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Aristide Blank

November 10, 2023

Aristide or Aristid Blank, also spelled Blanc or Blanck (January 1, 1883 – January 1, 1960), was a Romanian financier, economist, arts patron and playwright. His father, Mauriciu Blank, an assimilated and naturalized Romanian Jew, was manager of the Marmorosch Blank Bank [ro] (BMB), a major financial enterprise. Aristide took up jobs within the same company, and, after seeing action in the Second Balkan War and World War I, began expanding its investments, branching out into maritime transport and founding CFRNA/CIDNA airlines. This period witnessed his attempt at setting up a press empire around the twin dailies Adevărul and Dimineața, and his brief engagement with Epoca.

Aristide Blank
Blank in 1934
Born(1883-01-01)January 1, 1883
Bucharest, Kingdom of Romania
DiedJanuary 1, 1960(1960-01-01) (aged 77)
Paris, France
NationalityRomanian
Alma materUniversity of Bucharest
Occupation(s)Investor, business magnate, patron of the arts, humanitarian, playwright
Years activeca. 1900–1953
Spouse(s)
Marietta Culoglu
​
(divorced)​

Ecaterina Caragiale (div.)
Cella Delavrancea (div.)
Vota Vesnić (m. 1935)
Parent
RelativesEmanoil Culoglu (father-in-law)
Ion Luca Caragiale (father-in-law; posth.)
Mateiu Caragiale (brother-in-law)
Barbu Ștefănescu Delavrancea (father-in-law; posth.)
Milenko Radomar Vesnić (father-in-law; posth.)
Signature

Inheriting his father's position at the BMB, Blank expanded its activities and expenditures, setting aside money for graft, and allowing his staff to engage in accounting fraud. By 1923, he was also engaged in Romanian nationalist politics, sponsoring propaganda writings and working alongside historians Nicolae Iorga and Vasile Pârvan. He set up his own publishing house, Cultura Națională, and a literary agency, which was for a while managed by philosopher Nae Ionescu—ultimately sacked by Blank upon the discovery of embezzlement. Blank, who allegedly alternated mainstream politics with support for the far-left, found himself pitted against the antisemitic far-right, being brutalized by the National Christian Defense League and marked for retribution by the Iron Guard.

Beginning in the early 1920s, Blank cultivated Crown Prince Carol, who took over as King of Romania after a 1930 coup. Emerging as Carol's economic adviser, Blank joined the resulting camarilla, an affiliation which shielded him from the consequences of BMB mismanagement. The enterprise crashed in 1931, unable to absorb the effects of the Great Depression. Blank was removed from his managerial position following intervention by the National Bank of Romania, but used political channels to preserve some measure of control, and was instrumental in toppling National Bank Governor Mihail Manoilescu, who did not wish to refinance the BMB. His influence fluctuated for the remainder of Carol's reign; still unable to fully control the BMB, he still owned Discom, a lucrative retailer for products of state monopolies. In the 1930s, he helped develop Eforie and Techirghiol into summer resorts.

Public antisemitism and fascism took the forefront during the late years of Carlism and the early years of World War II. This period saw Blank marginalized, and resulted in additional scrutiny of the BMB affair, at the end of which he was sentenced to pay 600 million lei in damages. Blank reemerged as BMB manager after King Michael's Coup of 1944, but he and his business were finally repressed by the communist regime from 1948. In 1953, he was sentenced to 20 years for high treason, but managed to have that verdict overturned in 1955. After international pressures, he was allowed to emigrate in 1958, and lived his final months in Paris. His children from his successive marriages and affairs include American soldier Milenko Blank and French press magnate Patrice-Aristide Blank.

Biography edit

Early life edit

Born in Bucharest on the first day of 1883[1] (New Style: January 13), Aristide was the son of Mauriciu Blank. Through his paternal lineage, he belonged to the Sephardi minority within the local Jewish community,[2] and was distantly related to linguist Moses Gaster.[3] His clan, originally known as Derrera el Blanco, had first settled in Wallachia during the 18th century, but their Judaism prevented them from obtaining naturalization.[4] Martinho de Brederode, Portuguese ambassador to Romania in 1920, described Aristide as the first Jew to have ever made his way into Romania's high society.[5] By then, the family's ethnic background was still largely unknown to the Romanian public, with the Jewish publication Mântuirea noting in 1920 that Aristide was of "obscure origin".[6] As reported in 1924 by L'Univers Israélite, he was fully assimilated, "Jewish only in origin";[7] the same year, Opinia reported that Blank was "a Semite seen by other Jews as a renegade [...] assimilated to the point of exhibiting all Romanian vices, [and] the parent of Romanian Christian children".[8]

Circa 1880, Mauriciu was entering the financial elite of the newly established Principality of Romania, having served as head of the Marmorosch Blank Bank (BMB) since 1874. At the time of Aristide's birth, it was the most powerful private bank in the Romanian Kingdom.[9] Blank's political friend and enemy, Constantin Argetoianu, claims that Mauriciu had a marriage of convenience to Aristide's mother Betina Goldenberg, who was "ugly as well as vulgar, avaricious as well as venomous".[10] One of Aristide's sisters was married off to another financier, Adalbert Csillag, who would experience complete bankruptcy.[10] Another sister, Margot, married industrialist Herman Spayer, whose residence on Batiștei Street was briefly used by the BMB.[11] The family finally received Romanian citizenship in 1883,[12] shortly after Aristide's birth.

According to a hostile note by French journalist Jean Mourat, Blank Jr was "raised in luxury, so as to keep up with good traditions."[13] Aristide received an elite education, and was possessed of an artistic sensibility;[14] however, Argetoianu portrays him as "highly intelligent [but] lacking a serious culture", his main attributes being ambition, jealousy, and eventually paranoia.[15] He became a published poet in his teenage years. In 1899 Foaia Populară put out his debut poem, Bătrâna;[16] this was followed in April 1900 by Despărțire, a pastiche from Eduard von Feuchtersleben that he signed as "Aristide Blanc", also in Foaia Populară in April 1900.[17] Blank took a graduation diploma from the University of Bucharest Faculty of Law and Philosophy.[1][16] His first career from 1904 was as a lawyer affiliated with the bar association of Bucharest.[16] In October 1908, he announced his engagement to Marietta Culoglu, daughter of politician Emanoil Culoglu, the "distinguished nationalist",[18] and herself noted as an activist for women's suffrage.[19] Blank married her in January 1909, with a civil ceremony attended by Vintilă Brătianu, Emil Costinescu, and Vasile Morțun.[20]

Initially, Blank Jr closely followed his father's career in finance. By 1910, he was serving on the board of directors for various BMB branches, including Moldova Bank of Iași and the Aromanian Bank of Commerce.[21] He was inducted into the Order of Commercial and Industrial Merit in 1912,[14] when he also served on the committee to establish the Bucharest Academy of Economic Studies.[22] In June 1913, Blank was blackmailed by Seara newspaperman Alexandru Bogdan-Pitești, who had inaugurated a smear campaign against the BMB. According to notes left by Seara's Mateiu Caragiale, Blank "trapped" Bogdan-Pitești with direct support from the Romanian Police.[23] This refers to a sting operation at Flora Restaurant, where Blank heard Bogdan-Pitești and his associate Adolf Davidescu state their demands while policemen were standing by.[24] Obtaining legal assistance from Take Ionescu, Blank took Bogdan-Pitești to court and won, resulting in his rival's imprisonment.[25] A month after, Romania entered the Second Balkan War, with Blank enlisted as a Land Forces officer in Southern Dobruja.[14] It was here that he first met historian and politician Nicolae Iorga, with whom he would cooperate on cultural ventures in the early 1920s.[26]

 
Blank in 1910

Upon the expedition's end, Blank Jr helped to establish and finance two BMB naval transport enterprises—respectively operating on the Black Sea and the Danube.[27] In the winter of 1914–1915, he was sent to the United Kingdom by the Ion I. C. Brătianu government in order to secure a loan for the state, establishing neutral Romania's closer ties to the Triple Entente.[14][28] This mission caused much controversy at home: Foreign Minister Emanoil Porumbaru refused to sign his name to the deal, believing that it compromised Romania's policy of non-alignment; he was consequently forced to resign.[28] Upon his return, Blank debuted in economic theory with a tract on pricing policies, Scumpirea și ieftinirea traiului ("Increases and Decreases in the Cost of Living", Bucharest, 1915–1916);[14] his ideas on this topic inspired banking clerks to set up a consumers' co-operative.[29] During June 1915, he was involved in the grain trade out of Brăila, and criticizing the administration for imposing caps on the exports of foodstuffs.[30] In September, he served as executive of an anonymous partnership for the manufacture and sale of ammunition. This had been established by his father with participation from Culoglu, Alexandru Kirițescu, and Mihail Săulescu.[31] As reported by Argetoianu, Blank Jr still had connections in the German Empire, which he used to plant his protege Felix Wieder in a German consortium—a position which Wieder then used to defraud that firm.[32]

Social rise edit

The Treaty of Bucharest brought Romania into the war as an Entente ally, then its invasion by Germany. Again drafted as a Lieutenant, Blank enlisted in the Romanian Air Corps.[16] He was subsequently spotted at Iași, the provisional capital of a rump Romanian state. Argetoianu reports that wartime Iași was where Blank first earned the trust of Carol of Hohenzollern, the disgraced Romanian Crown Prince. Carol used Blank in his attempts to earn support from Prime Minister Alexandru Averescu. Also according to Argetoianu, Blank was also faking asthma attacks, which saw him relieved of his duties and sent to Paris.[33] One report by Alexandru Lapedatu suggests that Blank transited through Moscow, in the Russian Republic, where he personally witnessed the November Revolution. He was evicted "by some Englishmen" during the Red Guards' attack on Hotel Metropol.[34] During the exodus of 1917, Blank arrived on a special mission to Vladivostok; from this outpost, he sponsored Ioan Timuș's extended trip to Japan,[35] asking him to act as an informant on Japanese cultural norms, and "therefore of use to our country".[36]

Blank remained in France for the rest of World War I, and beyond, working primarily as a propagandist and financier for Romanian nationalist causes.[37] Historian Orest Tafrali [ro] identifies Blank and Paul Brătășanu as the two main backers of La Roumanie newspaper, which campaigned for the creation of a Greater Romania.[38] Before the end of 1918, Blank was allegedly in Nice, alongside Octavian Goga, the Transylvanian poet-activist.[39] By early 1920, Blank was also networking with pro-Allied nationalists from both the Old Kingdom and Transylvania, including Take Ionescu and Alexandru Vaida-Voevod.[40] Vaida's private correspondence notes that Ionescu, Blank and Alexandru C. Constantinescu were colluding to bring the former in as Prime Minister, which required them to manipulate the market against the national interest—a "solidarity of bandits".[41] Lapedatu also claims that Blank, rather than acting as a philanthropist, recovered all the money he had lent to Romanian politicians in 1918–1920.[42]

In December 1918, Blank published in La Renaissance his own project for a Greater Romania, which he depicted as an economic boon for the Allied cause. Blank envisaged the Danube as a commercial highway for Romanian grain and timber, but noted that its success relied on the internationalization of the Turkish Straits.[43] According to diplomat Nicolae Petrescu-Comnen, Blank was one of the "men of culture" and "patriots" who personally assisted him in countering the propaganda put out by the Hungarian Republic, which vied with Romania for control of Transylvania.[44] In 1919, when he was decommissioned as a Captain in the Second Cavalry Regiment,[1] Blank put out the first volume of an illustrated propaganda album, La Roumanie en images. Iorga viewed it as a superior work of art, but noted that its selection of prints displayed "banality" and a "lack of familiarity with all newer discoveries regarding Romania's past". After reading his comments, Blank employed Iorga as his editorial adviser.[45] The following year, he sponsored French editions from Iorga's own works: Histoire des Roumains et de leur civilisation and Anthologie de la littérature roumaine.[46] Lapedatu recounts that, in doing so, Blank saved the former book from being shelved by Hachette.[47]

At some point before 1919, Blank consolidated his art collection by purchasing most of Nicolae Grigorescu's paintings in the Alexandru Vlahuță collection.[48] He took painter Jean Alexandru Steriadi as his adviser, and finnced his wife Nora's ceramist workshop.[49] Around 1920, he sparked controversy with his wholesale purchase of canvasses by Adam Bățatu and Sabin Popp, "without even looking over the paintings."[50] By then, his profile in culture and politics was intertwined with his personal life. Around 1919, he was briefly married to Ecaterina Caragiale, daughter of the playwright Ion Luca Caragiale and Mateiu's half-sister.[51] After a long courtship,[52] he wed pianist Cella Delavrancea, orphaned daughter of writer Barbu Ștefănescu Delavrancea, at some point before April 1920. Cella called her husband Aladin, and noted that she fulfilled all her financial demands; with her new-found wealth, she funded her own literary club, called Maison d'Art.[53] Their marriage ended in divorce. By then, Blank had fathered a son, Patrice-Aristide,[54] reportedly born "Aristide Blank Satinover"[55] or "Tuchner Satinover"[56] to a French mother.[57]

 
1922 advertisement for CFRNA flights

Following the establishment of Greater Romania, Aristide and Mauriciu sold BMB to a rival firm, but continued to hold controlling shares between them.[13] Their businesses now branched out into aviation. In 1920, Aristide used BMB funds to set up CFRNA (later renamed CIDNA), alongside aviator Pierre de Fleurieu [fr].[22] Fleurieu had worked as a minor clerk at the bank, until Blank became aware of his fighter-pilot record and his belief in the future of civil aviation.[58] Theirs was the first airline to offer a direct Paris–Bucharest flight, with an extension to Istanbul;[14][22] the route was inaugurated by Albert Louis Deullin, with a landing at Pipera Airport in October 1921.[59] According to Argetoianu, Blank also involved himself in setting up the Romanian Air Club [ro], because doing so would bring him closer to Carol, himself an aviation enthusiast.[60] Also then, Blank founded the BMB's General Building Society, which managed construction firms in Bucharest and Câmpina.[27] Both Blanks also became involved in assisting humanitarian work by the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee. This included a BMB loan for the reconstruction of Bukovina Jewish property, for which Blank offered a reduced interest.[61]

Though a card-carrying member of Brătianu's National Liberal Party (PNL),[1][16][62] Blank was infuriated when his bank could not obtain a tax rebate of 35 million lei.[63] In late 1920, Brederode noted that the BMB and Paribas both sponsored an effort to orient Romania toward free trade—a policy which was embraced by the Peasants' Party, the People's Party, and Ionescu's Conservative Democrats.[64] As reported by politician Alexandru Marghiloman, in early 1920 Blank Sr was already funding the Peasantists, whose leading member Ion Răducanu [ro] was a BMB employee.[65] His son took up the same cause and, in 1921, was providing funds for Nicolae L. Lupu's Peasantist daily, Aurora.[16] He then assisted the Peasantist-backed coalition in negotiating an international loan, which was to help Romania rebuild its internal market. As noted at the time by Furnica magazine, this mission could effectively turn Blank Jr against Brătianu and his supporters in the banking industry, since the PNL's policy was to prevent adversaries from "doing even the right thing".[6] By contrast, PNL doctrinaire Vintilă Brătianu viewed Blank as one who opposed attempts of rebuilding Romania's economy into a "national framework".[66] A lasting feud ensued between Blank and the National Liberals: by 1923, Blank has set himself the task of ensuring that the party never returned to power.[67] The BMB was staffed exclusively with adversaries or dissidents of the PNL—including Goga, Vaida-Voevod, Constantinescu, and Nicolae Tabacovici.[1]

In 1920, Blank set up a luxurious Romanian restaurant in Paris' Latin Quarter,[68] which was for a while managed by sociologist Mihai Ralea.[69] Having secured a contract for the transfer of scholarships for Romanian students in France,[69] Blank also sponsored Iorga's Romanian School, created in 1922 at Fontenay-aux-Roses.[70] As seen by historian Petre Țurlea, Iorga's relationship with Blank was "highly profitable for [Romanian] culture".[45] It resulted in the establishment of a popular theater tied to Iorga's Cultural League for the Unity of All Romanians [ro].[16][71] According to historian Lucian T. Butaru, Iorga appreciated Blank's cultural endeavor, and this may have helped tone down his otherwise entrenched antisemitism.[72] Blank also provided funds for Iorga's son Mircea to study abroad, which, Argetoianu claims, effectively meant that the Iorga family was in his debt;[73] Iorga responded to such accusations, noting that his son was under no obligation to work for Blank.[74]

