THE VARIAN FRY STORY

VARIAN FRY
Outline of the work of the Varian Fry foundation project:
 The Varian Fry Foundation Project/IRC. An educational project of the  International Rescue Committee, New York
The purpose of the Varian Fry Foundation Project/IRC is to make the Varian Fry story more widely known.

In 1940, Varian Fry volunteered to go to France for the Emergency Rescue Committee (forerunner of the International Rescue Committee) which had been set up shortly after the fall of France to rescue intellectuals and others hunted by the Nazis in Vichy zone. Although Fry came to France with lists of only 200 names, he was approached by thousands of refugees to help them evade the Gestapo. At that time, the Germans could ask the Vichy  government to ``surrender on demand'' any non-French person, who would then frequently face deportation to concentration camps.

In a period of thirteen months, Varian Fry managed, mainly through illegal means and always facing possible arrest, to save or help thousands of refugees. Among these were famous persons, such as the painters Marc Chagall, Max Ernst, André Masson, and Wilfred Lam; the sculptor Jacques Lipchitz; the writers Franz Werfel and Hans Habe; the harpsichordist Wanda Landowska; Spain's leading Catholic philosopher Alfredo Mendizabel; Hannah Arendt, political scientist; Fritz Kahn, medical authority; Jacques Hadamard, called the ``Einstein of France''; and Otto Meyerhof, Nobel-Prize winning biochemist. Unfortunately, there were many who could not be saved.

On account of his activities, Fry was pursued by the Vichy authorities and was arrested and detained. Soon thereafter, American consular representatives refused to renew his passport. In September 1941, he was expelled from France and forced to return to the United States. In 1945, he published a book about his experiences ("Surrender on Demand", republished in 1997). He passed away in 1967 without ever receiving any recognition for his work from his own government.
 

Varian Fry Foundation Project/IRC
405 El Camino Real, 

# 213, Menlo Park, CA 94025, USA

Tel. / fax: (650) 323-0530 (8 am to 10 pm)

E-mail: fe.wem@forsythe.stanford.edu
                                           

Website: http://www.almondseed.com/vfry
 
 

For Information on this site contact vfry@almondseed.com.
A video pack containing a 35 minute documentary on Fry (narrated by Merryl Streep) together with his autobiography ("Assignment Rescue") and a teachers' and students' guide is now available.
 

French review of Fry's book 'Surrender on demand':
(Written by Simon KITSON for XXe Siècle)

Varian FRY, Surrender on Demand, Johnson Books, Colorado, 1997, $15, 272 pp.
Ce livre est la réédition des mémoires de Varian Fry, un journaliste américain dont le comité à Marseille a aidé plus de 4000 réfugiés antinazis pendant la deuxième guerre mondiale et a permis à plus de 1000 d’entre eux de pouvoir s’échapper de la France. Le texte rédigé en 1942, était indisponible depuis sa publication originale en 1945. Cette réédition témoigne d’un renouveau d’intérêt pour Fry qui a été récemment le sujet de documentaires télévisés, d’études universitaires et même d’une page Web .
Pendant l’été 1940, l’auteur arrive à Marseille avec pour mission de sauver des intellectuels, des artistes et des militants politiques qui figurent sur une liste de 200 noms qui lui a été donnée par ‘the Emergency Rescue Committee’ à New York. Fry accepte la mission parce qu’il admire le travail ou les idées de certaines de ces réfugiés et parce qu’il avait déjà fait un séjour en Allemagne nazie et vu de ses propres yeux les brutalités commises par le régime hitlérien. Cependant à son arrivée à Marseille il ignore à peu près tout des possibilités pratiques d’une mission de sauvetage et pense que cette mission ne va pas dépasser un mois.
Les difficultés de sa tâche apparaissent rapidement: trouver et aider les personnes de sa liste; décider qui, parmi ceux qui se présentent spontanément à ses bureaux, devrait être aidé; déjouer la surveillance de la police; affronter l’hostilité du consulat américain; essayer de comprendre les complexités des lois d’émigration;  contourner et persuader les réfugiés de contourner ces règles.  Si, malgré toutes les difficultés, Fry a pu venir en aide à autant de personnes menacées par la barbarie nazie, cela est dû à son courage, sa détermination et sa débrouillardise. Avec le soutien d’un personnel dévoué, l’appui de certains consulats d’Europe occidentale ou d’autres organisations de secours installés à Marseille et l’aide pas toujours fiable de contacts plus ou moins louches, Fry réussit à organiser une massive opération d’émigration clandestine vers son pays d’origine. Il restera dans la ville phocéenne pendant 13 mois et ce n’est que sous la contrainte d’un refoulement qu’il retournera aux Etats-Unis à l’automne 1941. Après cette date il se consacrera à des dénonciations de la politique américaine d’immigration et tentera d’informer l’opinion américaine sur le sort des Juifs en Europe.
Le livre est très accessible, écrit avec beaucoup de chaleur et même parfois avec humour. Il sera d’un grand intérêt à tous ceux qui s’intéressent à l’Holocauste ou à la France de Vichy mais aussi à ceux intéressés par des personnages culturels ou politiques de la période puisque parmi ses ‘clients’ on trouve Max Ernst, Marc Chagall, Victor Serge, André Breton, Rudolf Hilferding, Rudolf Breitscheid et beaucoup d’autres.
 

