Varian Fry was a Harvard educated loner in the summer of 1940 when he left for France on a covert mission to extract about 200 artists, scientists and other intellectuals who were trapped in Nazi occupied France. The span of about a year he helped to secure the escapes of more than 2000 civilian and military personnel. Here is a recent article from World War 2 magazine which talks about this little known but fascinating fellow. http://www.historynet.com/varian-fry-the-american-schindler.htm
Great post! I'm so glad his story has been told at last and so sad that he was never acknowledged in his own lifetime. Perhaps his own country may honour him one day.
I'm delighted you posted this! A fascinating tale of a most heroic man. His story should be far better known. One underlying issue of the story is the complete indifference of British and American authorities to his work - until it suited them.
Let's not forget this fellow either. Let’s not overlook this fellow either, Hiram Bingham IV, the son of the archaeologist who found Machu Picchu. Goto: http://www.ct.gov/sots/cwp/view.asp?a=3188&q=392620 Which contains this section; "…It is impossible to determine the exact number, but during his relatively brief service in Marseilles, Hiram Bingham was directly or indirectly responsible for saving the lives of perhaps 2000 or more people. Some were or would become famous -- Leon Feuchtwanger, Franz Werfel, Alma Mahler Werfel, Heinrich and Golo Mann, son and brother of Thomas Mann, Max Ernst, Marc Chagall, Andre Breton, Andre Masson, Nobel Laureate Otto Meyerhof, Konrad Heiden, Hannah Arendt, and others. Many more were ordinary human beings fleeing tyranny. Harry's saving work would end in the summer of 1941, when he was relieved of his post and transferred first to Lisbon and later to Argentina. His career in the diplomatic service ended in 1945." "Although family members knew some of the details, the whole story would remain obscured until his youngest son Bill discovered a tightly wrapped bundle of letters, documents, and photographs in a cupboard behind a chimney in the family home." Eventhough they came from different colleges, Harvard and Yale, without Bingham it is certain that Varian Fry would have been less effective. The Varian Fry Institute recommended that Bingham be named an "honorable gentile" by Israel.
the Papal Nuncio Roncalli who was stationed in Istanbul, before he became Pope John XXIII. He too aided many Jewish refugees in their escape into British controlled Palestine before and during the war years. See: http://www.raoulwallenberg.net/?en/roncalli/conference/759/conference-baruch-tenembaum.1265.htm Which contains this section; "Historian Hebblethwaite says that on 5 September 1940 Monsignor Roncalli granted an audience to a group of Polish Jewish refugees. They told him about what was going on in occupied Poland. Soon afterwards Roncalli helped the group to get to the Holy Land. ("An exchange of blessings, Pope John XXIII and the Jews", Common Ground, 1993). Christian Feldman, author of the book "Pope John XXIII" also points out: "As he resided in the neutral Turkey, Roncalli could do more than others for the Jews who were being deported from country to country. In September 1940 a group of refugees from the Warsaw ghetto brought him the first information about the concentration camps and the massacres carried out by the Einsatzgruppen. More and more persecuted men and women wanted to get to Palestine through the Balkans, where the British forces many times blocked their way". "Monsignor Roncalli humanitarian actions, carried out from Istanbul, allowed many of those Jewish refugees to reach Palestine without being detained by the British authorities." And this; "Another brave initiative taken by Nuncio Roncalli that helped save the lives of Jewish refugees persecuted by Nazism was the granting of convenience (No estoy seguro que "convenience" sea la expresion correcta en este contexto....no seria "fake"??) birth certificates, which were sent from the Nunciature in Istanbul to Archbishop Angelo Rotta in Budapest." "The convenience birth certificates were issued in blank and distributed among the Catholic priests to be filled with information of Jewish people persecuted by Nazism. It was understood that the documents would be used to save the lives of the bearers of those certificates, people who once the war was over could decide whether they will keep or not their new religious condition or wanted to return to the Jewish faith." "The American delegate of the government Ira Hirschman, head of the "War Refugee Board" in Istanbul tells us in the book "Caution to the winds" a conversation kept with Nuncio Roncalli about the saving of Hungarian Jews by means of the granting of convenience birth certificates to the refugees. Hirschman's story confirms for certain that the initiative was carried out by the Vatican delegate to try to save Jewish lives."
Enjoyed the link, and a wonderful story on Varian Fry.... have you read Surrender on Demand?? Enjoyed your thread David all the best, Jem
William Hurt did a great job portraying Varian Fry: Varian's War (2001) (TV) Although made for TV it was pretty spot on. Some of the people he rescued were such greats as Marc Chagall and Andre Masson