Adevărul and literary circle edit

In addition to being a gifted orator,[14] Blank still had literary pretensions. In 1922, he sponsored Armand Pascal and Benjamin Fondane's theater troupe, Insula.[75] He himself debuted as a pseudonymous dramatist in Paris and Bucharest. According to Argetoianu, his work in the field was merely "idiotic",[76] though Blank was admitted to the Romanian Dramatists' Society in 1930.[16][77] In 1932, the celebrated critic George Călinescu published some positive remarks regarding Blank's work in the field—though, as noted by writer Florin Faifer, these were entirely conjectural. Faifer himself argues that Blank's contribution to literary modernism was affected by "snobbery", though not worthless.[16] Such pieces include L'Assoiffé or Însetatul ("Thirst Man"), produced by Georges Pitoëff's company of Paris in 1925. Here, Blank depicts himself as the visionary misfit Andrei, whose promising destinity is cut short by a jealous husband.[16] In the 1920s, he founded or financed a series of cultural institutions of his own. These included Cultura Națională publishing house, which was established and named on Iorga's advice[26] and offered lucrative employment to intellectuals such as Dimitrie Gusti and Vasile Pârvan.[78] He "put out books that are not just neatly printed, but artistic; encouraging the authors and helping the readers, for these books are sold cheaper than the cost of production."[8] In 1920, Blank had also funded a literary club called Societatea Filarmonică.[14]

Also in 1920, Blank became the target of a renewed smear campaign, this time carried by Tudor Arghezi's Cronica. As reported by a Siguranța source, he solved this issue by presenting Arghezi with a gift of 100,000 lei, later supplemented by a monthly stipend;[79] Arghezi would later complain that the banker had tried to humiliate him by forcing publishers not to engage with him.[80] Blank had also agreed to sponsor Arghezi associate Gala Galaction, who asked for a grant of 160,000 lei in order to translate the Bible into Romanian. However, Galaction failed to keep up with the writing schedule. In 1921, Blank partly withdrew his support, and only advanced Galaction 36,000 lei for his version of the New Testament.[81]

Though Blank paid for the Viața Românească editorial office,[14] by 1922 he was that enterprise's direct competitor. Viața Românească's director, Mihail Sadoveanu, complained that Blank's tactics at Cultura Națională were specifically designed to corner the publishing market.[82] During those months, Blank was building up his a press empire of his own. He sponsored Grigore Filipescu, a BMB associate, helping him relaunch the conservative daily Epoca. He maintained some say in Epoca's editorial policy, preventing Liviu Rebreanu from publishing an article that was critical of Blank himself.[83] Blank purchased the left-wing dailies Adevărul and Dimineața, which became BMB and Cultura Națională assets. Reportedly, this investment cost him 7 million lei.[84] The circumstances for Blank's takeover, whereby journalist Constantin Mille renounced his most valuable enterprise, were debated by the staff, and remain mysterious.[62][85][86]

Shortly thereafter, Mille used the money to launch another newspaper, Lupta, which competed with Blank's consortium and opened its offices just opposite.[62][85][86] Mainly using Adevărul to air his polemics with the National Liberal Viitorul,[1][63][87] Blank immediately reassured its readers that the newspaper would remain a strong voice on the traditional left.[62] However, an article in Contimporanul alleges that he personally sacked the caretaker editor, Emil Fagure, which also caused the resignation of another staff member, Barbu Brănișteanu.[84] Management was then handled by militant Romanian journalist Constantin Graur and by Jewish entrepreneur Emil Pauker, who was coincidentally the uncle of a prominent communist, Marcel Pauker.[62] Marghiloman reports that, in late 1921, Blank's conflict with the Brătianu faction had degenerated and upset Mauriciu's business arrangements, to a point where the BMB threatened to liquidate Adevărul assets. This reportedly caused Blank Jr to stop writing for his own newspaper.[87]

As argued by Argetoianu, Blank purposefully spent his own money on far-leftist causes, so as to undermine the Romanian state. He claims to have personally intervened to have Mauriciu "put a leash" on Aristide, when the latter became involved with Philippe Ciprut in sponsoring the Socialist Party of Romania.[76] In 1924, Blank resold Adevărul and Dimineața to Graur and other subordinate journalists, causing Mille to express his indignation in Lupta: "I had sold my newspapers to Mr Aristide Blank, a man of youth, of culture, of initiative, who had, in addition to his millions, the structure of an honest man, of a fighter for democracy and truth. I could not imagine that Mr Blank viewed Adevărul and Dimineața with the character and interest of a regular fella, as a commercial business that one just sells off to whomever".[86] Pauker and his brother Simion took over more shares of Adevărul, which became widely perceived as their newspaper, and therefore as a "Jewish" enterprise.[62]

Nicolae Carandino, at the time a young journalist, recalls that Blank, "having no administrative appointment and no title to his name", was unofficially recognized in government circles as the organizer of receptions for "any of the important foreignes who were visiting our country."[88] According to memoirist and lawyer Petre Pandrea [ro], he intended to take over as Minister of Finance, and for this reason surrounded himself with intellectuals such as Pârvan and Nae Ionescu.[89] At Cultura Națională, he oversaw luxury editions from works by both Caragiales, possibly intended as homages to his former wife.[90] Blank also took personal charge of the Economics Collection, which he then assigned to a specialist Mihail Manoilescu, who used it to publish his own tract, Politica producției naționale ("The Policy of National Production").[91] Until 1923, Cultura Națională's printing offices put out the literary magazine Gândirea, managed by Cezar Petrescu and Nichifor Crainic. As reported by Crainic, this partnership broke down when Pârvan attempted to prevent them from hosting criticism of Blank.[92] Also in 1923, Ionescu purchased his Bucharest villa using an affordable credit obtained from the financier;[93] a year later, Blank sponsored Constantin Daicoviciu's research at Ulpia Traiana Sarmizegetusa.[94]

A rapprochement between Ionescu and Blank began in 1922, when the former publicly praised the latter for endorsing dirigisme, to an even higher degree than the National Liberals.[95] Ionescu was employed by Cultura Națională, but left after a public row with its patron. The issue of contention was Ionescu's fraudulent management of the Central Book Office, a literary agency and subsidiary of Cultura Națională, which allegedly brought Blank losses of 800,000 lei.[96] As narrated by journalist Pamfil Șeicaru, Blank caught on only after attending Ionescu's lavish house-warming party, and later discovered that Ionescu had forged Pârvan and Gusti's signatures on the company's balance sheets.[97] Blank shielded Ionescu from prosecution, but forced him to write a letter of confession.[98] Photocopies of this were kept by all those whom Ionescu had defrauded,[99] while Blank had the original, which he reportedly showed to Argetoianu after Ionescu made attempts to return as a politician.[100]

Far-right attacks and Regency intrigues edit

Blank's involvement with youth and left-wing causes during the process of Jewish emancipation saw him engaged in a prolonged conflict with the antisemitic far-right, and in particular with Corneliu Zelea Codreanu, who would emerge as a regional leader of the National Christian Defense League (LANC). Codreanu first identified Blank as an enemy during the Student Congress of 1920, when he attempted to pass motions for religious discrimination; this was opposed by other youth leaders, whom Codreanu then accused of being Blank's agents.[101] According to Carandino, around 1922 antisemitic students also heckled one of Blank's lectures on monetary policy, which was attended by Argetoianu, Vintilă Brătianu, Virgil Madgearu, and Grigore Iunian. Seemingly imperturbable, Blank carried own with his speech and his blackboard demonstration. Upon finishing, he left the hall though rows of "hooligans", "his back straight, his right arm on his shoulder"; his pose impressed the hecklers, and reduced the uproar.[102]

In late 1923, police agents captured Codreanu, Ion Moța, and other LANC activists, accusing them of plotting to assassinate members of the Romanian political and financial elite, including the Blanks.[103] Though cleared of the crime, Codreanu later acknowledged that he and Moța wished to rid Romania of those who had "corrupted all of Romania's parties and politicians", identifying Aristide as a leading sponsor of the National Peasants' Party (PNȚ).[104] The latter rumor was replicated in other sources, with one unsigned denouncer claiming that the PNȚ's debt to the BMB ran higher than 30 million lei in 1930.[105] In April 1924, at the height of a scandal involving Codreanu's arrest, LANC affiliates stormed into a hall where Blank Jr was lecturing on economic matters. During the attack, he sustained serious injuries of the skull,[106] having allegedly been "pulled by the hair [...] and trampled upon."[8] The assailants were put on trial, but acquitted.[1]

A note in L'Univers Israélite claimed that the incident was in fact orchestrated by government,[7] while Argetoianu believes that students in general genuinely detested Blank.[76] The harassment continued over several years. In January 1925, Codreanu's student organizations again alleged that Blank was trafficking in influence through the Romanian universities, and used this issue as a rally call for a student strike.[107] As part of their conflict with Iorga, Lăncieri youths openly confronted him, asking him why had "sold himself to banker Blank"; details about such contacts were popularized by LANC leader A. C. Cuza and by Madgearu, who had since joined the PNȚ.[108] The Iron Guard, founded by Codreanu after his split with the LANC, put up Blank's name on an enemies' list which also included Constantin Banu, Alexandru C. Constantinescu, Wilhelm Filderman, and Gheorghe Gh. Mârzescu.[109] As reported by Argetoianu, Blank held the top position on that list, and was effectively marked for death.[110] The Guard, along with other far-right groups, also singled out Adevărul and Dimineața as propaganda for anti-Romanian concepts.[62][111]

In March 1925, Blank married Vota Vesnić, orphaned daughter of Yugoslav Premier Milenko Radomar Vesnić. Their Paris wedding was attended by numerous figures in politics and social life, including the then-Yugoslav Premier Nikola Pašić, Maharajah Jagatjit Singh, diplomat Nicolae Titulescu, banker Robert de Rothschild, and writers such as Marcel Prévost and Elena Văcărescu. A LANC newspaper covered the event, noting: "Blank must be reminded that this international and Jewified society does not impose itself on the Romanian public, who still feels the same way about him as those students who pummeled him out [...] in late March 1924."[112] In honor of his new wife, Blank sometimes used the pseudonym Votaris, which combined their given names.[113] In June 1926, she gave birth to the financier's son, Milenko Blank.[114]

Also in March 1925, Iorga was enraged by Blank, who had presented a complete list of BMB sponsorships for Iorga's ventures; the two men parted ways.[26] That same year, Carol was forced out of the country by the political establishment, but Blank continued to cultivate their relationship. As reported by Argetoianu, he effectively managed (and often misused) the Prince's bank accounts.[60] This is partly backed by later historians: Mihai Oprițescu notes that Blank was betting on Carol's return;[115] Claudiu Secașiu also notes that Blank and Carol enjoyed a "great rapport" in 1927, when Blank "supported him financially."[116] Following the death of King Ferdinand I that same year, Carol was sidestepped in the succession list, and the throne went to his minor son Michael. A Council of Regents oversaw matters relating to the court; one of its members was Gheorghe Buzdugan, who, in 1929, declared having "particular high esteem for Aristide Blank, the banker who is a remarkable personality, a man with a big heart and a philanthropist."[117]

Mauriciu, who had withdrawn from active participation at the BMB,[13] died at Vienna in November 1929, with Aristide organizing the funeral ceremony.[118] Blank Jr was by then head of the BMB, allegedly because Mauriciu had overestimated his son's business acumen.[119] According to Argetoianu, he went on to severely weaken the company with a project to destroy the National Liberals' influence in high finance, as well as with unwise investments—such as opening a BMB subsidiary on Place Vendôme.[120] From 1923, the group had three additional international offices—in Istanbul, Vienna, and New York City.[22] Sitting on the BMB's steering board, Argetoianu claimed to have observed the company having engaged virtually all of its available funds in investment schemes.[121] Another issue hindering the bank's activities was the growing rivalry between Blank and his associate Richard de Söpkéz, with both engaged in drawing up capital on their respective side. According to Argetoianu, they each took at least 13.5 million lei in yearly stipends, while also collecting dividends from companies credited by the BMB, and through which Blank defrauded associates such as Ion G. Duca and George II of Greece.[122] A later investigation suggested that Blank had used large sums of money for graft, and that his staff was engaged in accounting fraud.[13][115]

BMB crash and royal protection edit

A September 1929 review in Revista Economică pointed out "conundrums" (buclucuri) having to do with the BMB's investments in industry. It also noted Blank's spreading of rumors that the state bank for industry, Creditul Industrial, needed to be restructured; allegations emerged that this was a deliberate attempt create market panic, so that a new Creditul could then refinance Blank's own projects.[123] By 1930, the BMB had defaulted after registering 1.6 million lei in deficit.[124] The enterprise went bankrupt in October 1931, immediately after being exposed to the consequences of the Great Depression—though, Argetoianu notes, the world crisis only served to obscure the effects of Blank's own managerial "insanity".[125] This crash sparked a national scandal, after allegations that some investors had market moving information, allowing them to withdraw deposits in advance. Blank himself argued that withdrawals were made possible by rumors of a looming war between Romania and the Soviet Union, but his explanation failed to convince the general public.[13] According to Argetoianu, Blank also complained that the investors' walkout was facilitated by the National Bank of Romania, whose Governor, Costin Stoicescu, was a disgruntled BMB employee. He believes that this claim was credible, in that Stoicescu always opposed state intervention in favor of the BMB.[126]

Shortly before the BMB's crash, Carol returned home abruptly, deposing his son and taking over as King. As a result, Blank made his way into the camarilla, a secretive para-legal circle which decided on political and financial matters.[127] Also frequenting this circle, Argetoianu noted that Blank was a second-wave inductee into the camarilla, arriving in at the same time as Tabacovici and "the pimp" Alexandru Mavrodi; but also that, during the first year of Carol's reign, he became his most influential adviser, to the point of "ruling over Romania".[128] The same memoirist further contends that Blank and Carol shared a psychological pathology, namely "hyperacute sexual excitement" and "erotomania", which prevented them for going through with any project.[76] He notes that Blank's vice, which required him to spend large sums for the sexual favors of "women who are into money and luxuries", ended with him going destitute and "half insane".[129]

Blank continued his work as a literato, with the 1929 historical drama Satele lui Potemkin ("Potemkin's Villages"), which Faifer sees as echoing the theater of Luigi Pirandello.[16] Showing an amorous triangle weaved into an "old Romanian fresco", it was in production at the National Theater Bucharest, with a noted performance by George Calboreanu.[130] Blank was billed as "Andrei Dănescu".[16][130] In 1933, Dimineața hosted Blank's "political fairy tale", Dialogul morților ("A Dialogue among the Dead").[16] A doctrinaire on economic matters, Blank served as a trustee of the Academy of Economic Studies (1929–1939), and also oversaw a committee for the administration of penal facilities (1930–1935).[1] He continued to write newspaper articles, studies and memorials on Romania's postwar situation. His books include Contribuțiuni la rezolvarea crizei economice ("Contributions to Solving the Economic Crisis", 1922), La crise economique en Roumanie ("The Romanian Economic Crisis", 1922), Economice ("Economic Writings", 1932), Literare ("Literary Writings", 1932) and Problema monetară în raport cu creditul public și privat ("The Monetary Issue as Relates to Public and Private Credit").[14] Brederode was impressed by one of Blank's articles for Le Temps, describing the author as "highly competent and quite respected".[131] Argetoianu describes such contributions as "childish inventions" and "theoretical jugglery", noting that "not even Tabacovici would read them"—but also that Carol was highly impressed, for being "entirely ignorant on financial and economic matters."[132] The monarch also recognized Blank's achievements in the transportation, welcoming him into Meritul Aeronautic order of chivalry.[14] This induction into a military fraternity, on par with that of professionals such as Vasile Rudeanu, was described as especially insulting by his old enemy Moța, who noted that the "Jewish populace is now nested within our army like a moth inside a piece of cloth".[133]

As Argetoianu claims, the king eventually grew aware that Blank was not fully competent, but continued to seek his advice. Argetoianu argues that this was because Blank had since earned the confidence of Carol's lover Magda Lupescu, buying her a villa and making it so that she would befriend Tabacovici and Wieder.[134] Reportedly, the only camarilla businessman who could still mitigate his influence at the court was Nicolae Malaxa.[135] Like Malaxa and Max Auschnitt, Blank belonged to Meșterul Manole Lodge, a branch of Romanian Freemasonry which was intimately involved in sponsoring cultural projects by fellow Masons.[136] In 1930, however, Blank gave up on his main investment in the cultural field, allowing Cultura Națională to be acquired by the State Printers and Monitorul Oficial.[137] An anonymous report of the period claims that this liquidation resulted in massive payoffs for all the stakeholders, including Crainic and Puiu Dumitrescu.[105] Two years later, Blank's CIDNA was taken over by the French state and became a component of the state carrier, Air France.[22]

