Zyklon B Wealth

Nazi Heiress Joins Gaza “Peace Flotilla”

Marlene Engelhorn, descendant of Zyklon B manufacturer, says she’s fighting “genocide and apartheid” - this time in the name of Gaza.

Oded Nir

AUG 5, 2025 11:04

2 min read

Marlene Engelhorn, a wealthy Austrian-German heiress and left-wing activist, is currently en route to Gaza aboard a self-styled “peace flotilla.” Her stated goal: to protest “genocide, apartheid, and illegal occupation” by Israel and call for a “free Palestine.”

But Engelhorn’s name - and legacy - carry a heavy historical weight.

She is the great-great-granddaughter of Friedrich Engelhorn, founder of the German chemical giant BASF. During the Holocaust, BASF was part of the IG Farben conglomerate, which manufactured Zyklon B, the lethal gas used by the Nazis to murder over a million Jews and other victims in Auschwitz and other extermination camps.

The Engelhorn family reportedly held control of the company and its assets for decades - only selling the chemical business in the mid-1990s. In recent years, Marlene inherited tens of millions of euros in family wealth, which she has often described as “unjustly inherited.”

“My wealth was accumulated long before I was born, off the labor of others,” she told Austrian media in 2022.

Historical Irony? Or Historical Blindness?

Now, with her legacy in tow, Engelhorn has declared herself a champion of justice in Gaza, joining a flotilla organized to challenge Israel’s blockade, in coordination with pro-Palestinian and far-left European groups.

In a public statement, she said:

“I am against genocide, apartheid, and illegal occupation. I stand for a free Palestine.”

Critics across Jewish and Israeli circles are calling the move historically tone-deaf, if not offensive.

“How does someone whose family profited from actual genocide now brand Israel - the Jewish state - with the very same terms used to describe Nazi crimes?” asked one Israeli historian.

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