Varian Mackey Fry (October 15, 1907 – September 13, 1967) was an American journalist. Fry ran a rescue network in

Vichy France Vichy France (french: Régime de Vichy; 10 July 1940 – 9 August 1944), officially the French State ('), was the fascist French state headed by Marshal Philippe Pétain during World War II. Officially independent, but with half of its ter ...

that helped approximately 2,000 to 4,000

anti-Nazi Anti-fascism is a political movement in opposition to fascist ideologies, groups and individuals. Beginning in European countries in the 1920s, it was at its most significant shortly before and during World War II, where the Axis powers were ...

and

Jew Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""Th ...

ish refugees to escape

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...

and the

Holocaust The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; a ...

. He was the first of five Americans to be recognized as "

Righteous Among the Nations Righteous Among the Nations ( he, חֲסִידֵי אֻמּוֹת הָעוֹלָם, ; "righteous (plural) of the world's nations") is an honorific used by the State of Israel to describe non-Jews who risked their lives during the Holocaust to sav ...

", an

honorific An honorific is a title that conveys esteem, courtesy, or respect for position or rank when used in addressing or referring to a person. Sometimes, the term "honorific" is used in a more specific sense to refer to an honorary academic title. It ...

given by the State of Israel to non-Jews who risked their lives to save Jews during the Holocaust.

Early life

Fry was born in New York City. His parents were Lillian (Mackey) and Arthur Fry, a manager of the Wall Street firm Carlysle and Mellick. The family moved to

Ridgewood, New Jersey Ridgewood is a village in Bergen County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, its population was 24,958,World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, at 9 years of age, Fry and friends conducted a fund-raising bazaar for the

American Red Cross The American Red Cross (ARC), also known as the American National Red Cross, is a non-profit humanitarian organization that provides emergency assistance, disaster relief, and disaster preparedness education in the United States. It is the desi ...

that included a vaudeville show, an ice cream stand and fish pond. He was educated at

Hotchkiss School The Hotchkiss School is a coeducational University-preparatory school#North America, preparatory school in Lakeville, Connecticut, United States. Hotchkiss is a member of the Eight Schools Association and Ten Schools Admissions Organization. It i ...

from 1922 to 1924, when he left the school due to hazing rituals. He then attended the

Riverdale Country School Riverdale Country School is a co-educational, independent, college-preparatory day school in New York City serving pre-kindergarten through twelfth grade. It is located on two campuses covering more than in the Riverdale section of the Bronx, N ...

, graduating in 1926."Ridgewood Son: Varian Fry (1907-1967)."
''Ridgewood Library''. Retrieved: March 25, 2016. An able, multi-lingual student, Fry scored in the top 10% on the entrance exams to

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

and, while a Harvard undergraduate, founded ''

Hound & Horn ''Hound & Horn'', originally subtitled "a Harvard Miscellany", was a literary quarterly founded by Harvard undergrads Lincoln Kirstein and Varian Fry in . At the time, the college's literary magazine '' The Harvard Advocate'' did not accept their ...

'', an influential literary quarterly, in 1927 with

Lincoln Kirstein Lincoln Edward Kirstein (May 4, 1907 – January 5, 1996) was an American writer, impresario, art connoisseur, philanthropist, and cultural figure in New York City, noted especially as co-founder of the New York City Ballet. He developed and sus ...

. He was suspended for a prank just before graduation and had to repeat his senior year.Gewen, Barry
"For the American Schindler, writers and artists first."
''Literature of the Holocaust'', August 6, 2004. Retrieved: March 25, 2016Marin
1999, pp. 19-20.
/ref> Through Kirstein's sister, Mina, he met his future wife, Eileen Avery Hughes, an editor of ''

Atlantic Monthly ''The Atlantic'' is an American magazine and multi-platform publisher. It features articles in the fields of politics, foreign affairs, business and the economy, culture and the arts, technology, and science. It was founded in 1857 in Boston, ...

'', who was seven years his senior and had been educated at

Roedean School Roedean School is an independent day and boarding school founded in 1885 in Roedean Village on the outskirts of Brighton, East Sussex, England, and governed by Royal Charter. It is for girls aged 11 to 18. The campus is situated near the Sus ...

and

Oxford University Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

. They married on June 2, 1931.