Argetoianu and Blank were instrumental in helping Carol reach a settlement with his former wife, Queen Helen.[138] In January 1931, Argetoianu also sent Blank to approach Titulescu in St. Moritz, hoping to ensure his own political survival as part of a Titulescu cabinet.[139] A rumor circulating at the time alleged that Titulescu owed 14 million lei to the BMB.[140] The cabinet, which was never sworn in, was to include Blank as one of the ministers.[141] In addition to endorsing Carol, Blank was going public as a critic of PNȚ governments in matters of economic policy. According to Grigore Gafencu, he was using Adevărul and the Carlist newspaper Cuvântul to criticize attempts at contracting a new loan in France. Blank and his colleagues described these as a sure path to economic enslavement.[142] According to PNȚ man Ioan Hudiță, Gafencu was in fact Blank's connection inside both party and government. Hudiță reports several accounts according to which Blank had arranged Gafencu's wedding to an actress, and that she had earlier been his mistress.[143] A later article by the communist C. Pavel indicates that this claim referred to Esmée Nouchette Gafencu, a professional dancer.[144]

Camarilla clashes edit

A Iorga government was instead sworn in, with Argetoianu holding several ministerial portfolios. Over the following months, he and Blank came to clash over the issue of Romania's Alcohol Monopoly.[145] Blank associated himself with the "international gangster" Reschnitzer to obtain a lease on that enterprise, but, Argetoianu reports, "didn't get anything out of it, because I myself stood in [their] way" (emphasis in the original).[146] He recalls agreeing to give Reschnitzer's consortium a pre-emption right to the Monopoly, thus placating Blank, but also that he never actually intended to sell the company.[147] The two camarilla figures were also at odds over Blank's creation of Discom, a private enterprise which served as a retailer for the Tobacco, Salt, and Matches Monopolies. Under his management, this business never produced an actual profit for the state, as most surpluses were drawn into covering BMB losses.[148] Carol also intervened to get Discom a share from the Alcohol Monopoly, as well as control over Loteria de Stat; through the king's pressures, the General Council of Bucharest also spent 500 million lei on acquiring Blank's allotment in Otopeni.[124]

In June 1931, Blank was dispatched to Berlin, kicking off trade negotiations between Romania and Weimar Germany.[149] By then, the BMB affair had presented an opportunity for Manoilescu, also a camarilla man, who became Governor of the National Bank that same year. Manoilescu claimed that Argetoianu's demands for a bailout were feudal in nature, and could only serve to demolish whatever remained functional of Romania's industry and agriculture.[1][150] According to Argetoianu, Manoilescu was "determined to destroy Aristide", unaware that the king had issued orders to protect Blank at all cost.[151] The point is underscored by Pandrea, who also notes that a resentful Nae Ionescu played a part in forcing Manoilescu to push for Blank's bankruptcy.[152]

In that context, Premier Iorga took Carol's side, writing in Neamul Românesc [ro] that the state had a moral duty to rescue Blank's business.[153] As a BMB associate, Grigore Filipescu openly asked Manoilescu to refinance Blank's enterprise. Once his request was denied, he publicized Manoilescu's conflict of interest and pushed for an audit. Manoilescu sued him, alleging forgery, but failed to make his case in court.[154] This parallel scandal continued to 1937, when Filipescu was able to demonstrate in front of a jury that Manoilescu, despite being publicly antisemitic, had been bribed by Jewish finance.[155] As noted by Argetoianu, Blank and Manoilescu also continued to attack each other as "scoundrels and profiteers", and were equally right: "their readers should embrace [the respective] half of what each one writes down".[156] Among the later authors, Oprițescu notes that Manoilescu was essentially right, and that Argetoianu, as a BMB stakeholder, was "try[ing] to profit from this situation".[150]

The BMB crash, which brought down other banking institutions, convinced Argetoianu to legislate debt relief; however, when it emerged that Blank and Manoilescu were acting in bad faith, he made efforts not to bail out the bank itself, but merely contained the effects of its failure.[157] As he reports, Stoicescu also played a part in this controversy. He "had poor Aristide grilled and spinning over burning coals",[158] finally obtaining Blank's resignation and replacement with Söpkéz. His shares in the company were then handed in as a loan collateral to the Romanian state.[159] As claimed by Argetoianu, Blank continued to defraud his own bank by cashing in a check for 43 million lei, which he then deposited for safekeeping with Blanche Ulman-Vesnić, his mother-in-law.[160] He and Argetoianu, working together, collected a dossier showing Manoilescu's own history in illegal trading.[161] Reassured by Carol's support, Blank was ultimately victorious and, as a result, Manoilescu lost his camarilla privileges in November 1931.[162]

 
Blank's alleged mistress Leny Caler [ro] in 1934

Argetoianu himself was eventually replaced after proposing that the BMB merge with other credit enterprises into a single private entity supervised by the National Bank. As he reports, his fall was made possible by a businessmen's coalition, which included Manoilescu and "even the right honorable Aristide Blank";[163] the most vocal opposition came from smaller banks, which were threatened with liquidation.[153] In 1932–1933, the National Bank refinanced the BMB, though the latter had to concede its shares in Discom; this operation failed to keep the enterprise afloat, and it was finally liquidated in 1936.[13] According to Mourat, Blank "does not seem to have been seriously compromised" by BMB scandals, and continued to be credited by foreign investors, "keen on learning about the 'immense potential' of his rich country."[13] Blank also preserved his standing in literary circles. He entertained and dined cultural figures, including writers Scarlat Froda and Mihail Sebastian—in his diaries, the latter refers to Blank as a "poser".[164] According to Sebastian, Blank and Froda had threesomes with actress Leny Caler [ro].[165] Sebastian also claims to have had a sexual encounter with Blank's daughter Dorina, who "offered herself" to him.[166]

Return and marginalization edit

As argued by Oprițescu, the "political dimension" of the BMB crash showed that Blank was in a position to blackmail Romania's elite, but also that Carol "grew tired of bankers".[153] If Blank slowly lost his influence at the court, it was also because he no longer had enough funds left for sponsoring Carol's enrichment schemes.[167] He also focused on philanthropic work, and, in 1933, opened up Caritas Hospital with a ceremony attended by Carol.[1] By 1931, he was also involved in the project to elevate Eforie and Techirghiol into summer resorts, being responsible for the introduction of potable water and electricity, and constructing the first hotel and a modern road to reach it.[168] A sport aficionado, in 1933 Vota organized a tennis tournament at the Blank family villa in Techirghiol.[169]

Reportedly, Blank still had leverage in February 1935, when he obtained the sacking of Finance Minister Victor Slăvescu.[170] He could also communicate his views with articles in Universul daily—the paradox was highlighted at the time by journalist István Bálint, who noted that the newspaper was otherwise antisemitic.[171] In preparation for Slăvescu's sacking, Blank had published an op ed in Universul of January 28, detailing his own solutions to economic problems. In his diaries, Argetoianu referred to his contribution as "intelligent, though occasionally veering into utopia."[172] The two were again on friendly terms, since, as Argetoianu argued, "it's better to have him on my side then against me."[173] He heard Blank's "interesting plan" for developing tourism in Romania.[174] Blank also expressed an interest in funding Haig Acterian's project to pioneer television in Romania, then supported creating an Italo–Romanian film company under Cines, but ultimately withdrew from both.[175]

According to historian Grigore Traian Pop, in 1934 Blank and Victor Iamandi also worked to undermine Carol's protege Auschnitt, by depicting him as a sponsor of the Iron Guard; Pop sees the allegation as false.[176] Argetoianu noted that Blank's political agenda involved keeping a low profile, but also that he was regaining his influence on Lupescu, even as Wieder was losing his.[177] He reports that Carol's sister, Elisabeth Charlotte, detested Blank and Malaxa, asking her brother to remove them from his entourage; Carol allegedly replied that he had a set of obligations toward Blank.[178] Also according to Argetoianu, Blank's intrigues also resulted in Mitiță Constantinescu's appointment as Governor of the National Bank, who then proceeded to persecute investor Oskar Kaufmann, Elisabeth's alleged lover.[179] Constantinescu and Blank formed a clique which opposed Slăvescu's attempts to regain control of credit institutions, and obtained conditional support from Premier Gheorghe Tătărescu. This conflict reflected splits inside the PNL, between Tătărescu and Dinu Brătianu's factions (the latter of which included Slăvescu).[180] At the time, Argetoianu claimed to have discovered Blank's actual stake in such affairs—namely, that he hoped Constantinescu would allow the BMB to survive by returning it control over Discom, which had remained profitable.[181]

Argetoianu looked back on 1935 as the worst year in Romanian history, only similar to the period of Ottoman dominion over the Danubian Principalities: "It would still appear as the better alternative to be trampled on by the Padishah than by that Yid Aristid Blank or the alms-giver Malaxa."[182] As reported to Argetoianu by Elisabeth's lover, Sandi Scanavi, Blank was deemed "public enemy number 1" by the conservative establishment, with Malaxa a close second.[183] In early 1936, Argetoianu claims, Blank was the "real master of this Romanian land", but had also registered a defeat when Slăvescu returned to the National Bank leadership.[184] When Kaufmann began a legal battle against journalist Alfred Hefter, Argetoianu argued that the latter was being paid to calumny by Blank.[185] As he noted: "that the bankrupt Blank has enough money on him to get Hefter moving, that is after all his own business, and at most something that would interest the prosecutor's office. The plot thickens and the issue turns messy because Mitiță Constantinescu also gets involved into this personal conflict, and that the wheeler-dealer Aristid goes out of his way to also involve the King" (emphasis in the original).[186]

On the night of May 4–5, 1936, an Iron Guard youth narrowly missed a chance to assassinate Blank outside Hefter's editorial offices, and, out of frustration, physically assaulted Hefter himself; in the aftermath, Blank spread rumors that the attempt was a false flag operation by Kaufmann's own clique.[110] A month later, he and Șeicaru reacted against their rival Ionescu, who had been identified as an agent of influence for Nazi Germany. They presented Carol with a copy of the incriminating letter, which Carlist Ion Sân-Giorgiu allegedly took to Berlin "and showed it to a number of ministers there."[187] By August, Blank was reportedly attempting to gather support for a "strongman government" that would quell Guardist agitation, and proposed either Argetoianu or Alexandru Averescu for the premiership.[188] In January 1937, British plenipotentiary Reginald Hoare left comments on Blank's newfound enthusiasm for regaining control of the BMB, as well as on his limited competence.[116] Also according to Argetoianu, Vota had left Aristide, and, in October 1936, was living with Radu Polizu in Monaco. An inveterate gambler, Polizu allegedly relied on her for money.[189]

In June 1937, the Guardist paper Buna Vestire announced that the anti-internationalist drift of European politics, also manifested in the Soviet Great Purge, was a bane for the "social and political systems born out of conspiratorial Judaism's boorish and anti-historic spirit". This meant bad news for Romanian democrats, including "Aristide Blank's cronies".[190] Blank and Auschnitt, together with Filderman and Armand Călinescu, had by then drafted a plan for the mass emigration of Romanian Jews to Mandatory Palestine. This attempt to settle the issue was foiled by German and British opposition.[191] By 1939, the National Bank had taken over the BMB's patrimony.[192] Blank also lost his father's home on Dionisie Street, which was bought by Eduard Mirto, and then leased to the American Legation.[193] Following national elections in December 1937, Carol allowed the fascist National Christian Party, a successor of the LANC, to form government; Blank's erstwhile friend, Octavian Goga, took over as Premier. As reported by Sebastian, the passage of antisemitic legislation was played down by Blank, who argued that the "continuation of the Goga government" was in then Jews' best interest, since "what would come after it would be infinitely worse."[194]

Outcast and hostage edit

Adevărul was finally banned on Goga's orders.[62][195] After Carol engineered a self-coup and formed the National Renaissance Front, Blank made attempts to regain his standing in political life. He followed Carol on his final trip to Britain in November 1938, and was registered with the royal retinue at Claridge's of London. This prompted Argetoianu to comment that Carol was still unable to renounce his "gang of tricksters", comprising Blank, Hefter, and Eugen Titeanu.[196] He reports meeting the "all-too-serene" Blank visiting the Wallace Collection alongside diplomat Dimitrie N. Ciotori: "I never asked him why he was in London: I don't doubt for a moment that he's here to pick up scraps from the table that's being set for King Carol".[197] Blank returned to publishing with two other plays. Iarna la Hangerli ("Winter at Hagerli's"), a sample of historical theater, was partly taken up in Viața Românească in 1939; Rhapsodie des dieux ("Gods' Rhapsody", which is Blank's take on the Odyssey, noted by Faifer for its interxtual refinement) was published entirely in 1940.[16]

In Romania, the outbreak of World War II saw the generalization of antisemitic laws, followed in 1940 the premiership of a hardliner, Ion Gigurtu. As reported by Sebastian, news of his ascendancy struck his "millionaire friends" Blank and A. L. Zissu, who were "terrified and cracking up", but who still pestered him with "abstract conversations."[198] Such radicalization was followed in September by Carol's ouster, and afterward by the establishment of an Iron Guard-led "National Legionary State". This new regime blocked all of Blank's Romanian assets in October 1940, and instituted a special commission for re-litigating the BMB affair.[1] In January 1941, the Guard rebelled and was ousted by military leader Ion Antonescu. Before and during the clashes, the Guardists intensified antisemitic terror; Blank's mother was among those targeted, and attempted suicide with an overdose of phenobarbital.[199]

The investigative commission resumed work after the events, and determined that Aristide owed the Romanian state 600 million lei.[1] Frequenting the left-wing journalist Tudor Teodorescu-Braniște in April 1941, Blank expressed confidence that Germany would lose in its war with Yugoslavia.[200] Both he and his host resigned themselves by June, when Blank also circulated rumors about Romania's imminent participation in the invasion of Soviet territory. He still owned a paper mill, which was ordered to prepare for distribution in Bessarabia.[201] According to Sebastian, Blank argued in late 1941 that the war would only last for two more years, but was then "disgusted at the British lack of seriousness in Libya."[202] Blank had by then sent his son to study abroad, in the United States. After a while being stranded with his mother in the Portuguese Republic,[203] Milenko managed to sail out of Europe; he took American citizenship and returned with the United States Army.[204] Blank's older son, Patrice, was a graduate of the ELSP.[57] He remained active during the Nazi occupation and joined the French Resistance, serving as organizer and publicist of the Défense de la France insurgent group.[205][206] Actress Hélène Duc, who hid him in her home, reports that Patrice hid his Romanian ancestry from his colleagues, generally presenting himself as a grandson of Vladimir Lenin.[55] Economist Michel Drancourt, who met him later in life, recounts that he was always discreet about his distant past, though he sometimes reflected "on the importance of his family bank in Romania".[57]

In 1943, Romania's Ministry of Finance sued Aristide Blank for the recovery of his assets, and obtained a foreclosure of his property on Berthelot Street, outside Cișmigiu.[207] According to one report, Blank left Romania in 1941, together with members of the British Legation.[14] However, Sebastian's accounts place him in Bucharest in 1942–1943, noting that his library was being seized by Romanian authorities on orders from Paul Sterian.[208] In late 1942 or early 1943, Blank was included on a list of Jewish hostages, presented by the Central Jewish Office as a guarantee of its loyalism toward the Antonescu regime; also featured were writers Henric Streitman and Iosif Brucăr.[209] In early 1943, Sebastian notes, Blank was "looking for some refuge in the countryside."[210] He finally left Bucharest in April, at the peak of Allied bombing raids, and by June was living in Butimanu.[211]

The family's fortunes were restored in August 1944, which saw both the Liberation of Paris and the King Michael's Coup. Patrice emerged from the underground to serve as the youngest member of the Provisional Consultative Assembly.[205] He also served on the original editorial board of France-Soir,[205][57] before being expelled and sued for mismanagement in 1949.[56] In 1944 Romania, the Jewish community still looked up to Blank Sr, believing him worthy of becoming the country's Minister of Finance.[212] In January 1945, Blank (whose domicile was on Ferdinand Boulevard) reopened Cultura Națională as its majority stockholder. His new associates on this project were Teodorescu-Braniște, Sebastian, J. A. Steriadi, and Alexandru Rosetti.[213] From 1946, he rejoined the ranks of Romania's Freemasonry, which was reemerging after years of repression; this time around, he became an affiliate of Lanțul de Unire Lodge, under Horia Hulubei. The group, which also included Auschnitt, Malaxa, Nicolae Ciupercă, Emil Ghilezan [ro] and Mihail Ghelmegeanu, was highly selective, to the point where its activities were kept secret from other Romanian Lodges.[214] Blank also helped Rosetti and Ionel Jianu [ro] with printing an art magazine, Lumină și Culoare.[1] With Galaction, Teodorescu-Braniște, Rosetti, Petre Ghiață, Isaia Răcăciuni [ro], Valentin Saxone, and Ion Vinea, he set up a liberal-democratic club, Ideea.[215] In April 1946, the Court of Cassation cancelled the debt owed by Blank, finding that the Antonescu regime had misruled on this issue.[216]

