He Left a Fortune, to No One

[chrisinhouston]

I read this obituary the other day and I found it intriging. This guy survived the Holocaust, emigrated here, became successful and from the sound of it in his final years became more and more alone. In the end only a few even came to his funeral, yet he left a vast fortune and it doesn't seem like he had any family, even distant relatives. He could have left it all to a charity or a trust or endowment that would live on. Instead it will go to the state if no one can claim it. Wish I was related, I could use the cash!

It reminded me of a quotation attributed to the Prophet Muhammad: "When he dies, people will say, 'What property has he left behind him?' But the angels will ask, 'What good deeds has he sent before him?'


He Left a Fortune, to No One

When Roman Blum died last year at age 97, his body lingered in the Staten Island University Hospital morgue for four days, until a rabbi at the hospital was able to track down his lawyer.

Mr. Blum, a Holocaust survivor and real estate developer, left behind no heirs and no surviving family members — his former wife died in 1992 and the couple was childless. His funeral, held graveside in West Babylon, N.Y., was attended by a small number of mourners, most of them elderly fellow survivors or children of survivors. But perhaps the greatest mystery surrounding Mr. Blum is why a successful developer, who built hundreds of houses around Staten Island and left behind an estate valued at almost $40 million, would die without a will. That is no small matter, as his is the largest unclaimed estate in New York State history, according to the state comptroller’s office.

Much of what is known about his life comes from a circle of fellow Holocaust survivors who met in displaced persons camps after the war. They said that when war broke out, Mr. Blum was in Poland and, fearing capture, ran alone across the border to Russia, where he was briefly detained and placed in prison. The Russians soon released him along with thousands of other prisoners to fight the Nazis. He eventually married, although by all accounts it was not a love match. In 1949, the Blums came to New York and settled in Forest Hills, in Queens. There, they joined a tightknit community of survivors, many of whom they knew from the Zeilsheim camp. “They all lived the same type of lifestyle, going to the Catskills, everything was done as a group,” said Jack Shnay, a child of survivors who grew up in Forest Hills with the Blums. “Every weekend was a party,” said Charles Goldgrub, the child of survivors and Mr. Blum’s godson, who also grew up in Queens. “They had survived Hitler so they thought they would live forever.” On weekends, the survivors would often gather to play high-stakes poker and drink plum brandy. Many of the men started businesses together, the majority becoming homebuilders and hotel developers. They referred to themselves as griners, a Yiddish term meaning greenhorn or newcomer. “They were known as the griner builders,” said Robert Fishler, a Staten Island real estate lawyer who represented Mr. Blum for nearly three decades. The men also had affairs. “There were lots of women on the side,” Mr. Goldgrub said. “It was a way of life, everyone knew — the wives just closed their eyes to it.” By many accounts, Mr. Blum often had female companions other than his wife. “It was really more like growing up in the Italian mob than your typical Jewish upbringing,” Mr. Goldgrub said.

The Blums struggled to start a family. Mrs. Blum told her friends that she was unable to have children, and the couple spent thousands of dollars on doctors’ visits. According to stories that swirled around the couple, Mrs. Blum had been a subject of the dreaded Dr. Josef Mengele while at Auschwitz, and his experiments had rendered her infertile. Then, in 1964, the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge opened, linking Brooklyn and Staten Island, and many in the group, including Mr. Blum, began buying land on Staten Island. Prices were low, and Mr. Blum began developing land and building homes in neighborhoods like Eltingville, Huguenot and Manor Heights. “Everybody knew Roman. He built hundreds of homes over the years,” Bruno Betro, a broker at Volpe Realty, said. “Last time I tried to sell a piece of property for him, I’d give him an offer and he’d tell me he wanted $1 million more.”

By the 1980s, with his business thriving, Mr. Blum decided to relocate to Staten Island. He built a large brick house in the upscale neighborhood of Southeast Annadale, with four bedrooms and five bathrooms, a two-car garage and a pool. The Blums eventually divorced, and Mr. Blum lived the life of a bachelor. There were women and lots of poolside parties. “Every Sunday we would swim in the pool, drink and eat — he’d like to make steaks this thick on the grill,” said his friend, holding his fingers five inches apart. As for the group back in Queens, the divorce caused a rift and many distanced themselves from Mr. Blum.

