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- Max Carol Auschnitt, also known as Ausschnitt, Auschnit or Aușnit (February 14, 1888 – January 18, 1957), was a Romanian businessman and political figure, one of his country's most prominent industrialists during the interwar period. Born to Ukrainian Jewish immigrants, he spent much of his youth abroad, returning in the 1910s to set up business as an importer of sheet iron, greatly expanding his father's fortune after World War I. Auschnitt was caretaker, and from 1929 managing director, of the Iron Domains and Factory (UDR) of Reșița, as well as founder of Titan-Nădrag-Călan (TNC), regional partner of Vickers-Armstrongs, and investor in many other fields. Primarily known as the "iron king" of Greater Romania, he had a business connection, and later a consuming rivalry, with manufacturer Nicolae Malaxa. The two were associate owners of Creditanstalt, which established their presence in Europe. First elected to the Senate as an independent corporate member, Auschnitt turned to partisan politics as a financial backer of the National Peasants' Party; he had enduring collaborations with Virgil Madgearu and Dem I. Dobrescu. In tandem, he joined a camarilla formed around King Carol II, constantly bribing him and his mistress, Elena Lupescu. Such behavior drew negative attention to his businesses, particularly since Auschnitt used his political connections to secure Romanian state contracts, on which his fortune largely rested. His alleged corruption, along with his ethnicity and his publicized anti-fascism, made him a target for verbal and physical attacks by the far-right movements, in particular the Iron Guard. Auschnitt attempted to diffuse this threat by paying public tributes to Romanian nationalism and, more discreetly, by sponsoring the Guardist network. His 1935 marriage to 's daughter, and his conversion to Roman Catholicism, elicited additional controversy. Auschnitt found himself at odds with Carol after a string of matrimonial, economic, and geopolitical disputes. Marginalized by the passage of racial laws in 1937, he was further maligned when Carol's National Renaissance Front pursued a rapprochement with Nazi Germany. He was arrested shortly after the start of World War II, and imprisoned following a show trial. In the process, he lost his UDR shares, which went to Malaxa and Albert Göring, and then his citizenship. Carol himself fell from power in 1940, with Ion Antonescu replacing him as dictator. Despite being antisemitic, this new regime bargained over TNC shares, and finally cleared Auschnitt of all charges in 1942. Once freed, he turned to sponsoring opposition groups, and was also involved in helping fellow Jews to escape the Holocaust. He had a minor role in plotting the anti-fascist coup of 1944, though he himself had to flee Romania before the event, and was sentenced to death in absentia. Returning to assist the Allied Commission, he was slowly pushed back into exile by signs that the Romanian Communist Party was establishing a new dictatorship. The new communist regime again withdrew Auschnitt's citizenship, before pronouncing him guilty of treason. This charge referred to Auschnitt's involvement with anti-communist resistance groups, including his allegedly financing 's Iron Guard cells. Stripped of his Romanian properties, Auschnitt relaunched himself as an entrepreneur in the plastics industry, and obtained American citizenship. His final political activities were as a sponsor of the Romanian National Committee, which split into pro-Auschnitt and pro-Malaxa factions, respectively led by Constantin Vișoianu and Nicolae Rădescu. (en)
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- Max Carol Auschnitt, also known as Ausschnitt, Auschnit or Aușnit (February 14, 1888 – January 18, 1957), was a Romanian businessman and political figure, one of his country's most prominent industrialists during the interwar period. Born to Ukrainian Jewish immigrants, he spent much of his youth abroad, returning in the 1910s to set up business as an importer of sheet iron, greatly expanding his father's fortune after World War I. Auschnitt was caretaker, and from 1929 managing director, of the Iron Domains and Factory (UDR) of Reșița, as well as founder of Titan-Nădrag-Călan (TNC), regional partner of Vickers-Armstrongs, and investor in many other fields. Primarily known as the "iron king" of Greater Romania, he had a business connection, and later a consuming rivalry, with manufacturer (en)
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