Convict and emigrant edit

Blank persisted in attempting to have the BMB assets returned to him, initially by cultivating National Peasantists such as Hudiță, but later focusing his efforts on the more powerful Romanian Communist Party.[116] As part of this approach, he joined the Romanian Society for Friendship with the Soviet Union and presided over its Financial Section.[116] Initially, Blank obtained support from a Communist Party leader, Ana Pauker, who was an in-law of his Adevărul colleagues. In October 1945, she allowed him to access BMB funds, with Blank promising that he was going to fully repay his creditors.[116] However, Blank also protected his family from the communist threat, sending Vota to live with Milenko in the United States; he visited them there in 1946, but opted to return to Romania in January 1947.[116] One of his final activities at Cultura Națională was putting out the first edition of Pavel Chihaia's novel, Blocada, which was immediately removed from bookshops by communist censors.[217] The publishing house was shut down that same year.[1]

Blank himself was eventually singled out for retribution after having maintained contacts with British and American diplomats.[116] He witnessed the proclamation of a communist republic in 1948, by which time he had lost touch with his Western backers.[116] That year, the BMB was nationalized (though it continued to exist as a separate entity, under state management, to 1951); the company's former offices, a granite building on Doamnei Street, were taken by Romania's new secret police, the Securitate.[218] Blank himself was arrested as a spy on April 18, 1952, and put on trial for high treason with his meeting with foreigners and some of his papers used as evidence, then sentenced to a 20-year imprisonment in May 1953.[116] At the time, his rival Manoilescu had also been identified as an enemy of the communist regime, and was sent to the labor colony of Ocnele Mari. Here, he met Pandrea, who recalls: "I made him recount the Blank bankruptcy, as a way of entertaining xenophobic inmates".[219]

Memoirist Ion Ioanid, who was held with Blank in Jilava Prison for a while in 1954, recalls that the financier was well groomed, and still wearing a two-piece suit. According to Ioanid, Blank missed his son Milenko, whom he believed he would never see again, but resented him for choosing a career in the army: "I feel like a hen that's been hatching a duck's egg!"[204] Children from his other marriages had stayed behind in Romania. Reportedly, one of his daughters, Tina Stănescu, had married a mayor of Buzău, and was still living at Sinaia in the late 1940s, shunning all relations with less assimilated Jews.[220] Novelist Matei Călinescu remembers that one of Blank's former wives was living at a part-nationalized villa in Floreasca in 1954, alongside her daughter, Helen Blank-Bogdan, and two granddaughters, Mab and Manola. Helen's husband, the lawyer Horia Bogdan, was also serving a jail term.[221]

Blank's defense team was able to show that his conversations with foreigners were not covered by the Penal Code, and that papers found in his home and used against him in his trial were actually the early drafts of a novel.[116] In April 1955, his conviction for treason was overturned, and commuted into a three-year sentence for mishandling national secrets; he had by then served the equivalent in Jilava and Pitești prisons, and was consequently set free.[116] Blank's health was compromised, and, having been made an Officer of the Legion of Honor before 1925,[222] he relied on medical support from the French Embassy. His visits brought him attention by Securitate operatives, and he was placed under surveillance.[116] Throughout the late 1950s, Blank made several requests for an emigration visa to France, supported in this by the French government and Zionist groups responding to Vota's appeals; in 1956, a delegation of the French National Assembly visited him in Bucharest.[116] Blank was also assisted by his other son Patrice,[54] who returned to publishing after making and losing a fortune in the trade of precious metals.[223] All of his father's applications for emigration were denied by the Romanian side until March 1958,[116] when he was finally allowed to leave for Paris. Aristide Blank died there on January 1, 1960, his official birthday.[1][54][116]

Patrice reportedly married a Rothschild and lived a life of luxury,[55] but continued to be active in political life. Like his friend Bertrand de Jouvenel, he spoke out against the French economic mainstream, advocating right-libertarianism; this agenda was promoted by his own magazine, Liaisons Sociales, as well as by Commentaire journal and Saint-Simon Foundation, both of which he financed.[224] His parallel advocacy for the United States of Europe brought him into conflict with Charles de Gaulle, but also ensured support from Joseph Rovan.[225] As noted by lawyer Jacques Sinard, Patrice was also a promoter of common-law marriage from a Europeanist and liberal perspective.[226] Patrice Blank was still active in publishing into the 1990s, as owner of the Liaisons group; he sold it to Wolters Kluwer in 1996.[205][227] He died in Paris, aged 73, on October 14, 1998,[205] having just inaugurated a new libertarian magazine, Sociétal.[227] He enjoys a posthumous fame as a central figure in conspiracy theories about the death of Robert Boulin in October 1979. According to these, Boulin was killed by his colleagues in the Rally for the Republic, because he had compromising information regarding party finances; Blank Jr is depicted as having absconded with Boulin's personal files just after his death was announced.[228]

