Varian Fry, born this day in 1907, was the first American to be recognized as "Righteous Among the Nations" for saving the lives of thousands of Jews during World War II.
Fry was a bookish Harvard grad and born of the WASP elite in America, which also played host to a certain level of anti-Semitism in those days, though he himself seems not to have been infected by it. But even if it did affect Fry, it sure didn't prevent him from risking his own life to save so many others from the Nazi death machine.
After visiting Berlin in 1935, as a foreign correspondent for the periodical "The Living Age," Fry became an ardent anti-Nazi. He became appalled at the National Socialists after witnessing their use of violence against Jews. Once war broke out, he quickly formed the Emergency Rescue Committee, though he'd made it clear he wanted the Committee to find someone "more qualified" than he to travel to Europe to organize and undertake rescue operations. But no one else would step up, and so he did.
And so Fry headed to Marseille in 1940, with $3,000 in cash strapped to his leg. He had a list of Jewish and non-Jewish anti-Nazi dissidents and avant-garde artists. They were considered the groups most in danger of imminent Nazi arrest.
Once he got to that French city, Fry worked with a somewhat improbable crew of allies, including American artist Miriam Davenport, Chicago heiress and bon vivant Mary Jayne Gold, and Gold's lover Raymond Courand (who was a local gangster initially, but who later became a war hero). Over the course of just a few months, Fry and co. managed to smuggle thousands out of France, sending them mostly to neutral Portugal and then on to the United States and other New World destinations.
The American vice consul there, Hiram Bingham IV, aided the group greatly, issuing visas to as many of the smuggled as possible. Some of those visas were even legal, though the vast majority actually weren't issued under any legal authority.
The list of notables Fry saved while spiriting away those thousands from under Nazi noses included Hannah Arendt, Andre Breton, Marc Chagall and Jacques Lipchitz.
Below, Fry, who in the worst of times acted from the best of righteous intentions:
"Politics is just show business for ugly people."
Fry was a bookish Harvard grad and born of the WASP elite in America, which also played host to a certain level of anti-Semitism in those days, though he himself seems not to have been infected by it. But even if it did affect Fry, it sure didn't prevent him from risking his own life to save so many others from the Nazi death machine.
After visiting Berlin in 1935, as a foreign correspondent for the periodical "The Living Age," Fry became an ardent anti-Nazi. He became appalled at the National Socialists after witnessing their use of violence against Jews. Once war broke out, he quickly formed the Emergency Rescue Committee, though he'd made it clear he wanted the Committee to find someone "more qualified" than he to travel to Europe to organize and undertake rescue operations. But no one else would step up, and so he did.
And so Fry headed to Marseille in 1940, with $3,000 in cash strapped to his leg. He had a list of Jewish and non-Jewish anti-Nazi dissidents and avant-garde artists. They were considered the groups most in danger of imminent Nazi arrest.
Once he got to that French city, Fry worked with a somewhat improbable crew of allies, including American artist Miriam Davenport, Chicago heiress and bon vivant Mary Jayne Gold, and Gold's lover Raymond Courand (who was a local gangster initially, but who later became a war hero). Over the course of just a few months, Fry and co. managed to smuggle thousands out of France, sending them mostly to neutral Portugal and then on to the United States and other New World destinations.
The American vice consul there, Hiram Bingham IV, aided the group greatly, issuing visas to as many of the smuggled as possible. Some of those visas were even legal, though the vast majority actually weren't issued under any legal authority.
The list of notables Fry saved while spiriting away those thousands from under Nazi noses included Hannah Arendt, Andre Breton, Marc Chagall and Jacques Lipchitz.
Below, Fry, who in the worst of times acted from the best of righteous intentions:
"Politics is just show business for ugly people."