George de Mohrenschildt - Early Life

Early Life

George de Mohrenschildt was born in Mozyr in Tsarist Russia, near the border of Poland (his birthdate was April 4 in the old style Russian Julian calendar). His wealthy father, Sergius Alexander von Mohrenschildt was arrested by the Bolsheviks shortly after the Russian Revolution for anti-Communist activities. Sergius was sentenced to life in exile in Siberia, but managed to escape with his family to Poland during the 1920s. George graduated from a Polish military academy in 1931, and received the equivalent of a doctor of science in international commerce from the University of Liège in Belgium in 1938.

George de Mohrenschildt immigrated to the United States in May 1938. Upon his arrival, British intelligence reportedly told the U.S. government that they suspected he was working for German intelligence. By some accounts, he was under FBI surveillance for a time. De Mohrenschildt was hired by the Shumaker company in New York City, which also employed a man named Pierre Fraiss who had connections with French intelligence. According to de Mohrenschildt, he and Fraiss, among their other duties, gathered information about people involved in "pro-German" activities, such as those bidding for U.S. oil leases on behalf of Germany before the U.S. became involved in World War II. De Mohrenschildt testified that the purpose of their data-collection was to help the French out-bid the Germans.

De Mohrenschildt spent the summer of 1938 with his older brother Dimitri von Mohrenschildt on Long Island, New York. Dimitri was a staunch anti-Communist and member of the OSS and one of the founders of the CIA's Radio Free Europe and Amcomlib (a.k.a., Radio Liberty) stations. His contacts included top officials of the CIA. (Dimitri died at the age of 100 in 2002.)

While in New York, de Mohrenschildt became acquainted with the Bouvier family, including young Jackie, future wife of John F. Kennedy. Jackie grew up calling de Mohrenschildt "Uncle George" and would sit on his knee. He became a close friend of Jackie's aunt Edith Bouvier Beale.

De Mohrenschildt dabbled in the insurance business from 1939 to 1941, but failed to pass his broker's examination. In 1941, he became associated with Film Facts in New York, a production company owned by his cousin Baron Maydell who was said to have pro-Nazi sympathies. (De Mohrenschildt denied any Nazi sympathies of his own, claiming he helped raise money for the Polish resistance.) De Mohrenschildt made a documentary film about resistance fighters in Poland. However, when the United States entered World War II, his application to join the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) was rejected. According to a memo by former CIA director Richard Helms, de Mohrenschildt "was alleged to be a Nazi espionage agent."

De Mohrenschildt received a master's degree in petroleum geology from the University of Texas in 1945.