Heiress to Holocaust gas fortune funds far-left and anti-Israel activism

Austrian heiress Marlene Engelhorn, whose family fortune is connected to the production of the Zyklon B gas used in Nazi death camps, has channeled €25 million ($27 million) – some 90% of her wealth – to nearly a hundred left-wing organizations fueling social unrest across Europe and beyond. And her involvement in a pro-Palestinian flotilla has won her accusations of anti-Semitism. 

Engelhorn, 33, inherited the tax-free sum in 2021 from her family’s stake in BASF, the chemical giant founded in 1865 by her great-great-grandfather, Friedrich Engelhorn. While inherited wealth can at times impart a sense of “liberal guilt,” Engelhorn, who TIME Magazine dubbed a “trailblazer,” takes this stereotype to an entirely new level. What began as a campaign for wealth redistribution has evolved into support for activist groups staging protests in the European Union (EU), including anti-globalization demonstrations. 

In September 2025, she flew to Sicily to board the Global Sumud Flotilla, a convoy of more than 50 vessels from 44 countries aiming to breach Israel’s Gaza blockade. She withdrew days later, citing her own “white privilege” as a barrier to effective solidarity. 

Her motivations, articulated in media interviews, center on atonement for inherited inequality and opposition to what she calls Israel’s “genocide” in Gaza. The irony wasn’t missed by her detractors. Sky News contributor and communications executive Gemma Tognini argued that people like Marlene, “don’t actually care what their reputation may or may not be amongst the general public” and that their claims of humanitarianism are “completely performative.”

The distribution of Engelhorn’s philanthropy emerged after her failed appeal to the Austrian government to tax her inheritance at 90%. Austria does not impose an inheritance tax on its citizens, and refused Engelhorn’s request. Ultimately, Engelhorn went on to co-found TaxMeNow, which, as you may have guessed, lobbies for inheritance taxes and higher taxes overall on the wealthy. 

But prior to that, she needed a way to reallocate her wealth.

Enter: Guter Rat

Engelhorn decided that the fate of her fortune should rest with a panel of 50 randomly selected Austrians—dubbed the “Good Council” or “Guter Rat.” The panel consisted of 50 people ranging in age from 16 to 85, and focused on wealth distribution, taxation, social inequality, and progressive advocacy. Ultimately, 77 recipients received donations to support poverty reduction, women’s rights, integration, and housing initiatives. 

Among the recipients were explicitly left-leaning entities such as ATTAC Austria, an affiliate of the international anti-globalization network known for organizing mass protests against economic summits and corporate power. ATTAC is linked to disruptive actions in EU capitals, including blockades during the 2023 G7 summit in Germany that led to arrests and public disorder. 

Similarly, the Momentum Institut, a Vienna-based progressive think tank, received funds; it advocates for wealth taxes and has influenced EU policy debates on inequality, often aligning with street-level activism.

Other grantees include groups supporting “climate justice,” migrants’ rights, and others such as COMÚ, a Barcelona-based collective tied to the Catalan independence movement that promotes pro-Palestinian activism and protests. 

There are indirect ties to U.S. activism. The aforementioned ATTAC also supported the 2019 climate strikes, contributing to widespread disruptions from Berlin to New York. And there is Engelhorn’s membership in Millionaires for Humanity, a coalition that includes American figures such as Abigail Disney and Valerie Rockefeller. 

Millionaires for Humanity is aligned with Patriotic Millionaires, a Washington, D.C.-based group lobbying for progressive taxation. Patriotic Millionaires has amplified calls for wealth redistribution in the U.S. and participated in the anti-Trump NoKings protests. Millionaires for Humanity is also aligned with the pro-Palestinian movement through its partners. 

Engelhorn’s latest advocacy stunt occurred in September, when she announced her participation in one of the recent “freedom flotillas.” Formally known as the Global Sumud Flotilla, it is organized by the Freedom Flotilla Coalition, a multinational effort with U.S. affiliates such as US Boat to Gaza. Departing from Catania, Sicily, on September 4, the flotilla carried 800 participants from 44 nations, including Americans, aiming to deliver 300 tons of aid while protesting Israel’s naval blockade. 

The blockade has been used since 2007 to curb weapons smuggling by Hamas. 

In an Instagram post, Engelhorn declared: “I decided to join the flotilla because I wanted to support the effort to end this genocide,” echoing accusations of genocide often perpetuated by the left against Israel. 

The flotilla’s backers include EU-based groups with histories of anti-Israel activism, such as the European Coordination of Committees and Associations for Palestine (ECCP), which has lobbied for BDS (Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions) measures in Brussels and coordinated with U.S. chapters, leading to divestment votes at Ivy League schools.

Where the money came from

The roots of Engelhorn’s family fortune intertwine with her controversies. BASF merged into IG Farben in 1925, the conglomerate that manufactured Zyklon B, the cyanide gas used in Auschwitz and other death camps. That corporate conglomerate also forcibly appropriated Jewish-owned competitors, exploited Jewish slave labor, and aided in the extermination of more than a million Jews. Post-war, BASF reformed, and Engelhorn’s grandmother, Traudl Engelhorn-Vechiatto, sold related assets to Roche for billions. 

Engelhorn has acknowledged this legacy, but deflects away any moral imperative to support Jewish Israelis in another hour of their need. She made an Instagram post that attempted to justify her decision to join the freedom flotilla and deflect criticism by stating that her family, “didn’t invent Zyklon B, but they profited from it.” Engelhorn then claimed she was a victim of Israeli “propaganda.”

The Combat Antisemitism Movement (CAM) noted in an August 2025 statement that Engelhorn’s flotilla stunt enables modern antisemitism.

“By joining a flotilla aligned with Hamas, Engelhorn isn’t reckoning with her family’s Nazi-linked past — she’s extending it,” CAM noted. “The descendant of industrialists who profited from the Holocaust is now lending her privilege to a campaign that demonizes the Jewish state and amplifies the propaganda of those who openly call for its eradication. To accuse Israel of genocide while promoting a terror group that glorifies the mass murder of Jews is not just a moral failure — it’s a desecration of Holocaust memory and a continuation of the very hatred her family once helped industrialize.”

Engelhorn hasn’t expressed an interest in helping Israeli victims of the October 7 attacks, the worst pogrom of Jews since the Holocaust.

Israeli Holocaust survivor Bilha Haim, whose own grandson was among the kidnapped and murdered in Gaza, called out Engelhorn’s hypocrisy in the Telegraph:

“I’m a woman of peace. I oppose the war, I oppose starvation, but after seeing the images of the hostages [starved by Hamas], I can no longer stay silent […]  I tried not to look at the photo of Eyvatar David [the emaciated Israeli hostage filmed digging his own grave], it’s too painful. It brings back memories of my own childhood. I had a respiratory attack after seeing those images – they look like Holocaust survivors.”

If she [Engelhorn] wants to meet me I will talk to her. I want to ask her what does she see when she looks at me?”

Englehorn has remained silent on the atrocities of October 7, its Jewish victims, rising Jew-hatred, and most notably, her role in victim-blaming. At a time of rising antisemitism in the US and the EU, Engelhorn’s anti-Israel activism exemplifies how elite guilt manifests in support for causes that harm Jewish communities.

Source: https://capitalresearch.org/article/heiress-to-holocaust-gas-fortune-funds-far-left-and-anti-israel-activism/