As the years went by, Mr. Blum became increasingly stingy and, according to those who knew him, paranoid that people were after his fortune. He hid $40,000 in the ceiling of his bathroom, according to Mr. Daino, and when it went missing, Mr. Blum accused another neighbor of stealing it. “He told him, ‘Give me back $30,000 and I’ll let you keep $10,000,’ ” said Mr. Daino. Months before he died, Mr. Blum fell down the stairs of his home and broke his leg, lying on the floor for four hours before a cleaning woman found him, according to Mr. Daino. It was Mr. Daino who took him to the hospital and who eventually signed him out. “He had no one else, I was the only person he had,” Mr. Daino said. The leg never fully healed, and Mr. Blum, who remained at home in a hospital bed with 24-hour care, died in early January 2012.

After the hospital rabbi found his body in the morgue, he notified Mr. Fishler, the lawyer, who then notified Mr. Blum’s old friends from Queens. To the surprise of many, Mr. Blum had bought a cemetery plot next to his former wife’s. He was buried there. None of Mr. Blum’s friends know why he never wrote a will. Those close to him say it may have been superstition or, after coming so close to dying during the war, a refusal to contemplate his own mortality. He may also have been unwilling to share the full details of his estate with a lawyer, the desire for secrecy a holdover from his experiences during the war.

Yet despite a worldwide search that included Poland and Israel, Mr. Gotlin said, “to date, there is no evidence of any living relatives.”

Mr. Gotlin continues to work on liquidating Mr. Blum’s estate. According to people familiar with his accounts, Mr. Blum had about $4 million in cash in his checking account. His house was put on the market for $729,000 and is now in contract, and an eight-acre parcel he owned on Forest Avenue, worth about $4.5 million, is also in contract. A safe deposit box had more than 70 $100 bills, coins from Canada and South Africa, and gold jewelry including a watch, a bracelet, cuff links, several necklaces and a ring. Mr. Blum’s few remaining personal items, including photographs and a book on the Holocaust, have been put in a box in the basement of the public administrator, where they will remain sealed unless claimed by a blood relative.

Once Mr. Gotlin completes liquidating the assets, and if investigators fail to find a will or surviving kin, whatever money is remaining from Mr. Blum’s estate will be passed to the city’s Department of Finance. If, after three years, no one comes forward, the money would go to the state comptroller’s office of unclaimed funds, which has $12 billion in its accounts dating to 1943. That office keeps a portion of the estate and transfers a portion to the state’s general fund. If an heir comes forward, the entire amount is returned.

[xoxoxoBruce]

I've noticed as friends/relatives die off, from their forties to nineties, the number of mourners drop significantly, having outlived their peers.

I'm sure a lot of people will get emails saying if they put cash up front, the sender can secure a piece of the estate for them.

I wonder who determines how much Mr. Gotlin gets, to act as quasi- executer of the estate.

Someone should have sent Mr Blum this link, Get Your Shit Together.

[IamSam]

What a strange and sad story. You'd think Mr. Blum would at least leave a bequest to the Holocaust memorial or a scholarship fund for children and grandchildren of those who survived the camps or even start up a foundation for stray cats in need of rescue.

It's like the guy figured the entire world would just cease to exist when he did. I inagine that when you go through something as horrible and evil as the Holocaust and lost everyone you cared about, your emotional world might indeed cease to exist long before your body does.

[Clodfobble]

I'm sorry, but a Jewish guy named Goldgrub? That's just racist.


I can certainly believe that paranoia kept him from writing a will. There are many older Jewish folks, even ones who weren't imprisoned themselves, who to this day will not sign the guest registries at Jewish weddings. Because apparently that's one way the Nazis tracked down many of them in the beginning: detain one person, then look through their wedding memorabilia for the names of all their friends and relatives.

[ZenGum]

I wouldn't really say he "survived" the holocaust, as much as avoided it.

He survived WWII despite being a Jewish Pole in the Russian army, though, so he certainly survived some heavy shit.

[xoxoxoBruce]

And Russian prison.