Notes edit

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Claudiu Secașiu, "Biografia lui Aristide Blank (I)", in Realitatea Evreiască, Issues 520–521 (1320–1321), July–August 2018, p. 15
  2. ^ Annamaria Damian, "Expoziția El Bucarest sefardi. 500 anos de historia contados en 100 imagenes", in Revista de Istorie a Evreilor din România, Issue 2 (18), 2017, p. 15; George Gîlea, "Datorie de onoare pentru Mauriciu Blank", in Realitatea Evreiască, Issues 526–527 (1326–1327), November 2018, p. 25; Maschio & Păduraru, p. 287
  3. ^ Alexandru Mirodan, "Dicționar neconvențional al scriitorilor evrei de limbă română. G. Gaster, Moses", in Minimum, Vol. XII, Issue 141, December 1998, p. 53
  4. ^ Maschio & Păduraru, p. 287
  5. ^ Stoica, p. 203
  6. ^ a b Zarafopol, "Imprumutul Blank", in Furnica, Vol. XV, Issue 27, April 1920, p. 11
  7. ^ a b C. R., "Y-a-t-il un antisémitisme roumain?", in L'Univers Israélite, Vol. 79, Issue 47, August 1924, p. 367
  8. ^ a b c "România este Antisemită?", in Opinia, August 23, 1924, p. 1
  9. ^ Mucenic, pp. 339–343
  10. ^ a b Argetoianu (1997), p. 270
  11. ^ Waldman & Ciuciu, pp. 124–125
  12. ^ Maschio & Păduraru, p. 291
  13. ^ a b c d e f g Jean Mourat, "Les millionaires meurent dans leur lit", in Ce Soir, May 1, 1937, p. 10
  14. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Nicolae Cajal, Hary Kuller, Contribuția evreilor din România la cultură și civilizație, pp. 70–71. Bucharest: Editura Hasefer, 2004. ISBN 978-973-630-067-7
  15. ^ Argetoianu (1997), pp. 68, 70
  16. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Florin Faifer, "Memoria scenei. Aristide Blank, un neînțeles", in Scena, Vol. I, Issue 4, August 1998, pp. 34–35
  17. ^ Aristide Blanc, "Despărțire (după Feuchtersleben)", in Foaia Populară, Issue 16/1900, p. 5
  18. ^ "Noutăți. Logodnă", in Tribuna, Vol. XII, Issue 230, October 1908, p. 6
  19. ^ Ștefania Mihăilescu, Din istoria feminismului românesc. Antologie de texte (1838–1929), p. 187. Iași: Polirom, 2002. ISBN 973-681-012-7
  20. ^ "O căsătorie în lumea mare", in Tribuna, Vol. XII, Issue 287, January 1909, p. 10
  21. ^ Mucenic, p. 344
  22. ^ a b c d e Waldman & Ciuciu, p. 120
  23. ^ Ion Vianu, Investigații mateine, p. 39. Cluj-Napoca & Iași: Biblioteca Apostrof & Polirom, 2008. ISBN 978-973-9279-97-0
  24. ^ "Șantagiul Serei", in Opinia. Ziar Conservator-Democrat, June 18, 1913, p. 1
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November 10, 2023
aristide, blank, aristide, aristid, blank, also, spelled, blanc, blanck, january, 1883, january, 1960, romanian, financier, economist, arts, patron, playwright, father, mauriciu, blank, assimilated, naturalized, romanian, manager, marmorosch, blank, bank, majo. Aristide or Aristid Blank also spelled Blanc or Blanck January 1 1883 January 1 1960 was a Romanian financier economist arts patron and playwright His father Mauriciu Blank an assimilated and naturalized Romanian Jew was manager of the Marmorosch Blank Bank ro BMB a major financial enterprise Aristide took up jobs within the same company and after seeing action in the Second Balkan War and World War I began expanding its investments branching out into maritime transport and founding CFRNA CIDNA airlines This period witnessed his attempt at setting up a press empire around the twin dailies Adevărul and Dimineața and his brief engagement with Epoca Aristide BlankBlank in 1934Born 1883 01 01 January 1 1883Bucharest Kingdom of RomaniaDiedJanuary 1 1960 1960 01 01 aged 77 Paris FranceNationalityRomanianAlma materUniversity of BucharestOccupation s Investor business magnate patron of the arts humanitarian playwrightYears activeca 1900 1953Spouse s Marietta Culoglu divorced wbr Ecaterina Caragiale div Cella Delavrancea div Vota Vesnic m 1935 ParentMauriciu Blank father RelativesEmanoil Culoglu father in law Ion Luca Caragiale father in law posth Mateiu Caragiale brother in law Barbu Ștefănescu Delavrancea father in law posth Milenko Radomar Vesnic father in law posth SignatureInheriting his father s position at the BMB Blank expanded its activities and expenditures setting aside money for graft and allowing his staff to engage in accounting fraud By 1923 he was also engaged in Romanian nationalist politics sponsoring propaganda writings and working alongside historians Nicolae Iorga and Vasile Parvan He set up his own publishing house Cultura Națională and a literary agency which was for a while managed by philosopher Nae Ionescu ultimately sacked by Blank upon the discovery of embezzlement Blank who allegedly alternated mainstream politics with support for the far left found himself pitted against the antisemitic far right being brutalized by the National Christian Defense League and marked for retribution by the Iron Guard Beginning in the early 1920s Blank cultivated Crown Prince Carol who took over as King of Romania after a 1930 coup Emerging as Carol s economic adviser Blank joined the resulting camarilla an affiliation which shielded him from the consequences of BMB mismanagement The enterprise crashed in 1931 unable to absorb the effects of the Great Depression Blank was removed from his managerial position following intervention by the National Bank of Romania but used political channels to preserve some measure of control and was instrumental in toppling National Bank Governor Mihail Manoilescu who did not wish to refinance the BMB His influence fluctuated for the remainder of Carol s reign still unable to fully control the BMB he still owned Discom a lucrative retailer for products of state monopolies In the 1930s he helped develop Eforie and Techirghiol into summer resorts Public antisemitism and fascism took the forefront during the late years of Carlism and the early years of World War II This period saw Blank marginalized and resulted in additional scrutiny of the BMB affair at the end of which he was sentenced to pay 600 million lei in damages Blank reemerged as BMB manager after King Michael s Coup of 1944 but he and his business were finally repressed by the communist regime from 1948 In 1953 he was sentenced to 20 years for high treason but managed to have that verdict overturned in 1955 After international pressures he was allowed to emigrate in 1958 and lived his final months in Paris His children from his successive marriages and affairs include American soldier Milenko Blank and French press magnate Patrice Aristide Blank Contents 1 Biography 1 1 Early life 1 2 Social rise 1 3 Adevărul and literary circle 1 4 Far right attacks and Regency intrigues 1 5 BMB crash and royal protection 1 6 Camarilla clashes 1 7 Return and marginalization 1 8 Outcast and hostage 1 9 Convict and emigrant 2 Notes 3 ReferencesBiography editEarly life edit Born in Bucharest on the first day of 1883 1 New Style January 13 Aristide was the son of Mauriciu Blank Through his paternal lineage he belonged to the Sephardi minority within the local Jewish community 2 and was distantly related to linguist Moses Gaster 3 His clan originally known as Derrera el Blanco had first settled in Wallachia during the 18th century but their Judaism prevented them from obtaining naturalization 4 Martinho de Brederode Portuguese ambassador to Romania in 1920 described Aristide as the first Jew to have ever made his way into Romania s high society 5 By then the family s ethnic background was still largely unknown to the Romanian public with the Jewish publication Mantuirea noting in 1920 that Aristide was of obscure origin 6 As reported in 1924 by L Univers Israelite he was fully assimilated Jewish only in origin 7 the same year Opinia reported that Blank was a Semite seen by other Jews as a renegade assimilated to the point of exhibiting all Romanian vices and the parent of Romanian Christian children 8 Circa 1880 Mauriciu was entering the financial elite of the newly established Principality of Romania having served as head of the Marmorosch Blank Bank BMB since 1874 At the time of Aristide s birth it was the most powerful private bank in the Romanian Kingdom 9 Blank s political friend and enemy Constantin Argetoianu claims that Mauriciu had a marriage of convenience to Aristide s mother Betina Goldenberg who was ugly as well as vulgar avaricious as well as venomous 10 One of Aristide s sisters was married off to another financier Adalbert Csillag who would experience complete bankruptcy 10 Another sister Margot married industrialist Herman Spayer whose residence on Batiștei Street was briefly used by the BMB 11 The family finally received Romanian citizenship in 1883 12 shortly after Aristide s birth According to a hostile note by French journalist Jean Mourat Blank Jr was raised in luxury so as to keep up with good traditions 13 Aristide received an elite education and was possessed of an artistic sensibility 14 however Argetoianu portrays him as highly intelligent but lacking a serious culture his main attributes being ambition jealousy and eventually paranoia 15 He became a published poet in his teenage years In 1899 Foaia Populară put out his debut poem Bătrana 16 this was followed in April 1900 by Despărțire a pastiche from Eduard von Feuchtersleben that he signed as Aristide Blanc also in Foaia Populară in April 1900 17 Blank took a graduation diploma from the University of Bucharest Faculty of Law and Philosophy 1 16 His first career from 1904 was as a lawyer affiliated with the bar association of Bucharest 16 In October 1908 he announced his engagement to Marietta Culoglu daughter of politician Emanoil Culoglu the distinguished nationalist 18 and herself noted as an activist for women s suffrage 19 Blank married her in January 1909 with a civil ceremony attended by Vintilă Brătianu Emil Costinescu and Vasile Morțun 20 Initially Blank Jr closely followed his father s career in finance By 1910 he was serving on the board of directors for various BMB branches including Moldova Bank of Iași and the Aromanian Bank of Commerce 21 He was inducted into the Order of Commercial and Industrial Merit in 1912 14 when he also served on the committee to establish the Bucharest Academy of Economic Studies 22 In June 1913 Blank was blackmailed by Seara newspaperman Alexandru Bogdan Pitești who had inaugurated a smear campaign against the BMB According to notes left by Seara s Mateiu Caragiale Blank trapped Bogdan Pitești with direct support from the Romanian Police 23 This refers to a sting operation at Flora Restaurant where Blank heard Bogdan Pitești and his associate Adolf Davidescu state their demands while policemen were standing by 24 Obtaining legal assistance from Take Ionescu Blank took Bogdan Pitești to court and won resulting in his rival s imprisonment 25 A month after Romania entered the Second Balkan War with Blank enlisted as a Land Forces officer in Southern Dobruja 14 It was here that he first met historian and politician Nicolae Iorga with whom he would cooperate on cultural ventures in the early 1920s 26 nbsp Blank in 1910Upon the expedition s end Blank Jr helped to establish and finance two BMB naval transport enterprises respectively operating on the Black Sea and the Danube 27 In the winter of 1914 1915 he was sent to the United Kingdom by the Ion I C Brătianu government in order to secure a loan for the state establishing neutral Romania s closer ties to the Triple Entente 14 28 This mission caused much controversy at home Foreign Minister Emanoil Porumbaru refused to sign his name to the deal believing that it compromised Romania s policy of non alignment he was consequently forced to resign 28 Upon his return Blank debuted in economic theory with a tract on pricing policies Scumpirea și ieftinirea traiului Increases and Decreases in the Cost of Living Bucharest 1915 1916 14 his ideas on this topic inspired banking clerks to set up a consumers co operative 29 During June 1915 he was involved in the grain trade out of Brăila and criticizing the administration for imposing caps on the exports of foodstuffs 30 In September he served as executive of an anonymous partnership for the manufacture and sale of ammunition This had been established by his father with participation from Culoglu Alexandru Kirițescu and Mihail Săulescu 31 As reported by Argetoianu Blank Jr still had connections in the German Empire which he used to plant his protege Felix Wieder in a German consortium a position which Wieder then used to defraud that firm 32 Social rise edit The Treaty of Bucharest brought Romania into the war as an Entente ally then its invasion by Germany Again drafted as a Lieutenant Blank enlisted in the Romanian Air Corps 16 He was subsequently spotted at Iași the provisional capital of a rump Romanian state Argetoianu reports that wartime Iași was where Blank first earned the trust of Carol of Hohenzollern the disgraced Romanian Crown Prince Carol used Blank in his attempts to earn support from Prime Minister Alexandru Averescu Also according to Argetoianu Blank was also faking asthma attacks which saw him relieved of his duties and sent to Paris 33 One report by Alexandru Lapedatu suggests that Blank transited through Moscow in the Russian Republic where he personally witnessed the November Revolution He was evicted by some Englishmen during the Red Guards attack on Hotel Metropol 34 During the exodus of 1917 Blank arrived on a special mission to Vladivostok from this outpost he sponsored Ioan Timuș s extended trip to Japan 35 asking him to act as an informant on Japanese cultural norms and therefore of use to our country 36 Blank remained in France for the rest of World War I and beyond working primarily as a propagandist and financier for Romanian nationalist causes 37 Historian Orest Tafrali ro identifies Blank and Paul Brătășanu as the two main backers of La Roumanie newspaper which campaigned for the creation of a Greater Romania 38 Before the end of 1918 Blank was allegedly in Nice alongside Octavian Goga the Transylvanian poet activist 39 By early 1920 Blank was also networking with pro Allied nationalists from both the Old Kingdom and Transylvania including Take Ionescu and Alexandru Vaida Voevod 40 Vaida s private correspondence notes that Ionescu Blank and Alexandru C Constantinescu were colluding to bring the former in as Prime Minister which required them to manipulate the market against the national interest a solidarity of bandits 41 Lapedatu also claims that Blank rather than acting as a philanthropist recovered all the money he had lent to Romanian politicians in 1918 1920 42 In December 1918 Blank published in La Renaissance his own project for a Greater Romania which he depicted as an economic boon for the Allied cause Blank envisaged the Danube as a commercial highway for Romanian grain and timber but noted that its success relied on the internationalization of the Turkish Straits 43 According to diplomat Nicolae Petrescu Comnen Blank was one of the men of culture and patriots who personally assisted him in countering the propaganda put out by the Hungarian Republic which vied with Romania for control of Transylvania 44 In 1919 when he was decommissioned as a Captain in the Second Cavalry Regiment 1 Blank put out the first volume of an illustrated propaganda album La Roumanie en images Iorga viewed it as a superior work of art but noted that its selection of prints displayed banality and a lack of familiarity with all newer discoveries regarding Romania s past After reading his comments Blank employed Iorga as his editorial adviser 45 The following year he sponsored French editions from Iorga s own works Histoire des Roumains et de leur civilisation and Anthologie de la litterature roumaine 46 Lapedatu recounts that in doing so Blank saved the former book from being shelved by Hachette 47 At some point before 1919 Blank consolidated his art collection by purchasing most of Nicolae Grigorescu s paintings in the Alexandru Vlahuță collection 48 He took painter Jean Alexandru Steriadi as his adviser and finnced his wife Nora s ceramist workshop 49 Around 1920 he sparked controversy with his wholesale purchase of canvasses by Adam Bățatu and Sabin Popp without even looking over the paintings 50 By then his profile in culture and politics was intertwined with his personal life Around 1919 he was briefly married to Ecaterina Caragiale daughter of the playwright Ion Luca Caragiale and Mateiu s half sister 51 After a long courtship 52 he wed pianist Cella Delavrancea orphaned daughter of writer Barbu Ștefănescu Delavrancea at some point before April 1920 Cella called her husband Aladin and noted that she fulfilled all her financial demands with her new found wealth she funded her own literary club called Maison d Art 53 Their marriage ended in divorce By then Blank had fathered a son Patrice Aristide 54 reportedly born Aristide Blank Satinover 55 or Tuchner Satinover 56 to a French mother 57 nbsp 1922 advertisement for CFRNA flightsFollowing the establishment of Greater Romania Aristide and Mauriciu sold BMB to a rival firm but continued to hold controlling shares between them 13 Their businesses now branched out into aviation In 1920 Aristide used BMB funds to set up CFRNA later renamed CIDNA alongside aviator Pierre de Fleurieu fr 22 Fleurieu had worked as a minor clerk at the bank until Blank became aware of his fighter pilot record and his belief in the future of civil aviation 58 Theirs was the first airline to offer a direct Paris Bucharest flight with an extension to Istanbul 14 22 the route was inaugurated by Albert Louis Deullin with a landing at Pipera Airport in October 1921 59 According to Argetoianu Blank also involved himself in setting up the Romanian Air Club ro because doing so would bring him closer to Carol himself an aviation enthusiast 60 Also then Blank founded the BMB s General Building Society which managed construction firms in Bucharest and Campina 27 Both Blanks also became involved in assisting humanitarian work by the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee This included a BMB loan for the reconstruction of Bukovina Jewish property for which Blank offered a reduced interest 61 Though a card carrying member of Brătianu s National Liberal Party PNL 1 16 62 Blank was infuriated when his bank could not obtain a tax rebate of 35 million lei 63 In late 1920 Brederode noted that the BMB and Paribas both sponsored an effort to orient Romania toward free trade a policy which was embraced by the Peasants Party the People s Party and Ionescu s Conservative Democrats 64 As reported by politician Alexandru Marghiloman in early 1920 Blank Sr was already funding the Peasantists whose leading member Ion Răducanu ro was a BMB employee 65 His son took up the same cause and in 1921 was providing funds for Nicolae L Lupu s Peasantist daily Aurora 16 He then assisted the Peasantist backed coalition in negotiating an international loan which was to help Romania rebuild its internal market As noted at the time by Furnica magazine this mission could effectively turn Blank Jr against Brătianu and his supporters in the banking industry since the PNL s policy was to prevent adversaries from doing even the right thing 6 By contrast PNL doctrinaire Vintilă Brătianu viewed Blank as one who opposed attempts of rebuilding Romania s economy into a national framework 66 A lasting feud ensued between Blank and the National Liberals by 1923 Blank has set himself the task of ensuring that the party never returned to power 67 The BMB was staffed exclusively with adversaries or dissidents of the PNL including Goga Vaida Voevod Constantinescu and Nicolae Tabacovici 1 In 1920 Blank set up a luxurious Romanian restaurant in Paris Latin Quarter 68 which was for a while managed by sociologist Mihai Ralea 69 Having secured a contract for the transfer of scholarships for Romanian students in France 69 Blank also sponsored Iorga s Romanian School created in 1922 at Fontenay aux Roses 70 As seen by historian Petre Țurlea Iorga s relationship with Blank was highly profitable for Romanian culture 45 It resulted in the establishment of a popular theater tied to Iorga s Cultural League for the Unity of All Romanians ro 16 71 According to historian Lucian T Butaru Iorga appreciated Blank s cultural endeavor and this may have helped tone down his otherwise entrenched antisemitism 72 Blank also provided funds for Iorga s son Mircea to study abroad which Argetoianu claims effectively meant that the Iorga family was in his debt 73 Iorga responded to such accusations noting that his son was under no obligation to work