Journalist

While working as a

foreign correspondent A correspondent or on-the-scene reporter is usually a journalist or commentator for a magazine, or an agent who contributes reports to a newspaper, or radio or television news, or another type of company, from a remote, often distant, locati ...

for the American journal ''The Living Age'', Fry visited

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...

in 1935, and personally witnessed

Nazi Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in ...

abuse against Jews on more than one occasion, which "turned him into an ardent anti-Nazi". He said in 1945, "I could not remain idle as long as I had any chances at all of saving even a few of its intended victims." Following his visit to Berlin, Fry wrote about the savage treatment of Jews by Hitler's regime in ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' in 1935. He wrote books about foreign affairs for Headline Books, owned by the Foreign Policy Association, including ''The Peace that Failed.'' It describes the troubled political climate following

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, the break-up of

Czechoslovakia , rue, Чеськословеньско, , yi, טשעכאסלאוואקיי, , common_name = Czechoslovakia , life_span = 1918–19391945–1992 , p1 = Austria-Hungary , image_p1 ...

and the events leading up to

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

Emergency Rescue Committee

Gedenktafel für Varian Fry (1907-1967), Varian-Fry-Straße (Berlin)

Greatly disturbed by what he saw, Fry helped raise money to support

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

an anti-Nazi movements. Shortly after the

invasion of France France has been invaded on numerous occasions, by foreign powers or rival French governments; there have also been unimplemented invasion plans. * the 1746 War of the Austrian Succession, Austria-Italian forces supported by the British navy attemp ...

in June 1940, which the Germans quickly occupied, Fry and his friends formed the Emergency Rescue Committee (ERC), with support of First Lady

Eleanor Roosevelt Anna Eleanor Roosevelt () (October 11, 1884November 7, 1962) was an American political figure, diplomat, and activist. She was the first lady of the United States from 1933 to 1945, during her husband President Franklin D. Roosevelt's four ...

and others. By August 1940, Fry was in

Marseille Marseille ( , , ; also spelled in English as Marseilles; oc, Marselha ) is the prefecture of the French department of Bouches-du-Rhône and capital of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region. Situated in the camargue region of southern Franc ...

representing the ERC in an effort to help persons wishing to flee the Nazis, and circumvent the processes by French authorities who would not issue exit visas. Fry had $3,000 and a short list of refugees under imminent threat of arrest by agents of the

Gestapo The (), abbreviated Gestapo (; ), was the official secret police of Nazi Germany and in German-occupied Europe. The force was created by Hermann Göring in 1933 by combining the various political police agencies of Prussia into one organi ...

, mostly Jews. Clamoring at his door came anti-Nazi writers,

avant-garde The avant-garde (; In 'advance guard' or ' vanguard', literally 'fore-guard') is a person or work that is experimental, radical, or unorthodox with respect to art, culture, or society.John Picchione, The New Avant-garde in Italy: Theoretical ...

artists, musicians and hundreds of others desperately seeking any chance to escape France. Some historians later noted it was a miracle that a white American Protestant would risk everything to help the Jews. Beginning in 1940, in Marseille, despite the watchful eye of the collaborationist

Vichy regime Vichy France (french: Régime de Vichy; 10 July 1940 – 9 August 1944), officially the French State ('), was the fascist French state headed by Marshal Philippe Pétain during World War II. Officially independent, but with half of its ter ...

,Brown, Nancy
"No longer a haven: Varian Fry and the refugees of France."
''Yad Vashem: The Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Authority'', October 13, 1999. Retrieved: March 25, 2016. Fry and a small group of volunteers hid people at the Villa Air-Bel until they could be smuggled out. More than 2,200 people were taken across the border to

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , i ...

and then to the safety of neutral

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic ( pt, República Portuguesa, links=yes ), is a country whose mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula of Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of ...

from which they made their way to the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

.Watso
2010, p. PT556.
/ref>Suba
2010, pp. 62, 130, 166.
/ref> Fry helped other exiles escape on ships leaving Marseille for the French colony of

Martinique Martinique ( , ; gcf, label=Martinican Creole, Matinik or ; Kalinago: or ) is an island and an overseas department/region and single territorial collectivity of France. An integral part of the French Republic, Martinique is located in th ...

, from where they could also go to the United States. Among Fry's closest associates were Americans Miriam Davenport, a former art student at the

Sorbonne Sorbonne may refer to: * Sorbonne (building), historic building in Paris, which housed the University of Paris and is now shared among multiple universities. *the University of Paris (c. 1150 – 1970) *one of its components or linked institution, ...

, and the heiress

Mary Jayne Gold Mary Jayne Gold (1909 – October 5, 1997) was an American heiress who played an important role helping European Jews and intellectuals escape Nazi Germany in 1940-1941, during World War II. Early years and education Born in Chicago, Il ...

, a lover of the arts and the "good life" who had come to

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

in the early 1930s.Mouli
2007, p. 174.
/ref>Riding, Alan

''

''. October 8, 1997. Retrieved: March 25, 2016. When the Nazis seized France in 1940, Gold went to Marseille, where she worked with Fry and helped finance his operation. Also working with Fry was a young academic named

Albert O. Hirschman Albert Otto Hirschman (born ''Otto-Albert Hirschmann''; April 7, 1915 – December 10, 2012) was a German economist and the author of several books on political economy and political ideology. His first major contribution was in the area of de ...

