Paul Soros (Hungarian: Soros Pál; born Pál Schwartz; June 5, 1926 – June 15, 2013) was a Hungarian-born American mechanical engineer, inventor, businessman and philanthropist. Soros founded Soros Associates, which designs and develops bulk handling and port facilities. Soros Associates currently operates in ninety-one countries worldwide, as of 2013. Paul Soros, often called "the invisible Soros", was the older brother of George Soros, a businessman and financier.
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Early life
Soros was born Pál Schwartz on June 5, 1926, in Budapest, Hungary, to Tivadar Schwartz, a lawyer and author, and Erzsébet Szűcs, the daughter of the owner of a fabric store. His father had been captured by the Russians during World War I and held in a detention camp in Siberia. Soros was also a native speaker of Esperanto, a constructed language.
Tivadar Soros changed the family's surname from Schwartz to Soros in 1936 to escape antisemitism and the expansion of Nazism in Europe. Tivadar Soros forged paperwork, giving the family alias as the Germans occupied Hungary in 1944. The family fled to safe houses for nearly a year, until Soviet forces invaded the country. However, the Soviets mistakenly believed that Paul Soros was a wanted SS officer and arrested him. He was marched east, towards the Soviet Union with other prisoners. He managed to escape the prisoner march by ducking behind a bridge and hiding in an abandoned farm house. He then walked back to Budapest.