for Blank 74 Adevărul and literary circle edit In addition to being a gifted orator 14 Blank still had literary pretensions In 1922 he sponsored Armand Pascal and Benjamin Fondane s theater troupe Insula 75 He himself debuted as a pseudonymous dramatist in Paris and Bucharest According to Argetoianu his work in the field was merely idiotic 76 though Blank was admitted to the Romanian Dramatists Society in 1930 16 77 In 1932 the celebrated critic George Călinescu published some positive remarks regarding Blank s work in the field though as noted by writer Florin Faifer these were entirely conjectural Faifer himself argues that Blank s contribution to literary modernism was affected by snobbery though not worthless 16 Such pieces include L Assoiffe or Insetatul Thirst Man produced by Georges Pitoeff s company of Paris in 1925 Here Blank depicts himself as the visionary misfit Andrei whose promising destinity is cut short by a jealous husband 16 In the 1920s he founded or financed a series of cultural institutions of his own These included Cultura Națională publishing house which was established and named on Iorga s advice 26 and offered lucrative employment to intellectuals such as Dimitrie Gusti and Vasile Parvan 78 He put out books that are not just neatly printed but artistic encouraging the authors and helping the readers for these books are sold cheaper than the cost of production 8 In 1920 Blank had also funded a literary club called Societatea Filarmonică 14 Also in 1920 Blank became the target of a renewed smear campaign this time carried by Tudor Arghezi s Cronica As reported by a Siguranța source he solved this issue by presenting Arghezi with a gift of 100 000 lei later supplemented by a monthly stipend 79 Arghezi would later complain that the banker had tried to humiliate him by forcing publishers not to engage with him 80 Blank had also agreed to sponsor Arghezi associate Gala Galaction who asked for a grant of 160 000 lei in order to translate the Bible into Romanian However Galaction failed to keep up with the writing schedule In 1921 Blank partly withdrew his support and only advanced Galaction 36 000 lei for his version of the New Testament 81 Though Blank paid for the Viața Romanească editorial office 14 by 1922 he was that enterprise s direct competitor Viața Romanească s director Mihail Sadoveanu complained that Blank s tactics at Cultura Națională were specifically designed to corner the publishing market 82 During those months Blank was building up his a press empire of his own He sponsored Grigore Filipescu a BMB associate helping him relaunch the conservative daily Epoca He maintained some say in Epoca s editorial policy preventing Liviu Rebreanu from publishing an article that was critical of Blank himself 83 Blank purchased the left wing dailies Adevărul and Dimineața which became BMB and Cultura Națională assets Reportedly this investment cost him 7 million lei 84 The circumstances for Blank s takeover whereby journalist Constantin Mille renounced his most valuable enterprise were debated by the staff and remain mysterious 62 85 86 Shortly thereafter Mille used the money to launch another newspaper Lupta which competed with Blank s consortium and opened its offices just opposite 62 85 86 Mainly using Adevărul to air his polemics with the National Liberal Viitorul 1 63 87 Blank immediately reassured its readers that the newspaper would remain a strong voice on the traditional left 62 However an article in Contimporanul alleges that he personally sacked the caretaker editor Emil Fagure which also caused the resignation of another staff member Barbu Brănișteanu 84 Management was then handled by militant Romanian journalist Constantin Graur and by Jewish entrepreneur Emil Pauker who was coincidentally the uncle of a prominent communist Marcel Pauker 62 Marghiloman reports that in late 1921 Blank s conflict with the Brătianu faction had degenerated and upset Mauriciu s business arrangements to a point where the BMB threatened to liquidate Adevărul assets This reportedly caused Blank Jr to stop writing for his own newspaper 87 As argued by Argetoianu Blank purposefully spent his own money on far leftist causes so as to undermine the Romanian state He claims to have personally intervened to have Mauriciu put a leash on Aristide when the latter became involved with Philippe Ciprut in sponsoring the Socialist Party of Romania 76 In 1924 Blank resold Adevărul and Dimineața to Graur and other subordinate journalists causing Mille to express his indignation in Lupta I had sold my newspapers to Mr Aristide Blank a man of youth of culture of initiative who had in addition to his millions the structure of an honest man of a fighter for democracy and truth I could not imagine that Mr Blank viewed Adevărul and Dimineața with the character and interest of a regular fella as a commercial business that one just sells off to whomever 86 Pauker and his brother Simion took over more shares of Adevărul which became widely perceived as their newspaper and therefore as a Jewish enterprise 62 Nicolae Carandino at the time a young journalist recalls that Blank having no administrative appointment and no title to his name was unofficially recognized in government circles as the organizer of receptions for any of the important foreignes who were visiting our country 88 According to memoirist and lawyer Petre Pandrea ro he intended to take over as Minister of Finance and for this reason surrounded himself with intellectuals such as Parvan and Nae Ionescu 89 At Cultura Națională he oversaw luxury editions from works by both Caragiales possibly intended as homages to his former wife 90 Blank also took personal charge of the Economics Collection which he then assigned to a specialist Mihail Manoilescu who used it to publish his own tract Politica producției naționale The Policy of National Production 91 Until 1923 Cultura Națională s printing offices put out the literary magazine Gandirea managed by Cezar Petrescu and Nichifor Crainic As reported by Crainic this partnership broke down when Parvan attempted to prevent them from hosting criticism of Blank 92 Also in 1923 Ionescu purchased his Bucharest villa using an affordable credit obtained from the financier 93 a year later Blank sponsored Constantin Daicoviciu s research at Ulpia Traiana Sarmizegetusa 94 A rapprochement between Ionescu and Blank began in 1922 when the former publicly praised the latter for endorsing dirigisme to an even higher degree than the National Liberals 95 Ionescu was employed by Cultura Națională but left after a public row with its patron The issue of contention was Ionescu s fraudulent management of the Central Book Office a literary agency and subsidiary of Cultura Națională which allegedly brought Blank losses of 800 000 lei 96 As narrated by journalist Pamfil Șeicaru Blank caught on only after attending Ionescu s lavish house warming party and later discovered that Ionescu had forged Parvan and Gusti s signatures on the company s balance sheets 97 Blank shielded Ionescu from prosecution but forced him to write a letter of confession 98 Photocopies of this were kept by all those whom Ionescu had defrauded 99 while Blank had the original which he reportedly showed to Argetoianu after Ionescu made attempts to return as a politician 100 Far right attacks and Regency intrigues edit Blank s involvement with youth and left wing causes during the process of Jewish emancipation saw him engaged in a prolonged conflict with the antisemitic far right and in particular with Corneliu Zelea Codreanu who would emerge as a regional leader of the National Christian Defense League LANC Codreanu first identified Blank as an enemy during the Student Congress of 1920 when he attempted to pass motions for religious discrimination this was opposed by other youth leaders whom Codreanu then accused of being Blank s agents 101 According to Carandino around 1922 antisemitic students also heckled one of Blank s lectures on monetary policy which was attended by Argetoianu Vintilă Brătianu Virgil Madgearu and Grigore Iunian Seemingly imperturbable Blank carried own with his speech and his blackboard demonstration Upon finishing he left the hall though rows of hooligans his back straight his right arm on his shoulder his pose impressed the hecklers and reduced the uproar 102 In late 1923 police agents captured Codreanu Ion Moța and other LANC activists accusing them of plotting to assassinate members of the Romanian political and financial elite including the Blanks 103 Though cleared of the crime Codreanu later acknowledged that he and Moța wished to rid Romania of those who had corrupted all of Romania s parties and politicians identifying Aristide as a leading sponsor of the National Peasants Party PNȚ 104 The latter rumor was replicated in other sources with one unsigned denouncer claiming that the PNȚ s debt to the BMB ran higher than 30 million lei in 1930 105 In April 1924 at the height of a scandal involving Codreanu s arrest LANC affiliates stormed into a hall where Blank Jr was lecturing on economic matters During the attack he sustained serious injuries of the skull 106 having allegedly been pulled by the hair and trampled upon 8 The assailants were put on trial but acquitted 1 A note in L Univers Israelite claimed that the incident was in fact orchestrated by government 7 while Argetoianu believes that students in general genuinely detested Blank 76 The harassment continued over several years In January 1925 Codreanu s student organizations again alleged that Blank was trafficking in influence through the Romanian universities and used this issue as a rally call for a student strike 107 As part of their conflict with Iorga Lăncieri youths openly confronted him asking him why had sold himself to banker Blank details about such contacts were popularized by LANC leader A C Cuza and by Madgearu who had since joined the PNȚ 108 The Iron Guard founded by Codreanu after his split with the LANC put up Blank s name on an enemies list which also included Constantin Banu Alexandru C Constantinescu Wilhelm Filderman and Gheorghe Gh Marzescu 109 As reported by Argetoianu Blank held the top position on that list and was effectively marked for death 110 The Guard along with other far right groups also singled out Adevărul and Dimineața as propaganda for anti Romanian concepts 62 111 In March 1925 Blank married Vota Vesnic orphaned daughter of Yugoslav Premier Milenko Radomar Vesnic Their Paris wedding was attended by numerous figures in politics and social life including the then Yugoslav Premier Nikola Pasic Maharajah Jagatjit Singh diplomat Nicolae Titulescu banker Robert de Rothschild and writers such as Marcel Prevost and Elena Văcărescu A LANC newspaper covered the event noting Blank must be reminded that this international and Jewified society does not impose itself on the Romanian public who still feels the same way about him as those students who pummeled him out in late March 1924 112 In honor of his new wife Blank sometimes used the pseudonym Votaris which combined their given names 113 In June 1926 she gave birth to the financier s son Milenko Blank 114 Also in March 1925 Iorga was enraged by Blank who had presented a complete list of BMB sponsorships for Iorga s ventures the two men parted ways 26 That same year Carol was forced out of the country by the political establishment but Blank continued to cultivate their relationship As reported by Argetoianu he effectively managed and often misused the Prince s bank accounts 60 This is partly backed by later historians Mihai Oprițescu notes that Blank was betting on Carol s return 115 Claudiu Secașiu also notes that Blank and Carol enjoyed a great rapport in 1927 when Blank supported him financially 116 Following the death of King Ferdinand I that same year Carol was sidestepped in the succession list and the throne went to his minor son Michael A Council of Regents oversaw matters relating to the court one of its members was Gheorghe Buzdugan who in 1929 declared having particular high esteem for Aristide Blank the banker who is a remarkable personality a man with a big heart and a philanthropist 117 Mauriciu who had withdrawn from active participation at the BMB 13 died at Vienna in November 1929 with Aristide organizing the funeral ceremony 118 Blank Jr was by then head of the BMB allegedly because Mauriciu had overestimated his son s business acumen 119 According to Argetoianu he went on to severely weaken the company with a project to destroy the National Liberals influence in high finance as well as with unwise investments such as opening a BMB subsidiary on Place Vendome 120 From 1923 the group had three additional international offices in Istanbul Vienna and New York City 22 Sitting on the BMB s steering board Argetoianu claimed to have observed the company having engaged virtually all of its available funds in investment schemes 121 Another issue hindering the bank s activities was the growing rivalry between Blank and his associate Richard de Sopkez with both engaged in drawing up capital on their respective side According to Argetoianu they each took at least 13 5 million lei in yearly stipends while also collecting dividends from companies credited by the BMB and through which Blank defrauded associates such as Ion G Duca and George II of Greece 122 A later investigation suggested that Blank had used large sums of money for graft and that his staff was engaged in accounting fraud 13 115 BMB crash and royal protection edit A September 1929 review in Revista Economică pointed out conundrums buclucuri having to do with the BMB s investments in industry It also noted Blank s spreading of rumors that the state bank for industry Creditul Industrial needed to be restructured allegations emerged that this was a deliberate attempt create market panic so that a new Creditul could then refinance Blank s own projects 123 By 1930 the BMB had defaulted after registering 1 6 million lei in deficit 124 The enterprise went bankrupt in October 1931 immediately after being exposed to the consequences of the Great Depression though Argetoianu notes the world crisis only served to obscure the effects of Blank s own managerial insanity 125 This crash sparked a national scandal after allegations that some investors had market moving information allowing them to withdraw deposits in advance Blank himself argued that withdrawals were made possible by rumors of a looming war between Romania and the Soviet Union but his explanation failed to convince the general public 13 According to Argetoianu Blank also complained that the investors walkout was facilitated by the National Bank of Romania whose Governor Costin Stoicescu was a disgruntled BMB employee He believes that this claim was credible in that Stoicescu always opposed state intervention in favor of the BMB 126 Shortly before the BMB s crash Carol returned home abruptly deposing his son and taking over as King As a result Blank made his way into the camarilla a secretive para legal circle which decided on political and financial matters 127 Also frequenting this circle Argetoianu noted that Blank was a second wave inductee into the camarilla arriving in at the same time as Tabacovici and the pimp Alexandru Mavrodi but also that during the first year of Carol s reign he became his most influential adviser to the point of ruling over Romania 128 The same memoirist further contends that Blank and Carol shared a psychological pathology namely hyperacute sexual excitement and erotomania which prevented them for going through with any project 76 He notes that Blank s vice which required him to spend large sums for the sexual favors of women who are into money and luxuries ended with him going destitute and half insane 129 Blank continued his work as a literato with the 1929 historical drama Satele lui Potemkin Potemkin s Villages which Faifer sees as echoing the theater of Luigi Pirandello 16 Showing an amorous triangle weaved into an old Romanian fresco it was in production at the National Theater Bucharest with a noted performance by George Calboreanu 130 Blank was billed as Andrei Dănescu 16 130 In 1933 Dimineața hosted Blank s political fairy tale Dialogul morților A Dialogue among the Dead 16 A doctrinaire on economic matters Blank served as a trustee of the Academy of Economic Studies 1929 1939 and also oversaw a committee for the administration of penal facilities 1930 1935 1 He continued to write newspaper articles studies and memorials on Romania s postwar situation His books include Contribuțiuni la rezolvarea crizei economice Contributions to Solving the Economic Crisis 1922 La crise economique en Roumanie The Romanian Economic Crisis 1922 Economice Economic Writings 1932 Literare Literary Writings 1932 and Problema monetară in raport cu creditul public și privat The Monetary Issue as Relates to Public and Private Credit 14 Brederode was impressed by one of Blank s articles for Le Temps describing the author as highly competent and quite respected 131 Argetoianu describes such contributions as childish inventions and theoretical jugglery noting that not even Tabacovici would read them but also that Carol was highly impressed for being entirely ignorant on financial and economic matters 132 The monarch also recognized Blank s achievements in the transportation welcoming him into Meritul Aeronautic order of chivalry 14 This induction into a military fraternity on par with that of professionals such as Vasile Rudeanu was described as especially insulting by his old enemy Moța who noted that the Jewish populace is now nested within our army like a moth inside a piece of cloth 133 As Argetoianu claims the king eventually grew aware that Blank was not fully competent but continued to seek his advice Argetoianu argues that this was because Blank had since earned the confidence of Carol s lover Magda Lupescu buying her a villa and making it so that she would befriend Tabacovici and Wieder 134 Reportedly the only camarilla businessman who could still mitigate his influence at the court was Nicolae Malaxa 135 Like Malaxa and Max Auschnitt Blank belonged to Meșterul Manole Lodge a branch of Romanian Freemasonry which was intimately involved in sponsoring cultural projects by fellow Masons 136 In 1930 however Blank gave up on his main investment in the cultural field allowing Cultura Națională to be acquired by the State Printers and Monitorul Oficial 137 An anonymous report of the period claims that this liquidation resulted in massive payoffs for all the stakeholders including Crainic and Puiu Dumitrescu 105 Two years later Blank s CIDNA was taken over by the French state and became a component of the state carrier Air France 22 Argetoianu and Blank were instrumental in helping Carol reach a settlement with his former wife Queen Helen 138 In January 1931 Argetoianu also sent Blank to approach Titulescu in St Moritz hoping to ensure his own political survival as part of a Titulescu cabinet 139 A rumor circulating at the time alleged that Titulescu owed 14 million lei to the BMB 140 The cabinet which was never sworn in was to include Blank as one of the ministers 141 In addition to endorsing Carol Blank was going public as a critic of PNȚ governments in matters of economic policy According to Grigore Gafencu he was using Adevărul and the Carlist newspaper Cuvantul to criticize attempts at contracting a new loan in France Blank and his colleagues described these as a sure path to economic enslavement 142 According to PNȚ man Ioan Hudiță Gafencu was in fact Blank s connection inside both party and government Hudiță reports several accounts according to which Blank had arranged Gafencu s wedding to an actress and that she had earlier been his mistress 143 A later article by the communist C Pavel indicates that this claim referred to Esmee Nouchette Gafencu a professional dancer 144 Camarilla clashes edit A Iorga government was instead sworn in with Argetoianu holding several ministerial portfolios Over the following months he and Blank came to clash over the issue of Romania s Alcohol Monopoly 145 Blank associated himself with the international gangster Reschnitzer to obtain a lease on that enterprise but Argetoianu reports didn t get anything out of it because I myself stood in their way emphasis in the original 146 He recalls agreeing to give Reschnitzer s consortium a pre emption right to the Monopoly thus placating Blank but also that he