. Especially instrumental in getting Fry the

visa Visa most commonly refers to: *Visa Inc., a US multinational financial and payment cards company ** Visa Debit card issued by the above company ** Visa Electron, a debit card ** Visa Plus, an interbank network *Travel visa, a document that allows ...

s he needed for the artists, intellectuals and

political dissident A dissident is a person who actively challenges an established political or religious system, doctrine, belief, policy, or institution. In a religious context, the word has been used since the 18th century, and in the political sense since the 20th ...

s on his list, was

Hiram Bingham IV Hiram "Harry" Bingham IV (July 17, 1903 – January 12, 1988) was an American diplomat. He served as a Vice Consul in Marseilles, France, during World War II, and, along with Varian Fry, helped over 2,500 Jews to flee from France as Nazi forc ...

, an American

Vice Consul A consul is an official representative of the government of one state in the territory of another, normally acting to assist and protect the citizens of the consul's own country, as well as to facilitate trade and friendship between the people ...

in Marseille who fought against

anti-Semitism Antisemitism (also spelled anti-semitism or anti-Semitism) is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who holds such positions is called an antisemite. Antisemitism is considered to be a form of racism. Antis ...

in the

State Department The United States Department of State (DOS), or State Department, is an United States federal executive departments, executive department of the Federal government of the United States, U.S. federal government responsible for the country's fore ...

and was personally responsible for issuing thousands of visas, both legal and illegal. He was also helped in his mission by

Alfred Barr Alfred Hamilton Barr Jr. (January 28, 1902 – August 15, 1981) was an American art historian and the first director of the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. From that position, he was one of the most influential forces in the development of ...

, Museum Director at the

MoMa Moma may refer to: People * Moma Clarke (1869–1958), British journalist * Moma Marković (1912–1992), Serbian politician * Momčilo Rajin (born 1954), Serbian art and music critic, theorist and historian, artist and publisher Places ; Ang ...

and his wife

Margaret Scolari Barr Margaret Scolari Barr (1901–1987) was an art historian, art critic, educator, translator, and curator. Life Margaret Scolari Barr was born in 1901 in Rome to the Italian antiquities dealer, Virgilio Scolari and his Irish wife Mary Fitzmaurice ...

art historian also working at the MoMA. From his isolated position in Marseille, Fry relied on the

Unitarian Service Committee The Unitarian Universalist Service Committee (UUSC) is a non-profit, nonsectarian associate member organization of the Unitarian Universalist Association that works to provide disaster relief and promote human rights and social justice around the w ...

in Lisbon to help the refugees he sent. This office, staffed by American Unitarians under the direction of

Robert Dexter Robert Cloutman Dexter (1887 – 1955) was the founder of the Unitarian Service Committee (progenitor of the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee), which worked during World War II to rescue and assist Jewish refugees and other victims of Nazis ...

, helped refugees to wait in safety for visas and other necessary papers, and to gain passage by sea from Lisbon.Suba
2010, pp. 59, 103, 112, 148, 229–230.
/ref> Fry was forced to leave France in September 1941 after officials both of the Vichy government and of the United States State Department had become angered by his covert activities. In 1942, the Emergency Rescue Committee and the American branch of the European-based International Relief Association joined forces under the name the International Relief and Rescue Committee, which was later shortened to the

International Rescue Committee The International Rescue Committee (IRC) is a global humanitarian aid, relief, and development nongovernmental organization. Founded in 1933 as the International Relief Association, at the request of Albert Einstein, and changing its name in 19 ...

(IRC). The IRC is a leading nonsectarian, nongovernmental international relief and development organization that still operates today.

Refugees aided by Fry

Among those Fry aided were: *

Hannah Arendt Hannah Arendt (, , ; 14 October 1906 – 4 December 1975) was a political philosopher, author, and Holocaust survivor. She is widely considered to be one of the most influential political theorists of the 20th century. Arendt was born ...

Jean Arp Hans Peter Wilhelm Arp (16 September 1886 – 7 June 1966), better known as Jean Arp in English, was a German-French sculptor, painter, and poet. He was known as a Dadaist and an abstract artist. Early life Arp was born in Straßburg (now Stras ...

*Hans Aufricht *

Hans Bellmer Hans Bellmer (13 March 1902 – 24 February 1975) was a German artist, best known for the life-sized pubescent female dolls he produced in the mid-1930s. Historians of art and photography also consider him a Surrealist photographer. Biography B ...

*Georg Bernhard *

Victor Brauner Victor Brauner (, also spelled Viktor Brauner; 15 June 1903 – 12 March 1966) was a Romanian painter and sculptor of the surrealist movement. Early life He was born in Piatra Neamț, Romania, the son of a Jewish timber manufacturer who subseque ...

André Breton André Robert Breton (; 19 February 1896 – 28 September 1966) was a French writer and poet, the co-founder, leader, and principal theorist of surrealism. His writings include the first ''Surrealist Manifesto'' (''Manifeste du surréalisme'') o ...

*Camille Bryen *

De Castro The de Castro surname is used by a Sephardic Jewish family of Portuguese, Spanish and Italian origin. Soon after the establishment of the Portuguese Inquisition, members of the family emigrated to Bordeaux, Bayonne, Hamburg, and various cities ...

