Bielski, Stanislaus J., Prince, 1908-1979

Prince Stanislaus J. Bielski was born in 1908 in Bielsk, Poland, the son of Jan-Edward and Maria Bielski. He was, by his account, a Prince of one of Poland's pre-war noble families, and had inherited great wealth from his father.

In 1939, Bielski married Jeannine de Guiroye, a French citizen, in London, England. The following year, as World War II intensified in Europe, his wife convinced Bielski to transfer his fortune to the care of her mother, who was living in Cuba. Guiroye flew to Cuba to complete the financial arrangements, while Bielski flew to New York City, New York to stay with friends. She did not return to her husband, and by 1942, had obtained a divorce and remarried.

What followed was an almost forty-year battle undertaken by Bielski to recover the fortune he had given into his wife's care. Occasionally serving as scandalous fodder for the European press, the lawsuit progressed through the French courts until the early 1970s, by which point a largely destitute Bielski was surviving by living with friends in New York, Arizona, and Las Vegas, Nevada. Bielski died in 1979, presumably without a final resolution to a lifetime of effort to restore his estate and reputation.