September 10, 2020
THE BANALITY OF GOOD:
Varian Fry - an unlikely American hero: Varian Fry went to Vichy France in 1940 and rescued 1,500 people from the Nazis for the simple, banal reason that he 'felt obliged to help' (Baruch Tenembaum, SEP 10, 2020, Times of Israel)
As the 53rd anniversary of his passing is approaching, I would like to celebrate the courageous life of Varian Fry. This young and brilliant editor, arrived in German-occupied France in early August 1940 as an emissary of the Emergency Rescue Committee (ERC), an entity he founded with friends and with the support of the First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt. His aim was to strive to save the Jews who were trying to flee the Nazi inferno.He settled in a small hotel in Marseilles and from there he launched a high-risk clandestine operation to rescue some of Europe's foremost intellectual and writers.Armed with USD $3,000 in cash, he immediately set out to organize a rescue network using illegal means, including black market funds, forged documents and secret escape routes over the Pyrenees. He even managed to convince President Roosevelt to authorize a limited number of visas for some refugees to enter the US.Initially, he had a list of some 200 reputable figures of the arts but early on he recognized that the need was much greater and he decided to expand his mission to be able to reach out to many more people who were trying to escape from the Nazis and their local henchmen.Over the next year, Fry and a select team of Americans and French helped some 1,500 refugees to flee from France to Spain, and it is estimated that they provided significant support to at least 2,000 others.
Posted by Orrin Judd at September 10, 2020 9:01 AM