Marc Chagall Marc Chagall; russian: link=no, Марк Заха́рович Шага́л ; be, Марк Захаравіч Шагал . (born Moishe Shagal; 28 March 1985) was a Russian-French artist. An early modernism, modernist, he was associated with se ...

*Frédéric Delanglade *

Óscar Domínguez Óscar M. Domínguez (3 January 1906 – 31 December 1957) was a Spanish surrealist painter. Biography Born in San Cristóbal de La Laguna on the island of Tenerife, on the Canary Islands Spain, Domínguez spent his youth with his grandmother ...

Marcel Duchamp Henri-Robert-Marcel Duchamp (, , ; 28 July 1887 – 2 October 1968) was a French painter, sculptor, chess player, and writer whose work is associated with Cubism, Dada, and conceptual art. Duchamp is commonly regarded, along with Pablo Picasso ...

*Heinrich Ehrmann *

Max Ernst Max Ernst (2 April 1891 – 1 April 1976) was a German (naturalised American in 1948 and French in 1958) painter, sculptor, printmaker, graphic artist, and poet. A prolific artist, Ernst was a primary pioneer of the Dada movement and Surrealism ...

*Edvard Fendler *

Lion Feuchtwanger Lion Feuchtwanger (; 7 July 1884 – 21 December 1958) was a German Jewish novelist and playwright. A prominent figure in the literary world of Weimar Germany, he influenced contemporaries including playwright Bertolt Brecht. Feuchtwanger's Ju ...

* Leonard Frank *Giuseppe Garetto *Oscar Goldberg *

Emil Julius Gumbel Emil Julius Gumbel (18 July 1891, in Munich – 10 September 1966, in New York City) was a German mathematician and political writer. Gumbel specialised in mathematical statistics and, along with Leonard Tippett and Ronald Fisher, was instrument ...

Hans Habe Hans Habe (born János Békessy; 12 February 1911, Budapest – 29 September 1977, Locarno) was a Hungarian and American writer and newspaper publisher. From 1941, he held United States citizenship. He was also known by such pseudonyms as Anto ...

Jacques-Salomon Hadamard Jacques Salomon Hadamard (; 8 December 1865 – 17 October 1963) was a French mathematician who made major contributions in number theory, complex analysis, differential geometry and partial differential equations. Biography The son of a teac ...

Konrad Heiden Konrad Heiden (7 August 1901 – 18 June 1966) was a German-American journalist and historian of the Weimar Republic and Nazi eras, most noted for the first influential biographies of Adolf Hitler. Often, he wrote under the pseudonym "Klaus ...

Jacques Hérold Jacques Hérold (born Herold Blumer; 10 October 191011 January 1987) was a prominent surrealist painter born in Piatra Neamț, Romania. Biography Considered one of the most important late-period Surrealist painters, Hérold was born in a Jewis ...

* Wilhelm Herzog *

Erich Itor Kahn Erich Itor Kahn (23 July 1905 - 5 March 1956) was a German composer of Jewish descent, who emigrated to the United States during the years of National Socialism. Biography He was born in Rimbach in the Odenwald, the son of Leopold Kahn, a mathema ...

Fritz Kahn Fritz Kahn (29 September 1888 – 14 January 1968) was a German-Jewish physician who published popular science books and is known for his illustrations, which pioneered infographics. Biography Fritz Kahn was born in Halle an der Saale, Germ ...

* Berthold Jacob * Heinz Jolles *

Arthur Koestler Arthur Koestler, (, ; ; hu, Kösztler Artúr; 5 September 1905 – 1 March 1983) was a Hungarian-born author and journalist. Koestler was born in Budapest and, apart from his early school years, was educated in Austria. In 1931, Koestler join ...

Siegfried Kracauer Siegfried Kracauer (; ; February 8, 1889 – November 26, 1966) was a German writer, journalist, sociologist, cultural critic, and film theorist. He has sometimes been associated with the Frankfurt School of critical theory. He is notable for a ...

Wifredo Lam Wifredo Óscar de la Concepción Lam y Castilla (; December 8, 1902 – September 11, 1982), better known as Wifredo Lam, was a Cuban artist who sought to portray and revive the enduring Afro-Cuban spirit and culture. Inspired by and in conta ...

Jacqueline Lamba Jacqueline Lamba (17 November 1910 – 20 July 1993) was a French painter and surrealist artist. She was married to the surrealist André Breton. Biography Lamba was born in the Paris suburb of Saint-Mandé, on 17 November 1910 (contrary to a ...

Wanda Landowska Wanda Aleksandra Landowska (5 July 1879 – 16 August 1959) was a Polish harpsichordist and pianist whose performances, teaching, writings and especially her many recordings played a large role in reviving the popularity of the harpsichord in ...

*Lotte Leonard *

Claude Lévi-Strauss Claude Lévi-Strauss (, ; 28 November 1908 – 30 October 2009) was a French anthropologist and ethnologist whose work was key in the development of the theories of structuralism and structural anthropology. He held the chair of Social Anthro ...

