Aristide Blank

Biography

Early life

Born in Bucharest on the first day of 1883 (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, and was distantly related to linguist Moses Gaster. 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. 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. 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". As reported in 1924 by L'Univers Israélite, he was fully assimilated, "Jewish only in origin"; the same year, Opinia newspaper assessed 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". In the early 1910s, the junior banker reportedly endorsed Radu D. Rosetti's movement in support of cremation.

Around 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 fledgling Romanian Kingdom. 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". She was contrarily described by her Rabbi, Jacob Itzhak Niemirower, as "pious" in her Judaism, "a symbol of the Hebrew concept of life [as] both festive and holy." One of Aristide's sisters was married off to another financier, Adalbert Csillag, who would experience complete bankruptcy. Another sister, Margot, married industrialist Herman Spayer, whose residence on Batiștei Street was briefly used by the BMB. The family finally received Romanian citizenship in 1883, 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." Aristide received an elite education, and was possessed of an artistic sensibility; however, Argetoianu portrays him as "highly intelligent [but] lacking a serious culture", his main attributes being ambition, jealousy, and eventually paranoia. He became a published poet in his teenage years. In 1899 Foaia Populară put out his debut poem, Bătrâna; 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. Blank took a graduation diploma from the University of Bucharest Faculty of Law and Philosophy. His first career from 1904 was as a lawyer affiliated with the bar association of Bucharest.

World War I

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. In the winter of 1914–1915, he was sent to the United Kingdom by Ion I. C. Brătianu's PNL government, in order to secure a loan for the state, establishing neutral Romania's closer ties to the Triple Entente. He and George Danielopolu also formed a two-man delegation to the United States, reaching New York City in early December 1914. 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; Porumbaru was consequently forced to resign. 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); his ideas on this topic inspired banking clerks to set up a consumers' co-operative. 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. 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. 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.

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. 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. 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. 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, asking him to act as an informant on Japanese cultural norms, and "therefore of use to our country". Blank himself lived for a while in the Shanghai International Settlement. As recalled by fellow expatriate businessman Gheorghe Pallade, he was engaged in currency speculation, and paraded through the French Concession in an automobile decked in Romanian tricolors. According to this report, Blank, who still wore his officer's uniform, was "terribly enraged" when a Chinese Jew sent him a gift of matzah, seemingly because it exposed his ethnic heritage.

Social rise

At some point before 1919, Blank consolidated his art collection by purchasing most of Nicolae Grigorescu's paintings in the Alexandru Vlahuță collection. He took painter Jean Alexandru Steriadi as his adviser, and finnced his wife Nora's ceramist workshop. Around 1920, he sparked controversy with his wholesale purchase of canvasses by Adam Bățatu and Sabin Popp, "without even looking over the paintings." 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. After a long courtship, 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. Their marriage ended in divorce. By then, Blank had fathered a son, Patrice-Aristide, reportedly born "Aristide Blank Satinover" or "Tuchner Satinover" to a French mother.

Following the establishment of Greater Romania, Aristide and Mauriciu sold BMB to a rival firm, but continued to hold controlling shares between them. 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. 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. Theirs was the first airline to offer a direct Paris–Bucharest flight, with an extension to Istanbul; the route was inaugurated by Albert Louis Deullin, with a landing at Pipera Airport in October 1921. According to Argetoianu, Blank also involved himself in setting up the Romanian Air Club, because doing so would bring him closer to Carol, himself an aviation enthusiast.

Blank had remained involved in debates related to postwar recovery of Romania, and of Europe at large. Before 1922, he authored an essay on Soviet Russia's New Economic Policy, which was hosted by John Maynard Keynes in the Manchester Guardian. It was read by Karl Polanyi, the Hungarian exile economist, who argued that, though an "excellent professional", Blank had greatly exaggerated the hurdles faced by Russia. Polanyi also criticized some of Blank's proposals (including the division of Russian territory as trade zones, and the creation of "huge warehouses" of foreign goods) as more like the science fiction of Jules Verne than scholarly proposal. In 1921, Blank had founded the BMB's General Building Society, which managed construction firms in Bucharest and Câmpina. 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.