never actually intended to sell the company 147 The two camarilla figures were also at odds over Blank s creation of Discom a private enterprise which served as a retailer for the Tobacco Salt and Matches Monopolies Under his management this business never produced an actual profit for the state as most surpluses were drawn into covering BMB losses 148 Carol also intervened to get Discom a share from the Alcohol Monopoly as well as control over Loteria de Stat through the king s pressures the General Council of Bucharest also spent 500 million lei on acquiring Blank s allotment in Otopeni 124 In June 1931 Blank was dispatched to Berlin kicking off trade negotiations between Romania and Weimar Germany 149 By then the BMB affair had presented an opportunity for Manoilescu also a camarilla man who became Governor of the National Bank that same year Manoilescu claimed that Argetoianu s demands for a bailout were feudal in nature and could only serve to demolish whatever remained functional of Romania s industry and agriculture 1 150 According to Argetoianu Manoilescu was determined to destroy Aristide unaware that the king had issued orders to protect Blank at all cost 151 The point is underscored by Pandrea who also notes that a resentful Nae Ionescu played a part in forcing Manoilescu to push for Blank s bankruptcy 152 In that context Premier Iorga took Carol s side writing in Neamul Romanesc ro that the state had a moral duty to rescue Blank s business 153 As a BMB associate Grigore Filipescu openly asked Manoilescu to refinance Blank s enterprise Once his request was denied he publicized Manoilescu s conflict of interest and pushed for an audit Manoilescu sued him alleging forgery but failed to make his case in court 154 This parallel scandal continued to 1937 when Filipescu was able to demonstrate in front of a jury that Manoilescu despite being publicly antisemitic had been bribed by Jewish finance 155 As noted by Argetoianu Blank and Manoilescu also continued to attack each other as scoundrels and profiteers and were equally right their readers should embrace the respective half of what each one writes down 156 Among the later authors Oprițescu notes that Manoilescu was essentially right and that Argetoianu as a BMB stakeholder was try ing to profit from this situation 150 The BMB crash which brought down other banking institutions convinced Argetoianu to legislate debt relief however when it emerged that Blank and Manoilescu were acting in bad faith he made efforts not to bail out the bank itself but merely contained the effects of its failure 157 As he reports Stoicescu also played a part in this controversy He had poor Aristide grilled and spinning over burning coals 158 finally obtaining Blank s resignation and replacement with Sopkez His shares in the company were then handed in as a loan collateral to the Romanian state 159 As claimed by Argetoianu Blank continued to defraud his own bank by cashing in a check for 43 million lei which he then deposited for safekeeping with Blanche Ulman Vesnic his mother in law 160 He and Argetoianu working together collected a dossier showing Manoilescu s own history in illegal trading 161 Reassured by Carol s support Blank was ultimately victorious and as a result Manoilescu lost his camarilla privileges in November 1931 162 nbsp Blank s alleged mistress Leny Caler ro in 1934Argetoianu himself was eventually replaced after proposing that the BMB merge with other credit enterprises into a single private entity supervised by the National Bank As he reports his fall was made possible by a businessmen s coalition which included Manoilescu and even the right honorable Aristide Blank 163 the most vocal opposition came from smaller banks which were threatened with liquidation 153 In 1932 1933 the National Bank refinanced the BMB though the latter had to concede its shares in Discom this operation failed to keep the enterprise afloat and it was finally liquidated in 1936 13 According to Mourat Blank does not seem to have been seriously compromised by BMB scandals and continued to be credited by foreign investors keen on learning about the immense potential of his rich country 13 Blank also preserved his standing in literary circles He entertained and dined cultural figures including writers Scarlat Froda and Mihail Sebastian in his diaries the latter refers to Blank as a poser 164 According to Sebastian Blank and Froda had threesomes with actress Leny Caler ro 165 Sebastian also claims to have had a sexual encounter with Blank s daughter Dorina who offered herself to him 166 Return and marginalization edit As argued by Oprițescu the political dimension of the BMB crash showed that Blank was in a position to blackmail Romania s elite but also that Carol grew tired of bankers 153 If Blank slowly lost his influence at the court it was also because he no longer had enough funds left for sponsoring Carol s enrichment schemes 167 He also focused on philanthropic work and in 1933 opened up Caritas Hospital with a ceremony attended by Carol 1 By 1931 he was also involved in the project to elevate Eforie and Techirghiol into summer resorts being responsible for the introduction of potable water and electricity and constructing the first hotel and a modern road to reach it 168 A sport aficionado in 1933 Vota organized a tennis tournament at the Blank family villa in Techirghiol 169 Reportedly Blank still had leverage in February 1935 when he obtained the sacking of Finance Minister Victor Slăvescu 170 He could also communicate his views with articles in Universul daily the paradox was highlighted at the time by journalist Istvan Balint who noted that the newspaper was otherwise antisemitic 171 In preparation for Slăvescu s sacking Blank had published an op ed in Universul of January 28 detailing his own solutions to economic problems In his diaries Argetoianu referred to his contribution as intelligent though occasionally veering into utopia 172 The two were again on friendly terms since as Argetoianu argued it s better to have him on my side then against me 173 He heard Blank s interesting plan for developing tourism in Romania 174 Blank also expressed an interest in funding Haig Acterian s project to pioneer television in Romania then supported creating an Italo Romanian film company under Cines but ultimately withdrew from both 175 According to historian Grigore Traian Pop in 1934 Blank and Victor Iamandi also worked to undermine Carol s protege Auschnitt by depicting him as a sponsor of the Iron Guard Pop sees the allegation as false 176 Argetoianu noted that Blank s political agenda involved keeping a low profile but also that he was regaining his influence on Lupescu even as Wieder was losing his 177 He reports that Carol s sister Elisabeth Charlotte detested Blank and Malaxa asking her brother to remove them from his entourage Carol allegedly replied that he had a set of obligations toward Blank 178 Also according to Argetoianu Blank s intrigues also resulted in Mitiță Constantinescu s appointment as Governor of the National Bank who then proceeded to persecute investor Oskar Kaufmann Elisabeth s alleged lover 179 Constantinescu and Blank formed a clique which opposed Slăvescu s attempts to regain control of credit institutions and obtained conditional support from Premier Gheorghe Tătărescu This conflict reflected splits inside the PNL between Tătărescu and Dinu Brătianu s factions the latter of which included Slăvescu 180 At the time Argetoianu claimed to have discovered Blank s actual stake in such affairs namely that he hoped Constantinescu would allow the BMB to survive by returning it control over Discom which had remained profitable 181 Argetoianu looked back on 1935 as the worst year in Romanian history only similar to the period of Ottoman dominion over the Danubian Principalities It would still appear as the better alternative to be trampled on by the Padishah than by that Yid Aristid Blank or the alms giver Malaxa 182 As reported to Argetoianu by Elisabeth s lover Sandi Scanavi Blank was deemed public enemy number 1 by the conservative establishment with Malaxa a close second 183 In early 1936 Argetoianu claims Blank was the real master of this Romanian land but had also registered a defeat when Slăvescu returned to the National Bank leadership 184 When Kaufmann began a legal battle against journalist Alfred Hefter Argetoianu argued that the latter was being paid to calumny by Blank 185 As he noted that the bankrupt Blank has enough money on him to get Hefter moving that is after all his own business and at most something that would interest the prosecutor s office The plot thickens and the issue turns messy because Mitiță Constantinescu also gets involved into this personal conflict and that the wheeler dealer Aristid goes out of his way to also involve the King emphasis in the original 186 On the night of May 4 5 1936 an Iron Guard youth narrowly missed a chance to assassinate Blank outside Hefter s editorial offices and out of frustration physically assaulted Hefter himself in the aftermath Blank spread rumors that the attempt was a false flag operation by Kaufmann s own clique 110 A month later he and Șeicaru reacted against their rival Ionescu who had been identified as an agent of influence for Nazi Germany They presented Carol with a copy of the incriminating letter which Carlist Ion San Giorgiu allegedly took to Berlin and showed it to a number of ministers there 187 By August Blank was reportedly attempting to gather support for a strongman government that would quell Guardist agitation and proposed either Argetoianu or Alexandru Averescu for the premiership 188 In January 1937 British plenipotentiary Reginald Hoare left comments on Blank s newfound enthusiasm for regaining control of the BMB as well as on his limited competence 116 Also according to Argetoianu Vota had left Aristide and in October 1936 was living with Radu Polizu in Monaco An inveterate gambler Polizu allegedly relied on her for money 189 In June 1937 the Guardist paper Buna Vestire announced that the anti internationalist drift of European politics also manifested in the Soviet Great Purge was a bane for the social and political systems born out of conspiratorial Judaism s boorish and anti historic spirit This meant bad news for Romanian democrats including Aristide Blank s cronies 190 Blank and Auschnitt together with Filderman and Armand Călinescu had by then drafted a plan for the mass emigration of Romanian Jews to Mandatory Palestine This attempt to settle the issue was foiled by German and British opposition 191 By 1939 the National Bank had taken over the BMB s patrimony 192 Blank also lost his father s home on Dionisie Street which was bought by Eduard Mirto and then leased to the American Legation 193 Following national elections in December 1937 Carol allowed the fascist National Christian Party a successor of the LANC to form government Blank s erstwhile friend Octavian Goga took over as Premier As reported by Sebastian the passage of antisemitic legislation was played down by Blank who argued that the continuation of the Goga government was in then Jews best interest since what would come after it would be infinitely worse 194 Outcast and hostage edit Adevărul was finally banned on Goga s orders 62 195 After Carol engineered a self coup and formed the National Renaissance Front Blank made attempts to regain his standing in political life He followed Carol on his final trip to Britain in November 1938 and was registered with the royal retinue at Claridge s of London This prompted Argetoianu to comment that Carol was still unable to renounce his gang of tricksters comprising Blank Hefter and Eugen Titeanu 196 He reports meeting the all too serene Blank visiting the Wallace Collection alongside diplomat Dimitrie N Ciotori I never asked him why he was in London I don t doubt for a moment that he s here to pick up scraps from the table that s being set for King Carol 197 Blank returned to publishing with two other plays Iarna la Hangerli Winter at Hagerli s a sample of historical theater was partly taken up in Viața Romanească in 1939 Rhapsodie des dieux Gods Rhapsody which is Blank s take on the Odyssey noted by Faifer for its interxtual refinement was published entirely in 1940 16 In Romania the outbreak of World War II saw the generalization of antisemitic laws followed in 1940 the premiership of a hardliner Ion Gigurtu As reported by Sebastian news of his ascendancy struck his millionaire friends Blank and A L Zissu who were terrified and cracking up but who still pestered him with abstract conversations 198 Such radicalization was followed in September by Carol s ouster and afterward by the establishment of an Iron Guard led National Legionary State This new regime blocked all of Blank s Romanian assets in October 1940 and instituted a special commission for re litigating the BMB affair 1 In January 1941 the Guard rebelled and was ousted by military leader Ion Antonescu Before and during the clashes the Guardists intensified antisemitic terror Blank s mother was among those targeted and attempted suicide with an overdose of phenobarbital 199 The investigative commission resumed work after the events and determined that Aristide owed the Romanian state 600 million lei 1 Frequenting the left wing journalist Tudor Teodorescu Braniște in April 1941 Blank expressed confidence that Germany would lose in its war with Yugoslavia 200 Both he and his host resigned themselves by June when Blank also circulated rumors about Romania s imminent participation in the invasion of Soviet territory He still owned a paper mill which was ordered to prepare for distribution in Bessarabia 201 According to Sebastian Blank argued in late 1941 that the war would only last for two more years but was then disgusted at the British lack of seriousness in Libya 202 Blank had by then sent his son to study abroad in the United States After a while being stranded with his mother in the Portuguese Republic 203 Milenko managed to sail out of Europe he took American citizenship and returned with the United States Army 204 Blank s older son Patrice was a graduate of the ELSP 57 He remained active during the Nazi occupation and joined the French Resistance serving as organizer and publicist of the Defense de la France insurgent group 205 206 Actress Helene Duc who hid him in her home reports that Patrice hid his Romanian ancestry from his colleagues generally presenting himself as a grandson of Vladimir Lenin 55 Economist Michel Drancourt who met him later in life recounts that he was always discreet about his distant past though he sometimes reflected on the importance of his family bank in Romania 57 In 1943 Romania s Ministry of Finance sued Aristide Blank for the recovery of his assets and obtained a foreclosure of his property on Berthelot Street outside Cișmigiu 207 According to one report Blank left Romania in 1941 together with members of the British Legation 14 However Sebastian s accounts place him in Bucharest in 1942 1943 noting that his library was being seized by Romanian authorities on orders from Paul Sterian 208 In late 1942 or early 1943 Blank was included on a list of Jewish hostages presented by the Central Jewish Office as a guarantee of its loyalism toward the Antonescu regime also featured were writers Henric Streitman and Iosif Brucăr 209 In early 1943 Sebastian notes Blank was looking for some refuge in the countryside 210 He finally left Bucharest in April at the peak of Allied bombing raids and by June was living in Butimanu 211 The family s fortunes were restored in August 1944 which saw both the Liberation of Paris and the King Michael s Coup Patrice emerged from the underground to serve as the youngest member of the Provisional Consultative Assembly 205 He also served on the original editorial board of France Soir 205 57 before being expelled and sued for mismanagement in 1949 56 In 1944 Romania the Jewish community still looked up to Blank Sr believing him worthy of becoming the country s Minister of Finance 212 In January 1945 Blank whose domicile was on Ferdinand Boulevard reopened Cultura Națională as its majority stockholder His new associates on this project were Teodorescu Braniște Sebastian J A Steriadi and Alexandru Rosetti 213 From 1946 he rejoined the ranks of Romania s Freemasonry which was reemerging after years of repression this time around he became an affiliate of Lanțul de Unire Lodge under Horia Hulubei The group which also included Auschnitt Malaxa Nicolae Ciupercă Emil Ghilezan ro and Mihail Ghelmegeanu was highly selective to the point where its activities were kept secret from other Romanian Lodges 214 Blank also helped Rosetti and Ionel Jianu ro with printing an art magazine Lumină și Culoare 1 With Galaction Teodorescu Braniște Rosetti Petre Ghiață Isaia Răcăciuni ro Valentin Saxone and Ion Vinea he set up a liberal democratic club Ideea 215 In April 1946 the Court of Cassation cancelled the debt owed by Blank finding that the Antonescu regime had misruled on this issue 216 Convict and emigrant edit Blank persisted in attempting to have the BMB assets returned to him initially by cultivating National Peasantists such as Hudiță but later focusing his efforts on the more powerful Romanian Communist Party 116 As part of this approach he joined the Romanian Society for Friendship with the Soviet Union and presided over its Financial Section 116 Initially Blank obtained support from a Communist Party leader Ana Pauker who was an in law of his Adevărul colleagues In October 1945 she allowed him to access BMB funds with Blank promising that he was going to fully repay his creditors 116 However Blank also protected his family from the communist threat sending Vota to live with Milenko in the United States he visited them there in 1946 but opted to return to Romania in January 1947 116 One of his final activities at Cultura Națională was putting out the first edition of Pavel Chihaia s novel Blocada which was immediately removed from bookshops by communist censors 217 The publishing house was shut down that same year 1 Blank himself was eventually singled out for retribution after having maintained contacts with British and American diplomats 116 He witnessed the proclamation of a communist republic in 1948 by which time he had lost touch with his Western backers 116 That year the BMB was nationalized though it continued to exist as a separate entity under state management to 1951 the company s former offices a granite building on Doamnei Street were taken by Romania s new secret police the Securitate 218 Blank himself was arrested as a spy on April 18 1952 and put on trial for high treason with his meeting with foreigners and some of his papers used as evidence then sentenced to a 20 year imprisonment in May 1953 116 At the time his rival Manoilescu had also been identified as an enemy of the communist regime and was sent to the labor colony of Ocnele Mari Here he met Pandrea who recalls I made him recount the Blank bankruptcy as a way of entertaining xenophobic inmates 219 Memoirist Ion Ioanid who was held with Blank in Jilava Prison for a while in 1954 recalls that the financier was well groomed and still wearing a two piece suit According to Ioanid Blank missed his son Milenko whom he believed he would never see again but resented him for choosing a career in the army I feel like a hen that s been hatching a duck s egg 204 Children from his other marriages had stayed behind in Romania Reportedly one of his daughters Tina Stănescu had married a mayor of Buzău and was still living at Sinaia in the late 1940s shunning all relations with less assimilated Jews 220 Novelist Matei Călinescu remembers that one of Blank s former wives was living at a part nationalized villa in Floreasca in 1954 alongside her daughter Helen Blank Bogdan and two granddaughters Mab and Manola Helen s husband the lawyer Horia Bogdan was also serving a jail term 221 Blank s defense team was able to show that his conversations with foreigners were not covered by the Penal Code and that papers found in his home and used against him in his trial were actually the early drafts of a novel 116 In April 1955 his conviction for treason was overturned and commuted into a three year sentence for mishandling national secrets he had by then served the equivalent in Jilava and Pitești prisons and was consequently set free 116 Blank s health was compromised and having been