Jacques Lipchitz Jacques Lipchitz (26 May 1973) was a Cubist sculptor. Lipchitz retained highly figurative and legible components in his work leading up to 1915–16, after which naturalist and descriptive elements were muted, dominated by a synthetic style of Cr ...

Alberto Magnelli Alberto Magnelli (1 July 1888 – 20 April 1971) was an Italian modern painter who was a significant figure in the post war Concrete art movement. Biography Magnelli was born in Florence on July 1, 1888. In 1907 he started painting and, d ...

* Alma Mahler Gropius Werfel *

Jean Malaquais Jean Malaquais (1908 – December 22, 1998) was a French novelist. He was born as Wladimir Jan Pavel Malacki in Warsaw in 1908 of a non-religious Polish family of Jewish descent. In 1926, he left Poland, traveling in Eastern Europe and the Middl ...

Bohuslav Martinů Bohuslav Jan Martinů (; December 8, 1890 – August 28, 1959) was a Czech composer of modern classical music. He wrote 6 symphonies, 15 operas, 14 ballet scores and a large body of orchestral, chamber, vocal and instrumental works. He bec ...

Golo Mann Golo Mann (born Angelus Gottfried Thomas Mann; 27 March 1909 – 7 April 1994) was a popular German historian and essayist. Having completed a doctorate in philosophy under Karl Jaspers at Heidelberg, in 1933 he fled Hitler's Germany. He followe ...

Heinrich Mann Luiz Heinrich Mann (; 27 March 1871 – 11 March 1950), best known as simply Heinrich Mann, was a German author known for his Social criticism, socio-political novels. From 1930 until 1933, he was president of the fine poetry division of the ...

Valeriu Marcu Valeriu Marcu (; 8 March 1899 in Bucharest, Romania – 4 July 1942 in New York City, United States) was a Romanian poet, writer and historian. He wrote the first biography of Vladimir Lenin. In his younger years, Marcu was acquainted with both Len ...

André Masson André-Aimé-René Masson (4 January 1896 – 28 October 1987) was a French artist. Biography Masson was born in Balagny-sur-Thérain, Oise, but when he was eight his father's work took the family first briefly to Lille and then to Brussel ...

Roberto Matta Roberto Sebastián Antonio Matta Echaurren (; November 11, 1911 – November 23, 2002), better known as Roberto Matta, was one of Chile's best-known painters and a seminal figure in 20th century abstract expressionist and surrealist art. Bio ...

Walter Mehring Walter Mehring (29 April 1896 – 3 October 1981) was a German author and one of the most prominent satirical authors in the Weimar Republic. He was banned during the Third Reich, and fled the country. Early life He was the son of the trans ...

*Alfredo Mendizabel *

Otto Meyerhof Otto Fritz Meyerhof (; April 12, 1884 – October 6, 1951) was a German physician and biochemist who won the 1922 Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine. Biography Otto Fritz Meyerhof was born in Hannover, at Theaterplatz 16A (now:Rathenaustrasse ...

* Boris Mirkine-Guetzevitch *

Hans Namuth Hans Namuth (March 17, 1915 – October 13, 1990) was a German-born photographer. Namuth specialized in portraiture, photographing many artists, including abstract expressionist Jackson Pollock. His photos of Pollock at work in his studio increa ...

Hans Natonek Hans Natonek (28 October 1892 – 23 October 1963Natonek, Hans.' In Renate Heuer (Editor): ''Lexikon deutsch-jüdischer Autoren'', Volume 17, Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 2009, p. 262. Retrieved from Google Books, on 4 December 2013.), pen name N. O ...

*Ernst-Erich Noth *

Max Ophüls Maximillian Oppenheimer (; 6 May 1902 – 26 March 1957), known as Max Ophüls (; ), was a German-French film director who worked in Germany (1931–1933), France (1933–1940 and 1950–1957), and the United States (1947–1950). He made near ...

Hertha Pauli Hertha Ernestine Pauli (September 4, 1906 – February 9, 1973) was an Austrian journalist, writer and actress. Biography Hertha Ernestine Pauli was born in Vienna, the daughter of feminist Bertha Schütz and chemist Wolfgang Pauli. Her brothe ...

Benjamin Péret Benjamin Péret (4 July 1899 – 18 September 1959) was a French poet, Parisian Dadaist and a founder and central member of the French Surrealist movement with his avid use of Surrealist automatism. Biography Benjamin Péret was born in Rezé, ...

Alfred Polgar Alfred Polgar (originally: Alfred Polak) 17 October 1873, Vienna – 24 April 1955, Zurich) was an Austrian-born columnist, theater critic, writer and occasionally translator. All in all, he was one of the most important protagonists of the Wie ...

*Poliakoff-Litovzeff *Peter Pringsheim * Denise Restout *

Hans Sahl Hans Sahl (born Hans Salomon, 20 May 1902 in Dresden – 27 April 1993 in Tübingen) was a poet, critic, and novelist who began during the Weimar Republic. He came from an affluent Jewish background, but like many such German Jews he fled Germany ...