Adevărul and literary circle

In addition to being a gifted orator, Blank still had literary pretensions. In 1922, he sponsored Armand Pascal and Benjamin Fondane's theater troupe, Insula. He himself debuted as a pseudonymous dramatist in Paris and Bucharest. According to Argetoianu, his work in the field was merely "idiotic", though Blank was admitted to the Romanian Dramatists' Society in 1930. 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. 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. In 1920, Blank had also funded a literary club called Societatea Filarmonică. 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; Arghezi would later complain that the banker had tried to humiliate him by forcing publishers not to engage with him. 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.

Blank had by then decided to begin direct investments in the publishing industry. By 1929, the BMB had acquired, and Blank himself was managing, four out of all six paper mills operating in Romania—respectively located at Câmpulung Moldovenesc, Petrești-Sebeș, Piatra Neamț, and Scăeni. During the preceding decade, he had 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 and offered lucrative employment to intellectuals such as Dimitrie Gusti and Vasile Pârvan. 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." Though Blank paid for the Viața Românească editorial office, 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. 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.

Far-right attacks and Regency intrigues

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. 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.

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. 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). 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. 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, having allegedly been "pulled by the hair [...] and trampled upon." The assailants were put on trial, but acquitted.

A note in L'Univers Israélite claimed that the incident was in fact orchestrated by government, while Argetoianu believes that students in general genuinely detested Blank. 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. 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. The Iron Guard, founded by Codreanu after his split with the LANC, put up Blank and Constantinescu's names on an enemies' list which also included Constantin Banu, Wilhelm Filderman, and Gheorghe Gh. Mârzescu. As reported by Argetoianu, Blank held the top position on that list, and was effectively marked for death. The Guard, along with other far-right groups, also singled out Adevărul and Dimineața as propaganda for anti-Romanian concepts.

BMB crash and royal protection

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. By 1930, the BMB had defaulted after registering 1.6 million lei in deficit. 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". 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. 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.

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. 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". 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. 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".

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. 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. Blank was billed as "Andrei Dănescu". In 1933, Dimineața hosted Blank's "political fairy tale", Dialogul morților ("A Dialogue among the Dead"). 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). 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"). Brederode was impressed by one of Blank's articles for Le Temps, describing the author as "highly competent and quite respected". 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." The monarch also recognized Blank's achievements in the transportation, welcoming him into Meritul Aeronautic order of chivalry. 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".

Camarilla clashes

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. 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). 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. 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 guidance, this business never produced an actual profit for the state, as most surpluses were drawn into covering BMB losses. The company was led by Aristide's nephew, Béla Blank-Csillag, who had squandered his own fortune while financing intrigues against the Greek Republic. Carol 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.

From early 1931, Blank allowed his "fantastically decorated palace" on Dionisie Street, Bucharest, to be used by the Romanian state for housing its more pretentious foreign guests—immediately after, it was a temporary home to Henri Deterding of the Royal Dutch/Shell, who was prospecting the local petroleum industry. In June of that year, Blank himself was dispatched to Berlin, kicking off trade negotiations between Romania and Weimar Germany. 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. According to Argetoianu, Manoilescu was "determined to destroy Aristide", unaware that the king had issued orders to protect Blank at all cost. 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.

In that context, Premier Iorga took Carol's side, writing in Neamul Românesc that the state had a moral duty to rescue Blank's business. 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. 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. 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". 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".

Return and marginalization

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". 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. He also focused on philanthropic work, and, in 1933, opened up Caritas Hospital with a ceremony attended by Carol. 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. He left the architectural planning to George Matei Cantacuzino, who envisaged the entire town as a Streamline Moderne project. A sport aficionado, in 1933 Vota organized a tennis tournament at the Blanks' own villa in Techirghiol. In June 1932, Elena Blank, who was Aristide's daughter from one of his earlier marriages, married judge Horia Bogdan.

