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Austrian heiress Marlene Engelhorn, whose family fortune is tied to one of the most infamous industrial collaborators of the Nazi regime, is set to join a pro-Hamas flotilla aiming to breach Israel’s naval blockade of Gaza.
Engelhorn, who inherited more than $27 million from her grandmother in 2021, announced her planned participation via Instagram, framing the mission as an effort to “end this genocide.”
She is a descendant of the BASF industrial dynasty, which merged in the 1920s with IG Farben — one of the Nazi regime’s most notorious corporate collaborators. IG Farben played a direct role in the Holocaust, manufacturing Zyklon B, the gas used in the murder of millions of Jews at Nazi extermination camps such as Auschwitz.
While Engelhorn has acknowledged in a recent post that her family profited from the Nazi regime, she attempted to distance herself from the company’s production of Zyklon B.
Her statements come as she embraces pro-Hamas propaganda that whitewashes terrorism, demonizes Israel, and denies the atrocities committed by the terror group. On social media, she has accused Israel of “genocide,” “apartheid,” and “illegal occupation,” and voiced support for a “free Palestine,” a term often used as a euphemism for the destruction of Israel.
In a post by the Austria branch of the “Global Movement to Gaza,” organizers confirmed Engelhorn’s upcoming participation aboard the Handala, a ship that is expected to attempt another breach of Israel’s security blockade of the Gaza Strip.
“We are excited to announce that Marlene Engelhorn will be aboard and stand on the right side of history,” the caption read.
A previous attempt by the Handala, dubbed a “Freedom Flotilla to Gaza,” was intercepted by the Israeli Navy on July 26 while it approached Israeli territorial waters. According to the IDF and Israeli Foreign Ministry, the vessel was headed toward Israeli shores and was lawfully intercepted under international maritime law.
By joining a flotilla aligned with Hamas, Engelhorn isn’t reckoning with her family’s Nazi-linked past — she’s extending it. 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.