* Jacques Schiffrin *

Anna Seghers Anna Seghers (; born ''Anna Reiling,'' 19 November 1900 – 1 June 1983), is the pseudonym of a German writer notable for exploring and depicting the moral experience of the Second World War. Born into a Jewish family and married to a Hungarian ...

Victor Serge Victor Serge (; 1890–1947), born Victor Lvovich Kibalchich (russian: Ви́ктор Льво́вич Киба́льчич), was a Russian revolutionary Marxist, novelist, poet and historian. Originally an anarchist, he joined the Bolsheviks fi ...

*Ferdinand Springer * Fred Stein *Bruno Strauss *

Sophie Taeuber Sophie Henriette Gertrud Taeuber-Arp (; 19 January 1889 – 13 January 1943) was a Swiss artist, painter, sculptor, textile designer, furniture and interior designer, architect, and dancer. Born in 1889 in Davos, and raised in Trogen, Switzerla ...

Remedios Varo María de los Remedios Alicia Rodriga Varo y Uranga (16 December 1908 – 8 October 1963) was a Spanish-born Mexican surrealist artist working in Spain, France, and Mexico. Early life Remedios Varo Uranga was born in Anglès, is a small town ...

Franz Werfel Franz Viktor Werfel (; 10 September 1890 – 26 August 1945) was an Austrian-Bohemian novelist, playwright, and Poetry, poet whose career spanned World War I, the Interwar period, and World War II. He is primarily known as the author of ''Th ...

* Kurt Wolff and Helen Wolff *

Wols Wols was the pseudonym of Alfred Otto Wolfgang Schulze (27 May 19131 September 1951), a German painter and photographer predominantly active in France. Though broadly unrecognized in his lifetime, he is considered a pioneer of lyrical abstracti ...

(Alfred Otto Wolfgang Schulze) *

Ylla Camilla "Ylla" Koffler ( hu, Koffler Kamilla; 16 August 1911 – 30 March 1955) was a Hungarian photographer who specialized in animal photography. At the time of her death she "was generally considered the most proficient animal photographer in ...

(Camilla Koffler)

Back in the United States

Fry wrote and spoke critically against U.S. immigration policies particularly relating to the fate of Jews in Europe. In a December 1942 issue of ''

The New Republic ''The New Republic'' is an American magazine of commentary on politics, contemporary culture, and the arts. Founded in 1914 by several leaders of the progressive movement, it attempted to find a balance between "a liberalism centered in hum ...

'', he wrote a scathing article titled: "The Massacre of Jews in Europe".Paldie
2011, p. PT94.
/ref> Although by 1942 Fry had been terminated from his position at the Emergency Rescue Committee, American private rescuers acknowledged that his program in France had been uniquely effective, and recruited him in 1944 to provide behind-the-scenes guidance to the Roosevelt administration's late-breaking rescue program, the

War Refugee Board The War Refugee Board, established by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in January 1944, was a U.S. executive agency to aid civilian victims of the Axis powers. The Board was, in the words of historian Rebecca Erbelding, "the only time in American hi ...

. Fry published a book in 1945 about his time in France under the title ''Surrender on Demand'', first published by

Random House Random House is an American book publisher and the largest general-interest paperback publisher in the world. The company has several independently managed subsidiaries around the world. It is part of Penguin Random House, which is owned by Germ ...

, 1945. (Its title refers to the 1940 French-German armistice clause requiring France to hand over to German authorities any refugee from "Greater Germany" the Gestapo might identify, a requirement Fry routinely violated.) A later edition was published by Johnson Books, in 1997, in conjunction with the U.S. Holocaust Museum. In 1968, the US publisher Scholastic (which markets mainly to children and adolescents) published a paperback edition under the title ''Assignment: Rescue''. After the war, Fry worked as a journalist, magazine editor and business writer. He also taught college and was in film production. Feeling as if he had lived the peak of his life in France, he developed ulcers. Fry went into psychoanalysis and said that "as time went on, he grew more and more troubled." Fry and his wife Eileen divorced after he returned from France. She developed cancer and died on May 12, 1948. During her hospital convalescence, Fry visited her and read to her daily. At the end of 1948 or early 1949, Fry met Annette Riley, who was 16 years his junior. They married in 1950, had three children together, but were separated in 1966, possibly owing to his irrational behavior, believed to have been a result of manic depression. Fry died of a

cerebral hemorrhage Intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH), also known as cerebral bleed, intraparenchymal bleed, and hemorrhagic stroke, or haemorrhagic stroke, is a sudden bleeding into the tissues of the brain, into its ventricles, or into both. It is one kind of bleed ...

and was found dead in his bed on September 13, 1967 by the

Connecticut State Police The Connecticut State Police (CSP) is a division of the Connecticut Department of Emergency Services and Public Protection responsible for traffic regulation and law enforcement across the state of Connecticut, especially in areas not served by ...

. He was buried at Green-Wood Cemetery, Brooklyn, New York with his parents. Fry's papers are held in

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

's Rare Book and Manuscript Library.

