 |
| Died | 1974 (Age 84) Paris |
| Nationality | Hungarian, French? |
| Religion | Jewish |
| Spouse | Etti Plesch |
| Interests | Gianni Agnelli |
| Relatives | Arpad Busson |
Hungarian-Jewish lawyer who became rich by fraud during World War 2. Huge collection of esoteric pornography. Mentor of Gianni Agnelli. | |
Arpad Plesch was a Hungarian-Jewish lawyer who made his fortune during World War 2 at the expense of less fortunate Jews who sent their money to him in Switzerland for safekeeping.[1] He owned a celebrated collection of rare botanical books and esoteric pornography.
Plesch was mentor to the owner of the largest fortune in Italy, Gianni Agnelli, the president of Fiat.[2]
Career
"His dubious fortune during the war at the expense of less fortunate Jews who sent their money to him in Switzerland for safe keeping while they tried to stay alive in their home countries during the pogroms and exterminations under the madness of the Third Reich.
This man Arpad Plesch who called himself an International Financier, created numbered accounts for his so called friends and then pitilessly ransomed them to the Hitler regime for a large commission on their fortunes. As his former friends died in concentration camps the man became richer and richer, playing darker and darker games of evil and domination in a world gone insane."[1]
Marriages
He married three times,[3], the second time to his step-daughter from the first marriage:
- Léonie Caro Ulam, in her second marriage.
- Marysia Ulam Krauss Harcourt-Smith, daughter of the previous, and according Joanna Harcourt-Smith a" victim of incest since she was a child at the mercy of her mother’s second husband."[1]
- Contessa Maria von Wurmbrand-Stuppach, called Etti Plesch, his last wife and sole heir to his immense fortune.
His step-grandson is Arpad Busson.
His stepdaughter Joanna Harcourt-Smith wrote:
Much later, I was to learn that my family had a complete lack of values, their genetic memories of belonging burnt away by greed and hatred through the brain damage that occurs from not receiving the proper kind of care and loving in infancy. Generations of neglect by parents for their young had created a group of ruthless monsters that by the year 2.000 were to rule the world spreading famine and disease throughout the African continent, extreme poverty to South America while the other animal worlds disappeared at an alarming speed...[1]
Léonie Ulam was the aunt of the mathematician Stanislaw Ulam.[1]
In his memoir, Adventures of a mathematician, Ulam wrote:
My uncle Michael's wife happened to live in Paris at the time and she kindly offered to receive me and to send to my modest hotel her chauffered limousine to take me sightseeing. I was so embarrassed at the thought of being seen arriving in a Rolls-Royce or a Duesenberg at the Louvre or some other museum, it felt so incongruous, that I declined her offer
The Plesches lived between their apartment on the Avenue Foch in Paris and their Villa Leonina at Beaulieu-sur-Mer, in the South of France (where they built the superb Leonina botanical garden).
Plesch died in 1974 in Paris.
Related Quotation
| Page | Quote | Author |
|---|---|---|
| Joanna Harcourt-Smith | “Much later, I was to learn that my family had a complete lack of values, their genetic memories of belonging burnt away by greed and hatred through the brain damage that occurs from not receiving the proper kind of care and loving in infancy. Generations of neglect by parents for their young had created a group of ruthless monsters that by the year 2.000 were to rule the world spreading famine and disease throughout the African continent, extreme poverty to South America while the other animal worlds disappeared at an alarming speed...” | Joanna Harcourt-Smith |