made an Officer of the Legion of Honor before 1925 222 he relied on medical support from the French Embassy His visits brought him attention by Securitate operatives and he was placed under surveillance 116 Throughout the late 1950s Blank made several requests for an emigration visa to France supported in this by the French government and Zionist groups responding to Vota s appeals in 1956 a delegation of the French National Assembly visited him in Bucharest 116 Blank was also assisted by his other son Patrice 54 who returned to publishing after making and losing a fortune in the trade of precious metals 223 All of his father s applications for emigration were denied by the Romanian side until March 1958 116 when he was finally allowed to leave for Paris Aristide Blank died there on January 1 1960 his official birthday 1 54 116 Patrice reportedly married a Rothschild and lived a life of luxury 55 but continued to be active in political life Like his friend Bertrand de Jouvenel he spoke out against the French economic mainstream advocating right libertarianism this agenda was promoted by his own magazine Liaisons Sociales as well as by Commentaire journal and Saint Simon Foundation both of which he financed 224 His parallel advocacy for the United States of Europe brought him into conflict with Charles de Gaulle but also ensured support from Joseph Rovan 225 As noted by lawyer Jacques Sinard Patrice was also a promoter of common law marriage from a Europeanist and liberal perspective 226 Patrice Blank was still active in publishing into the 1990s as owner of the Liaisons group he sold it to Wolters Kluwer in 1996 205 227 He died in Paris aged 73 on October 14 1998 205 having just inaugurated a new libertarian magazine Societal 227 He enjoys a posthumous fame as a central figure in conspiracy theories about the death of Robert Boulin in October 1979 According to these Boulin was killed by his colleagues in the Rally for the Republic because he had compromising information regarding party finances Blank Jr is depicted as having absconded with Boulin s personal files just after his death was announced 228 Notes edit a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Claudiu Secașiu Biografia lui Aristide Blank I in Realitatea Evreiască Issues 520 521 1320 1321 July August 2018 p 15 Annamaria Damian Expoziția El Bucarest sefardi 500 anos de historia contados en 100 imagenes in Revista de Istorie a Evreilor din Romania Issue 2 18 2017 p 15 George Gilea Datorie de onoare pentru Mauriciu Blank in Realitatea Evreiască Issues 526 527 1326 1327 November 2018 p 25 Maschio amp Păduraru p 287 Alexandru Mirodan Dicționar neconvențional al scriitorilor evrei de limbă romană G Gaster Moses in Minimum Vol XII Issue 141 December 1998 p 53 Maschio amp Păduraru p 287 Stoica p 203 a b Zarafopol Imprumutul Blank in Furnica Vol XV Issue 27 April 1920 p 11 a b C R Y a t il un antisemitisme roumain in L Univers Israelite Vol 79 Issue 47 August 1924 p 367 a b c Romania este Antisemită in Opinia August 23 1924 p 1 Mucenic pp 339 343 a b Argetoianu 1997 p 270 Waldman amp Ciuciu pp 124 125 Maschio amp Păduraru p 291 a b c d e f g Jean Mourat Les millionaires meurent dans leur lit in Ce Soir May 1 1937 p 10 a b c d e f g h i j k l Nicolae Cajal Hary Kuller Contribuția evreilor din Romania la cultură și civilizație pp 70 71 Bucharest Editura Hasefer 2004 ISBN 978 973 630 067 7 Argetoianu 1997 pp 68 70 a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Florin Faifer Memoria scenei Aristide Blank un neințeles in Scena Vol I Issue 4 August 1998 pp 34 35 Aristide Blanc Despărțire după Feuchtersleben in Foaia Populară Issue 16 1900 p 5 Noutăți Logodnă in Tribuna Vol XII Issue 230 October 1908 p 6 Ștefania Mihăilescu Din istoria feminismului romanesc Antologie de texte 1838 1929 p 187 Iași Polirom 2002 ISBN 973 681 012 7 O căsătorie in lumea mare in Tribuna Vol XII Issue 287 January 1909 p 10 Mucenic p 344 a b c d e Waldman amp Ciuciu p 120 Ion Vianu Investigații mateine p 39 Cluj Napoca amp Iași Biblioteca Apostrof amp Polirom 2008 ISBN 978 973 9279 97 0 Șantagiul Serei in Opinia Ziar Conservator Democrat June 18 1913 p 1 Ion Rusu Abrudeanu Romania și războiul mondial contribuțiuni la studiul istoriei războiului nostru p 114 Bucharest Editura Socec 1921 a b c Țurlea p 134 a b Mucenic p 347 a b Ion G Duca Amintiri politice I pp 149 150 Munich Jon Dumitru Verlag 1981 Economice și financiare Agricultură Comerț Industrie In contra scumpirei traiului Rolul inițiativei private in Viitorul January 27 1916 p 2 Ioan Munteanu Brăila acum o sută de ani 1915 pp 256 257 Brăila Proilavia 2014 ISBN 978 606 8375 59 5 Știri 24 septembrie n 1915 in Gazeta Transilvaniei Issue 197 1915 p 3 Argetorianu p 68 Argetoianu 1997 p 68 Lapedatu amp Opriș p 151 Valentin Borda R P Magazin Călători romani in Romania Pitorească Issue 6 1983 p 23 Radu Șerban Enigmaticul Ioan Timuș indrăgostit de și in Japonia II in Vatra Veche Issue 5 2021 p 66 Argetoianu 1997 pp 68 69 Călin Hentea Avanpremieră editorială Mereu nerostita istorie a luptelor romanilor in Revista Literară Issue 2 2018 p 24 Pic Eu Octavian Goga scriu scriu scriu Dta Iuliu Maniu taci taci taci in Chemarea Tinerimei Romane Issue 12 1926 p 2 Vaida Voevod amp Maior p 291 Vaida Voevod amp Maior p 277 Lapedatu amp Opriș p 180 Charles Demailly A travers la presse L union des Roumains in Le Gaulois December 8 1918 p 3 Nicolae Petrescu Comnen Campania romanească din 1919 in Ungaria Amintiri și documente inedite in Revista Istorică Vol 3 Issues 5 6 May June 1992 p 629 a b Țurlea p 133 Țurlea p 134 See also Lapedatu amp Opriș pp 182 183 Stanciu p 567 Lapedatu amp Opriș pp 182 183 Cronicar Revista revistelor in Romania Literară Issue 20 1991 p 24 Petre Oprea Viața artistică oglindită in presa bucureșteană din anii 1919 1923 in Revista Muzeelor și Monumentelor Issue 3 1988 pp 68 69 Petre Oprea Cronicari și critici de artă in presa bucureșteană intre anii 1919 1923 in Revista Muzeelor și Monumentelor Issue 6 1987 p 56 George Călinescu Istoria literaturii romane de la origini pină in prezent p 1002 Bucharest Editura Minerva 1986 See also Vartic p 5 Ion Vianu Portrete interioare Cella Delavrancea despre George Enescu in Dilema Veche Issue 337 July August 2010 Mihaela Dumitru Margareta Miller Verghy ou un destin de femme ecrivain a la fin du XIXe siecle et dans la premiere moitie du XXe siecle PhD thesis Universite Grenoble Alpes December 2018 pp 166 168 a b c Vartic p 8 a b c Helene Duc Memoires de la Shoah Helene Duc Chap 16 Patrice Aristide Blank Satinover Institut national de l audiovisuel March 3 2006 a b Disputes et proces a France Soir in Feuille d Avis de Neuchatel February 21 1949 p 5 a b c d Drancourt p 73 Laurențiu Teodorescu Compania Franco Romană de Navigație prima linie aeriană din istorie in Viața CM Publicație a Cooperației Meșteșugărești Issue 3 2021 p 3 Derniere heure Paris Bucarest en avion in Journal des Debats October 24 1921 p 4 a b Argetoianu 1997 p 71 Silviu B Moldovan Recenzii Note de lectură Natalia Lazăr Lya Benjamin editori American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee in Romania 1916 2016 Documente in Caietele CNSAS Vol X Issue 2 2017 pp 305 306 a b c d e f g h in Romanian Florentina Tone Istorie zbuciumată in anii interbelici in Adevărul December 28 2008 a b Braniște p 18 Stoica p 198 Marghiloman p 113 Corespondență inedită Dialog de la distanță Vintilă Brătianu Radu R Rosetti in Dosarele Istoriei Issue 1 53 2001 p 23 Braniște pp 18 19 Echos et nouvelles La Roumanie a Paris in L Univers Israelite Vol 75 Issue 31 April 1920 p 106 a b Nastasă 2010 p 32 Irina Iacomi Un moment dans l histoire intellectuelle entre France et Roumanie Ecole Roumaine de Paris in Revue Roumaine d Etudes Francophones Vol 6 2014 p 127 Stanciu pp 567 568 Țurlea p 134 Stanciu pp 567 568 Țurlea pp 133 134 Lucian T Butaru Rasism romanesc Componenta rasială a discursului antisemit din Romania pană la Al Doilea Război Mondial pp 95 06 Cluj Napoca EFES 2010 ISBN 978 606 526 051 1 Argetoianu 1997 pp 226 227 Stanciu p 567 Ion Cazaban B Fundoianu și Teatrul Insula in Teatrul Azi Issues 6 8 2003 p 17 a b c d Argetoianu 1997 p 69 Cernat p 45 Moțoc passim Nastasă 2010 p 377 Pandrea p 356 Șeicaru amp Marcovici pp 319 322 Raluca Nicoleta Spiridon Tudor Arghezi in atenția structurilor de informații 1932 1946 in Caietele CNSAS Vol III Issue 1 2010 p 134 Pavel Țugui Pe marginea unei cărți Șapte decenii cu Arghezi in Steaua Vol XXXVI Issue 1 January 1985 p 43 Emanuel Conțac Tradiția biblică romanească O prezentare succintă din perspectiva principalelor versiuni romanești ale Sfintei Scripturi in Studii Teologice Issue 2 2011 p 197 Ion Arhip Documente inedite Din corespondența lui M Sadoveanu in Cronica Vol IV Issue 46 November 1969 p 8 Popescu pp 19 20 a b Aladin Adevărul Lupta și Lumina sau farsele d lui Mille in Contimporanul Vol I Issue 11 September 1922 p 13 a b in Romanian Florentina Tone Părintele ziaristicii romane moderne in Adevărul December 21 2008 a b c in Romanian Ciprian Chirvasiu Constantin Mille geniul inovator al Adeverului IV in Adevărul July 2 2013 a b Marghiloman pp 140 141 Carandino p 80 Pandrea pp 217 218 296 356 Vartic p 5 Moțoc pp 80 81 Nichifor Crainic Cronica măruntă In anul al 18 lea in Gandirea Vol XVIII Issue 1 January 1939 pp 54 55 Nastasă 2010 pp 394 395 Șeicaru amp Marcovici p 320 Constantin Daicoviciu Fouilles et recherches a Sarmizegetusa Ier Compte rendu in Revista Dacia Vol I 1924 p 224 Marian Nencescu Portrete Un jurnalist metafizic Nae Ionescu in Revista UZP Issue 19 2020 p 51 Pandrea pp 217 218 356 Șeicaru amp Marcovici pp 320 322 Pandrea pp 217 218 Șeicaru amp Marcovici pp 321 322 356 Șeicaru amp Marcovici pp 321 322 Argetoianu 1998 p 18 Nastasă 2011 p 175 Carandino pp 79 81 Pop pp 42 43 Pop p 42 a b Oprițescu et al p 39 Roumanie Troubles antisemites in Journal des Debats April 6 1924 p 2 Roumanie Troubles antisemites in L Univers Israelite Vol 79 Issue 31 April 1924 p 742 Nastasă 2011 pp 122 123 Stanciu pp 566 568 Magda Stavinschi Chipuri uitate Constantin Banu in Magazin Istoric February 2012 p 21 a b Argetoianu 1998 p 303 Ornea pp 245 392 402 459 465 Căsătoria regelui finanței romanești Cine a participat la recepție in Romania Intregită Issue 5 1925 p 13 Argetoianu 1997 p 130 Dans le monde Naissances in Journal des Debats June 10 1926 p 3 a b Oprițescu et al p 38 a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Claudiu Secașiu Biografia lui Aristide Blank II in Realitatea Evreiască Issues 522 523 1322 1323 September 2018 p 15 Roumanian Statesmen and Leaders Declare Their Views on Current Jewish Question in the Jewish Daily Bulletin June 19 1929 p 1 Mucenic p 348 Argetoianu 1997 pp 70 71 270 Argetoianu 1997 pp 70 71 Argetoianu 1997 pp 269 270 Argetoianu 1997 pp 270 272 Remizier Situația in Revista Economică Vol XXXI Issue 39 September 1929 pp 341 342 a b Florin Mihai Tunurile Suveranului in Jurnalul Național August 8 2008 Argetoianu 1997 pp 70 268 Argetoianu 1997 pp 272 273 Argetoianu 1997 pp 67sqq Oprițescu et al p 38 Ornea pp 17 265 Argetoianu 1997 pp 67 71 72 Argetoianu 1997 pp 69 70 a b Henri Blazian Mișcarea teatrală Satele lui Potemkin de Andrei Dănescu la Teatrul Național in Dreptatea October 27 1929 p 2 Stoica p 228 Argetoianu 1997 pp 69 71 Ion I Moța Decorarea lui Aristide Blank cu o mare decorație militară sic Semnul vremurilor in Libertatea Issue 20 1931 p 1 Argetoianu 1997 pp 71 72 Argetoianu 1997 p 73 Nastasă 2010 p 231 amp 2011 p 477 Waldman amp Ciuciu p 120 See also Oprițescu et al p 39 Argetoianu 1997 pp 123 124 Argetoianu 1997 pp 130 133 142 173 198 201 Potra p 389 Argetoianu 1997 p 166 in Romanian Daniel Apostol Marea Criză din 1929 1933 in presa romanească a vremii Statul cheltuiește banul public in dezmăț in Historia June 2010 Potra pp 185 201 208 C Pavel Eroii selecționați ai inscenărilor imperialiste in Contemporanul Issue 7 1952 p 6 Argetoianu 1997 pp 262 264 276 277 437 Argetoianu 1997 p 262 Argetoianu 1997 pp 276 277 Argetoianu 1997 pp 274 276 Famous Roumanian Jewish Banker Aristide Blanc Representing Roumanian Government in Berlin in Daily News Bulletin Issued by the Jewish Telegraphic Agency June 15 1931 p 6 a b Oprițescu et al pp 38 40 Argetoianu 1997 pp 300 305 311 Pandrea p 356 a b c Oprițescu et al p 40 Popescu p 36 Crax Două achitări cu talc resunător in Romanul Organ al Partidului Național Țărănesc din Județul Arad Issue 1 1937 p 2 Argetoianu 1997 p 269 Argetoianu 1997 pp 273 274 282 284 286 290 232 325 326 amp 1998 p 11 Argetoianu 1997 p 292 Argetoianu 1997 pp 292 293 298 313 314 316 326 Argetoianu 1997 pp 298 Argetoianu 1997 pp 326 327 Argetoianu 1997 pp 328 335 Ornea p 265 Argetoianu 1997 pp 297 298 Sebastian pp 12 13 Sebastian p 98 Sebastian pp 23 27 268 Argetoianu 1997 p 361 O nouă stațiune balneară inUniversul July 2 1931 p 5 Serbările dela Techirghiol Eforie in Realitatea Ilustrată Vol VII Issue 347 September 1933 p 13 Argetoianu 1998 pp 10 12 234 303 Iulian Oncescu Andrei Tudorache Victor Slăvescu ministru de finanțe 1934 1935 in Analele Universității din Craiova Seria Istorie Vol XVII Issue 1 2012 p 114 Istvan Balint Kulturkronika A mai roman napilapok in Korunk Vol 9 Issue 9 September 1934 pp 632 633 Argetoianu 1998 p 10 Argetoianu 1998 p 11 Argetoianu 1998 p 22 Cernat pp 45 47 Pop p 43 Argetoianu 1998 pp 22 42 120 197 200 269 Argetoianu 1998 p 198 Argetoianu 1998 pp 130 197 198 Argetoianu 1998 pp 205 206 233 235 238 Argetoianu 1998 pp 234 235 269 Argetoianu 1998 p 200 Argetoianu 2003 pp 300 301 Argetoianu 1998 pp 238 259 Argetoianu 1998 pp 301 303 327 328 337 338 Argetoianu 1998 p 301 Sebastian p 56 Argetoianu 1998 p 432 Argetoianu 2003 p 283 Nicolae Bogdan Consecințe inevitabile in Buna Vestire June 25 1937 p 1 Teodor Wexler Dr Wilhelm Filderman in Revista Istorică Vol 5 Issues 3 4 March April 1994 pp 360 361 Waldman amp Ciuciu p 125 Argetoianu 2003 p 67 Waldman amp Ciuciu pp 135 Sebastian p 144 Ornea pp 392 402 Argetoianu 2002 p 204 Argetoianu 2002 p 207 Sebastian p 293 Arthur Meiersohn Din zilele rebeliunii legionare Ianuarie 1941 in Minimum Vol VI Issue 59 February 1992 pp 43 44 Sebastian pp 342 357 358 Sebastian p 369 Sebastian pp 369 446 456 Iulia Stănescu Eugen Stănescu Corespondență Martha Bibescu in patrimoniul Muzeului de Istorie și Arheologie din Ploiești in Revista Muzeelor și Monumentelor Issues 6 7 1990 p 42 a b Ion Ioanid Toate drumurile duc la Jilava in Inchisoarea noastră cea de toate zilele Vol II 1954 1957 e book version n p Bucharest Humanitas 2013 ISBN 978 973 50 4275 2 a b c d e Patrice Aristide Blank in Le Monde October 17 1998 Marie Granet Defense de la France in Revue d Histoire de la Deuxieme Guerre Mondiale Vol 8 Issue 30 April 1958 pp 33 57 Georges Guitton Les 33 jours rennais de Defense de la France in Place Publique July August 2014 pp 119 128 Anunțuri judiciare in Monitorul Oficial July 20 1943 p 4989 Sebastian pp 505 521 522 548 Mihaela Gligor Note in procesul de epurare a filosofului Iosif Brucăr pp 100 101 Cluj Napoca Presa Universitară Clujeană 2018 ISBN 978 606 37 0460 4 Sebastian p 558 Sebastian pp 590 598 13 S Al Bacher către Theodor Lavi Toronto 3 mai 1983 in Mihaela Gligor Miriam Caloianu eds Teodor Lavi in corespondență p 54 Cluj Napoca Presa Universitară Clujeană 2014 ISBN 978 973 595 737 7 Anunțuri comerciale in Monitorul Oficial January 12 1945 p 156 Diana Mandache Masoni sub judecata comunistă Grupul Bellu p 89 Bucharest Editura Corint 2019 ISBN 978 606 793 699 5 Ion Cristofor Memoriile lui Valentin Saxone in Tribuna Issue 58 2005 pp 5 6 Judiciare Portofaliul putred al băncilor particulare e preluat in anul 1939 de către Stat in Argus April 13 1946 p 3 in Romanian Gheorghe Grigurcu Destinul unui rezistent Pavel Chihaia in Romania Literară Issue 41 2001 Waldman amp Ciuciu pp 120 135 Pandrea p 144 Emil Simiu Anii de ucenicie in Apostrof Vol XXII Issue 11 2011 p 18 Matei Călinescu Ion Vianu Amintiri in dialog Memorii p 221 Iași Polirom 2005 ISBN 973 681 832 2 Fiancailles in Le Temps February 25 1925 p 4 Drancourt p 74 Drancourt passim Drancourt pp 73 74 Declarations des candidats in Le Bulletin du Barreau de Paris November 2003 p 23 a b Drancourt p 76 in French Dans les coulisses d une affaire d Etat l affaire Boulin France Inter April 19 2007 Benoit Collombat Guerre des droites Affaire Boulin suicide ou assassinat l ombre de Jacques Chirac dans les deux cas Atlantico January 30 2013 Francois Guillaume Lorrain Affaire Boulin du nouveau in Le Point January 24 2013References editConstantin Argetoianu Memorii Pentru cei de maine amintiri din vremea celor de ieri Vol IX Part VIII 1930 1931 Bucharest Editura Machiavelli 1997 Insemnări zilnice Volumul I 2 februarie 1935 31 decembrie 1936 Bucharest Editura Machiavelli 1998 Insemnări zilnice Volumul V 1 iulie 31 decembrie 1938 Bucharest Editura Machiavelli 2002 Insemnări zilnice Volumul VII 1 iulie 22 noiembrie 1939 Addenda 17 23 decembrie 1936 Bucharest Editura Machiavelli 2003 Valeriu Braniște Intrigi in Magazin Istoric September 1973 pp 16 19 31 32 Nicolae Carandino De la o zi la alta Bucharest Cartea Romanească 1979 Manuela Cernat Destine frante Frații Haig Arșavir și Jeni Acterian in Studii și Cercetări de Istoria Artei Teatru Muzică Cinematografie Vol 12 2018 pp 29 54 Michel Drancourt Societal avant Societal in Societal Issue 54 2006 pp 73 76 Alexandru Lapedatu Ioan Opriș Amintiri Cluj Napoca Editura Albastră amp Fundația Academia Civică 2015 Alexandru Marghiloman Note politice Vol V 1920 1924 Bucharest Editura Institutului de Arte Grafice Eminescu 1927 Romeo Maschio Marius Păduraru Mauriciu Blank 1848 1929 Un bancher piteștean pe nedrept uitat in Argesis Studii și Comunicări Seria Istorie Vol XVIII 2009 pp 287 293 Radu Moțoc Editura Cultura Națională in Confluențe Bibliologice Issues 1 2 2017 pp 68 86 Cezara Mucenic Cavoul Mauriciu Blank in București Materiale de Istorie și Muzeografie Vol XXX 2016 pp 339 363 Lucian Nastasă Intimitatea amfiteatrelor Ipostaze din viața privată a universitarilor literari 1864 1948 Cluj Napoca Editura Limes 2010 ISBN 978 973 726 469 5 Antisemitismul universitar in Romania 1919 1939 Cluj Napoca Editura Institutului pentru Studierea Problemelor Minorităților Naționale 2011 ISBN 978 6 06 927445 3 Mihai Oprițescu et al 1931 Seism bancar de proporții Afacerea Marmorosch Blank with annexes in Dosarele Istoriei Issue 10 38 1999 pp 38 40 Z Ornea Anii treizeci Extrema dreaptă romanească Bucharest Editura Fundației Culturale Romane 1995 ISBN 973 9155 43 X Petre Pandrea Memoriile mandarinului valah Jurnal I 1954 1956 Bucharest Editura Vremea 2011 ISBN 978 973 645 440 0 Grigore Traian Pop Democrația e pusă in slujba marii finanțe naționale sau internaționale jidovești Bancherii in bătaia puștii legionare in Dosarele Istoriei Issue 10 38 1999 pp 41 43 Andrei Popescu Grigore N Filipescu 1886 1938 Repere biografice in Analele Universității din București Seria Științe Politice Vol 14 Issue 2 2012 pp 17 46 George Potra Pro și contra Titulescu Vol II Bucharest Fundația Europeană Titulescu 2012 ISBN 978 606 8091 16 7 Mihail Sebastian Journal 1935 1944 Chicago Ivan R Dee amp United States Holocaust Memorial Museum 2000 ISBN 1 56663 326 5 Pamfil Șeicaru Otto Eduard Marcovici Corespondența Pamfil Șeicaru Otto Eduard Marcovici in Mihaela Gligor Miriam Caloianu eds Intelectuali evrei și presa exilului romanesc pp 231 341 Cluj Napoca Presa Universitară Clujeană 2014 ISBN 978 973 595 738 4 Lucian Radu Stanciu Implicațiile unei aniversări Nicolae Iorga la 60 de ani in Revista Romană de Sociologie Vol XVII Issues 5 6 2006 pp 559 574 Alina Stoica Relații diplomatice romano portugheze 1919 1933 Martinho de Brederode ambasador la București Oradea University of Oradea 2011 ISBN 978 606 10 0384 6 Petre Țurlea Din nou despre poziția Partidului Naționalist Democrat față de evrei in Vasile Ciobanu Sorin Radu eds Partide politice și minorități naționale din Romania in secolul XX Vol IV pp 131 143 Sibiu TechnoMedia 2009 ISBN 978 606 8030 53 1 Alexandru Vaida Voevod Liviu Maior Alexandru Vaida Voevod intre Belvedere și Versailles insemnări memorii scrisori Cluj Napoca Editura Sincron 1993 ISBN 973 95714 1 7 Ion Vartic Caragiale după Caragiale Povestea urmașilor in Apostrof Vol XXVII Issue 12 2016 pp 4 11 Felicia Waldman Anca Ciuciu Istorii și imagini din Bucureștiul Evreiesc Bucharest Noi Media Print 2011 ISBN 978 606 572 000 8 Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Aristide Blank amp oldid 1181387986, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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