Published works

;Author * "A Bibliography of the Writings of Thomas Stearns Eliot". ''Hound & Horn'', 1928. * ''Assignment Rescue: An Autobiography''. Madison, Wisconsin: Demco, 1992. . * ''Bricks Without Mortar: The Story of International Cooperation''. New York: Foreign Policy Association, 1938. . * ''Headline Books''. New York: Foreign Policy Association, 1938. * ''Surrender on Demand''. New York: Random House, 1945. * ''The Peace that Failed: How Europe Sowed the Seeds of War''. New York: Foreign Policy Association, 1939. * ''To Whom it May Concern''. 1947. * ''War in China: America's Role in the Far East''. New York: Foreign Policy Association, 1938. ;Co-author * Fry, Varian and Emil Herlin. ''War Atlas: A Handbook of Maps and Facts''. New York: Foreign Policy Association, 1940. . * Goetz, Delia and Varian Fry. ''The Good Neighbours: The Story of the Two Americas''. The Foreign Policy Association, 1939. * Popper, David H., Shepard Stone and Varian Fry. ''The puzzle of Palestine''. New York: Foreign Policy Association, 1938. * Wolfe, Henry Cutler, James Frederick Green, Stoyan Pribichevich, Varian Fry, William V. Reed, Elizabeth Ogg and Emil Herlin, ''Spotlight on the Balkans''. New York: Foreign Policy Association, 1940.

Legacy

* 1967 - The government of France recognized Fry's contribution to freedom with the

Legion of Honor The National Order of the Legion of Honour (french: Ordre national de la Légion d'honneur), formerly the Royal Order of the Legion of Honour ('), is the highest French order of merit, both military and civil. Established in 1802 by Napoleon ...

. * 1980 -

's 1980 book titled ''Crossroads Marseilles 1940'' sparked an interest in Fry and his heroic efforts. * 1991 - The

United States Holocaust Memorial Council The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM) is the United States' official memorial to the Holocaust. Adjacent to the National Mall in Washington, D.C., the USHMM provides for the documentation, study, and interpretation of Holocaust his ...

awarded Fry the Eisenhower Liberation Medal. * 1994 - Fry became the first United States citizen to be listed in the

at Israel's national

Holocaust Memorial A number of organizations, museums and monuments are intended to serve as memorials to the Holocaust, the Nazi Final Solution, and its millions of victims. Memorials and museums listed by country: __NOTOC__ A - D: #Albania, Albania#Argentina, A ...

, award by

Yad Vashem Yad Vashem ( he, יָד וַשֵׁם; literally, "a memorial and a name") is Israel's official memorial to the victims of the Holocaust. It is dedicated to preserving the memory of the Jews who were murdered; honoring Jews who fought against th ...

."Varian Fry."
''United States Holocaust Memorial Museum'', January 29, 2016. Retrieved: March 25, 2016. * 1997 - Irish film director David Kerr made a documentary entitled ''Varian Fry: The America's Schindler'' that was narrated by actor Sean Barrett. * 1998 - Fry was awarded the "Commemorative Citizenship of the State of Israel" on January 1, 1998. * 2001 - Fry's story was also told in dramatic form in the 2001 made-for-television film '' Varian's War'', written and directed by

Lionel Chetwynd Lionel Chetwynd (born January 29, 1940) is a British-American screenwriter, director and producer. Life and career Lionel Chetwynd was born to a Jewish family in Hackney, London, the son of Betty (née Dion) and Peter Chetwynd. His family move ...

and starring

William Hurt William McChord Hurt (March 20, 1950 – March 13, 2022) was an American actor. Known for his performances on stage and screen, he received various awards including an Academy Award, BAFTA Award and Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Actor. ...

and

Julia Ormond Julia Karin Ormond (born 4 January 1965) is an English actress. She rose to prominence by appearing in ''The Baby of Mâcon'' (1993), '' Legends of the Fall'' (1994), ''First Knight'' (1995), ''Sabrina'' (1995), '' Smilla's Sense of Snow'' (199 ...

. * 2002 - On the initiative of Samuel V. Brock, the U.S.

Consul General A consul is an official representative of the government of one state in the territory of another, normally acting to assist and protect the citizens of the consul's own country, as well as to facilitate trade and friendship between the people ...

in Marseille from 1999 to 2002, the square in front of the consulate was renamed ''Place Varian Fry''."History."
''Consulate General of the United States'', Marseille, France. Retrieved: February 8, 2014. * 2005 - A street in the newly reconstructed East/West Berlin Wall area in the Berlin borough of ''Mitte at Potsdamer Platz'' was named ''Varian-Fry-Straße'' in recognition of his work. * 2005 - A street in his home town of

Ridgewood, New Jersey Ridgewood is a village in Bergen County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, its population was 24,958,Boroson, Rebecca Kaplan
"Catherine Taub: 'A hometown hero'."
''Jewish Standard.'' June 7, 2013. Retrieved: March 25, 2016. * 2007 - On October 15, 2007, the U.S. House of Representatives honored Varian Fry on the 100th anniversary of his birth."House Resolution 743, 2007 - Honoring Varian Fry on the 100th anniversary of his birth."
''House of Representatives'', United States. Retrieved: February 9, 2014. *2019 -

Julie Orringer Julie Orringer (born June 12, 1973) is an American writer and lecturer. She attended Cornell University and the Iowa Writer's Workshop, and was a Stegner Fellow at Stanford University. She was born in Miami, Florida and now lives in Brooklyn with ...

