Posted on 04/30/2013 12:45:25 AM PDT by lowbridge
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 at the New Montefiore Jewish Cemetery in West Babylon, N.Y., was attended by a small number of mourners, most of them elderly fellow survivors or children of survivors.
Much about Mr. Blum’s life was shrouded in mystery: He always claimed he was from Warsaw, although many who knew him said he actually came from Chelm, in southeast Poland. Several people close to Mr. Blum said that before World War II, in Poland, he had a wife and child who perished in the Holocaust, though Mr. Blum seems never to have talked of them, and the International Tracing Service in Bad Arolsen, Germany, has no record of them in its database. Even his birth date is in question. Records here give it as Sept. 16, 1914; identity cards from a German displaced persons camp have it as Sept. 15.
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.
“He was a very smart man but he died like an idiot,” said Paul Skurka, a fellow Holocaust survivor who befriended Mr. Blum after doing carpentry work for him in the 1970s.
(Excerpt) Read more at finance.yahoo.com ...
My will reads only: “Being of sound mind and body, I spent it all while I was still alive.”
Was he a member/supporter of any organizations or regular contributor to any charities?
Uncle Roman?!?!
This is too funny - there are a whole series of Polish Jewish stories about the people of Chelm and how ridiculously stupid they are.
What a sad life of self interest.
Could it be that the people he cared about were all dead. And, through his experience, he knew he could not take it with him?
So, lets watch the animals fight over it.
Strikes me as a possibility - 97 years is long enough that if he had no children - that everyone he knew of is gone.
I don’t know what I would do if my brothers, and family were already passed.
Only two animals: the state and the Federal Government.
There will be some bureaucrat (obama buddy) appointed to oversee the estate. It will be largely stolen.
OMG!!! I’ve been searching for him my entire life.
Daaaaad!!!!!
Big deal, so the government gets 100% instead of just 50%
Anything my wife and I have left will go to a bunch of cats.
I would just leave a note, “piss on all you lazy scums looking for a free handout”.
But then again I might just send out a couple of agents on a yearly salary looking for deserving candidates that were conservative, honest hard working and unfairly in debt to corrupted liberal social programs.
No muslims, no liberals or gun grabbers.
Oh yeah I would die with a grin on my face knowing I did the right thing, oh and I would fund a mega center and staff to search out Obamas past such as all his fraudulent history, and find what is the CORRECT documents.
> There will be some bureaucrat (obama buddy) appointed to oversee the estate. It will be largely stolen
“largely stolen”. You meant to just say stolen didn’t you?
Well, yes, but I was also guessing that the part the government as an entity that will steal some of it via taxes will be overshadowed by the theft of the funds by the bureaucrat for his/her person use.....different things but same overall outcome.
What is funny is that nowadays some people may just find a purpose or reason to search for real integrity, honesty and a willingness to be real people, not the socialized utopia members who voted for odumbo.
And maybe it has already occurred, someone has a stipulation to leave their fortunes to those that qualified strictly through internet forums, yeah its a reach, not my thing personally, if I got an email from someone saying they were giving me $97 million it would head straight to the spam box.
But times are interesting and changing.
Translation: He didn't leave me a single penny.
Soon as odumbo hears about this, the “Chief Thief” will have the money confiscated for the “good of the order”.
He could have, at the least, rewarded those who were kind to him.
Self centered.
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