Reportedly, Blank still had leverage in February 1935, when he obtained the sacking of Finance Minister Victor Slăvescu. 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. A Transylvanian magazine, Ellenőr, commented on Blank's return an economic expert, seeing it as an insolent act: "our press and above all those in charge should teach Aristid Blank a lesson, namely that he has no authority to produce statements on public finances. If Mr Aristid Blank had not so carefully demarcated his huge private wealth from his bank house, which is also his property but operates on a separate joint stock company basis, and had not also been living with the splendor of an Oriental maharaja, he would have paid back those millions". 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." The two were again on friendly terms, since, as Argetoianu argued, "it's better to have him on my side then against me." He heard Blank's "interesting plan" for developing tourism in Romania. 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.

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. 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. 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. 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. 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).

Outcast and hostage

Adevărul was finally banned on Goga's orders. 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. 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". 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.

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." In late August, the Gigurtu cabinet corrected a slip-up by previous antisemites, removing Blank from the Bucharest bar—though he was no longer practicing law, in any form. 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. General Ion Antonescu, who supervised the Guard as Conducător, also ordered Discom to be broken up. Official reports presented Discom as "a business venture of the Jew Aristide Blanc and of some politicians, most notably Const[antin] Argetoianu", also recounting that it had defrauded the state to the tune of "many a million." In January 1941, the Guard rebelled and was ousted by Antonescu. Before and during the clashes, the Guardists intensified antisemitic terror. A female member of the family, whom doctor Arthur Meiersohn identifies as Aristide's mother, was among those targeted, and attempted suicide with an overdose of phenobarbital.

The investigative commission resumed work after the events, and determined that Aristide owed the Romanian state 600 million lei. Frequenting the left-wing journalist Tudor Teodorescu-Braniște in April 1941, Blank expressed confidence that Germany would lose in its war with Yugoslavia. 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. 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." 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, Milenko managed to sail out of Europe; he took American citizenship and returned with the United States Army. Blank's older son, Patrice, was a graduate of the ELSP. 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. Actress Hélène Duc, who sheltered him in her home, reports that Patrice hid his Romanian ancestry from his colleagues, generally presenting himself as a grandson of Vladimir Lenin. 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".

Convict and emigrant

From 1946, Blank 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 and Mihail Ghelmegeanu, was highly selective, to the point where its activities were kept secret from other Romanian Lodges. Blank also helped Rosetti and Ionel Jianu with printing an art magazine, Lumină și Culoare. With Galaction, Teodorescu-Braniște, Rosetti, Petre Ghiață, Isaia Răcăciuni, Valentin Saxone, and Ion Vinea, he set up a liberal-democratic club, Ideea. In April 1946, the Court of Cassation cancelled the debt owed by Blank, finding that the Antonescu regime had misruled on this issue.

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 PCR. As part of this approach, he joined the Romanian Society for Friendship with the Soviet Union and presided over its Financial Section. 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. 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. In May 1946, he had been elected into the Romanian Writers' Society, as part of a mass induction that also included Jianu, Pandrea, Răcăciuni, Marcel Breslașu, Sorana Gurian, Lucrețiu Pătrășcanu, Eugen Relgis, Mihail Sevastos, Eugen Schileru, Ștefan Tita, and Constant Tonegaru. In September 1947, he was included on a provisional commission supervising the Romanian publishers' association—where he was again colleagues with Rosetti, but also with Eusebiu Camilar, Petre Năvodaru, and Cicerone Theodorescu. In reviewing this decision, the left-wing paper Viața Sindicală noted that all those serving on the body were "guarantees that the issue of publishing houses and the healthy purpose of books will be steered along the justest path".

One of Blank's 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. The publishing house was shut down that same year. Blank himself was eventually singled out for retribution after having maintained contacts with British and American diplomats. He witnessed the proclamation of a communist republic in 1948, by which time he had lost touch with his Western backers. 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. 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. 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".

Posterity

Patrice Blank reportedly married a Rothschild and lived a life of luxury, but continued to be active in politics. 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. His parallel advocacy for the United States of Europe brought him into conflict with Charles de Gaulle, but also ensured support from Joseph Rovan. As noted by lawyer Jacques Sinard, Patrice was also a promoter of common-law marriage from a Europeanist and liberal perspective. He was still active in publishing into the 1990s, as owner of the Liaisons group; he sold it to Wolters Kluwer in 1996.

Aristide's son died in Paris, aged 73, on October 14, 1998, having just inaugurated a new libertarian magazine, Sociétal. 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.