's historical novel ''The Flight Portfolio'' is a fictionalized account of Fry's life and experiences in Marseille, which merges real events and historical characters with invented elements. The invented elements include a clandestine love affair and intrigue surrounding the plot to rescue a fictional young physics genius.

References

Notes

Bibliography

* Gold, Mary Jayne. ''Crossroads Marseilles, 1940''. New York: Doubleday, 1980. . * Grunwald-Spier, Agnes. ''The Other Schindlers: Why Some People Chose to Save Jews in the Holocaust''. Stroud, Gloucestershire, UK: The History Press, 2010. . * Isenberg, Sheila. ''A Hero of Our Own: The Story of Varian Fry''. Bloomington, Indiana: iUniverse, 2005. . * McCabe, Cynthia Jaffee. "Wanted by the Gestapo: Saved by America – Varian Fry and the Emergency Rescue Committee", pp. 79–91 in Jackman, Jarrell C. and Carla M. Borden, eds. ''The Musses Flee Hitler: Cultural Transfer and Adaptation 1930-1945''. Washington, D.C.: ( Smithsonian, 1983. * Marino, Andy. ''A Quiet American: The Secret War of Varian Fry''. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1999. . * Mattern, Joanne. ''Life Stories of 100 American Heroes''. Vancouver: KidsBooks, 2001. . * Mauthner, Martin. ''German Writers in French Exile, 1933-1940''. London: Vallentine Mitchell, 2007, . * McClafferty, Carla Killough
''In Defiance of Hitler: The Secret Mission of Varian Fry''.
New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR), 2008. . * Moulin, Pierre. ''Dachau, Holocaust, and US Samurais: Nisei Soldiers First in Dachau?''. Bloomington, Indiana: AuthorHouse, 2007. . * Paldiel, Mordecai. ''Saving the Jews: Men and Women who Defied the Final Solution''. Lanham, Maryland: Taylor Trade Publications, 2011. . * Richards, Tad. ''The Virgil Directive''. New York: Fawcett, 1982. . * Riding, Alan. ''And the Show Went On: Cultural Life in Nazi-occupied Paris''. New York: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, 2010. . * Roth, John K. and Elisabeth Maxwell. ''Remembering for the Future: The Holocaust in an Age of Genocide''. London: Palgrave, 2001. . * Schwertfeger, Ruth. ''In Transit: Narratives of German Jews in Exile, Flight, and Internment During 'The Dark Years' of France''. Berlin, Germany: Frank & Timme GmbH, 2012. . * Sogos, Giorgia. "Varian Fry: „Der Engel von Marseille“. Von der Legalität in die Illegalität und zur Rehabilitierung", in Gabriele Anderl, Simon Usaty (Hrsg.). "Schleppen, schleusen, helfen. Flucht zwischen Rettung und Ausbeutung". Wien: Mandelbaum,2016, S. 209–220, . * Strempel, Rüdiger, ''Letzter Halt Marseille - Varian Fry und das Emergency Rescue Committee'', in Clasen, Winrich C.-W./Schneemelcher, W. Peter, eds, ''Mittelmeerpassagen'', Rheinbach 2018, * Subak, Susan Elisabeth
''Rescue and Flight: American Relief Workers Who Defied the Nazis''.
Lincoln, Nebraska: University of Nebraska Press, 2010. . * Sullivan, Rosemary. ''Villa Air-Bel''. New York:

HarperCollins HarperCollins Publishers LLC is one of the Big Five English-language publishing companies, alongside Penguin Random House, Simon & Schuster, Hachette, and Macmillan. The company is headquartered in New York City and is a subsidiary of News Cor ...

, 2006. . * Watson, Peter. ''The German Genius: Europe's Third Renaissance, the Second Scientific Revolution and the Twentieth Century''. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2010. .

External links

Varian Fry Institute

* ttp://www.varianfry.dk/ Varian Fry, The American Schindler by Louis Bülow
Varian Fry, his activity to save Jews' lives
during the

, at

website
Finding aid to the Varian Fry papers at Columbia University
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fry, Varian American humanitarians American male journalists 20th-century American journalists American Righteous Among the Nations American Protestants Journalists from New York City Protestant Righteous Among the Nations Hotchkiss School alumni Harvard University alumni People from Ridgefield, Connecticut 1907 births 1967 deaths 20th-century American non-fiction writers 20th-century American male writers Riverdale Country School alumni Burials at Green-Wood Cemetery