The King of Oil: The Secret Lives of Marc Rich

were fed meat from goats kept in an enclosure on deck. The freighter may have been cramped, uncomfortable, dirty, and reeking of oil, but it nevertheless saved the Reich family from the Nazi gas chambers. A photo from that time shows little Marcell in shorts and sandals standing next to his parents and looking exceptionally happy. His mother, wearing a headscarf and smiling shyly into the camera, is standing in the middle. His father is wearing glasses, a white shirt, and white shorts. A man is seen hugging a crying child in the background. Almost all of the ship’s passengers were destitute Jews.
    The
Monviso
, however, did not get very far. It had just crossed the Straits of Gibraltar and started heading south when it was stopped off the Moroccan coast near Casablanca. Officials refused to let the ship continue and detained the refugees. Marc Rich and his family were initially held for a few days on the freighter before being interned in a refugee camp in Azemour, south of Casablanca. Their dream of finding a new life in Australia, far away and safe from the Nazis, abruptly fell apart.
    Three months went by, and then four. The longer they were interned in the camp, the less likely it was that the Rich family would be set free.It was a traumatic experience for Marc to be held prisoner, guarded by grim policemen. He could sense his father’s helplessness.
    The family was finally saved by three skills possessed by Marc’s father. David could speak German, Yiddish, and French, which made him a sought-after translator in the camp. His down-to-earth, determined approach won the trust of his fellow internees, who elected him as their representative. Most important, this position enabled him to make contacts among the Moroccan authorities, who accepted him as an intermediary. He consequently managed to achieve a freedom of movement that he would not otherwise have enjoyed as an internee. He was allowed to travel to Casablanca regularly in order to negotiate with officials and was finally permitted to contact his sister, who had moved to the USA some years before. She worked for a Christian organization, which granted her access to U.S. Secretary of State Cordell Hull in Washington.
    This contact turned out to be the Reich family’s ticket to freedom. The sister managed to obtain visas permitting her brother and his family to enter the United States. Instead of traveling to Australia as planned, the Reich family was unexpectedly allowed to go to America, a country that had strictly limited immigration when it passed the 1924 Immigration Act. Instead of traveling below decks on an oily freighter, the family was now booked on a regular passenger ship. The SS
Serpa Pinto
was “nice and comfortable,” recalls Marc Rich.
“We Lost Everything, but We Survived”
     
    One spring day in 1941, months before Pearl Harbor, the American entry into the war, and the Babi Yar massacre, a small Jewish boy from Antwerp stood at the railing of an oceangoing steamship. 7 He looked at the Statue of Liberty and the skyline of New York in excitement. He had never seen a skyscraper before and could not speak a single word of English. A twist of fate had ensured that Marcell David Reich was allowed to enter the United States. There were two reasons for his survival: first, an accumulation of what were in themselves unfortunate events, andsecond, the foresight and skill of his father. “We lost everything,” says Marc Rich, “but we survived.” It was the greatest success—certainly the most important one—of David Reich’s life. At the time, it was the very definition of success for European Jews: survival. Only one in ten Jews survived the persecution in Galicia, where the Reich family once lived. If David Reich had not moved first from Przemyl to Frankfurt, then on to Antwerp, before fleeing to Marseille, his chances of survival would have been slim. As it turned out, the Reichs were now lucky survivors in the Promised Land.
    Marcell Reich, alias Marc Rich, would always retain the mentality of a survivor and refugee; he would always be “different.” His determination to succeed is rooted in this mentality, as well as his feelings of uprootedness. This determination is further strengthened by his experience as a Jew living in the Diaspora, as well as by the fact that he was an only child. Research has revealed that only children score significantly better in achievement motivation and personal adjustment than siblings. 8
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