Simon KITSON
 

English review of Fry's book 'Surrender on demand': 

(Written by Simon KITSON for Modern & Contemporary France)
Rescuing anti-Nazis from occupied Europe
Varian FRY- Surrender on Demand, Johnson Books, Colorado, 1997, $15.00, 272 pp, ISBN: 1-55566-209-9.
Both her geographical position and her reputation as a traditional haven for the oppressed made France an immediate choice for refugees fleeing neighbouring fascist countries. But from the arrival of Daladier in power in 1938 and even more so with the creation of the Vichy government in 1940 refugees found themselves in a desperate situation. Many had been stripped of their nationality, had left most of their possessions behind and were at their wits’ end. The hostility of the local population and persecution by French authorities led to a constant fear of denunciation and arrest followed by internment in appalling conditions. Some determined to escape France for new horizons. But the complexity of the administrative formalities and the constantly changing emigration laws made this option difficult as did the unscrupulousness of those who took cash for bogus promises of passage on (non-existent) boats. Little wonder then that when a 32 year-old American journalist, Varian Fry, arrived in Marseille with a mission to rescue stranded anti-nazi intellectuals, artists and political leaders news of his arrival spread like wild fire.

Fry’s acceptance of this assignment from the Emergency Rescue Committee in New York was partly a continuation of his past activities. In the 1930’s he had pursued a journalistic career which allowed him to witness first hand the anti-semetic brutalities of Nazi Germany in 1935. After his visit to Germany he helped raise funds in the USA in support of Czech resistance and involved himself in the anti-nazi association ‘American Friends of German Freedom’. He had deeply held political views and sympathies with the ideals of the German and Austrian socialist parties. He also had sentimental reasons for wanting to save many of the artists and intellectuals who appeared on the list that his committee had given him: he knew and admired their work. But Fry was a complete novice at rescue work with precious little idea of how to go about his mission and a belief that he would only need to be in Europe for about a month. In the end he stayed 13 months and although his original list contained only 200 names the offices of the committee he established in Marseille under the name of Comité Américain de Secours offered aid to some 4000 people of whom over 1000 were successfully transported out of France including many of Europe’s leading intellectual figures.
Fry’s task was far from simple. He had been used to a certain standard of living but in wartime France he found himself facing severe food and fuel shortages in the house which he shared with the ‘staff’ of his commitee and some of their ‘clients’ including André Breton, Max Ernst and Victor Serge. Malnuitrition was such tht they ended up eating the gold-fish from their garden pond. He worked long days and was under considerable psychological strain. Much more important than his own personal discomfort were the difficulties he had in helping stranded refugees.

Firstly he had to find those refugees who were on his lists and since in many cases they had been interned in French camps he had to try to obtain their release. A large number of refugees, most of whom were not on his lists, presented themselves spontaneously at his Marseille office. This created the problem of deciding who should be helped. Since his committee had the task of saving intellectuals, artists and politicians, refugees had to prove their credentials in one of these domains. This could entail either being known to someone whom Fry trusted or in the case of some artists being told to make a picture of the Vieux Port which was then judged by an American art student, Miriam Davenport. This process of selection has been one of the principle criticisms levelled against Fry. In his defence he claimed that not only was this the original mission he was given but that these were the categories he felt were at the most risk from Nazism. In the end the committee ended up helping a number of those who were not in its priority categories. Having decided to help an individual, it was sometimes difficult to persuade that individual to cooperate. Given that a large proportion of these individuals were prominent and influential figures on the world stage it is hardly surprising that many were reluctant to take advice from ‘a lowly American’ like Fry. Some pushed this folly to extremes refusing to leave illegally or considering it below their dignity to accept anything other than first class transport facilities. The German Social Democrats Hilferding and Breitscheid, whom Vichy had decided to use as tokens to regain Nazi esteem in the wake of the ‘13 December incident’, paid for such stubbornness with their lives. Beyond such vanity others had genuine doubts about suggested escape routes and had to be coaxed into acceptance. Passage trough Spain into Portugal was a favoured route but since it was a fascist country enjoying friendly relations with Nazi Germany this was not exactly a reassurance for anti-Nazi refugees. Finally, some were old or immobile, which presented problems using typical methods of diguising them by passing them off as demobilised soldiers or crew members of a ship, but also increased their reluctance to accept hazardous routes.
Having convinced a refugee to accept help was only the first stage. Getting authentic-looking passports and identity cards was a constant headache as was smuggling the large sums of money into France to cover his operations. Just as the refugees had difficulty getting reliable information and cutting through the red tape of bureaucracy, so did Fry. One particular difficulty was the necessity to have entry visas not only to the eventual country of refuge but also to any country crossed in the process, and to get these entry visas to coincide with the dates of exit visas from France. The Emergency Rescue Committee in New York was able to negociate some entry visas to the US with the State Department but this supposed them having the details of the refugees who were to be sent from France. Since Fry was helping a large number who were not on his original lists this required him sending that information to them. But communications with New York were far from easy. The method developed to overcome these communications difficulties was to put coded messages in a condom which was then hidden in a tube of toothpaste and to give this to departing refugees but unfortunately many of the refugees, afraid of being accused of espionage, threw these tubes away rather than take the risk of smuggling them out. Transport and hiding places for the refugees were constant worries.

Despite the precautions he took Fry could never be entirely sure that those he was dealing with were not Police or Gestapo agents. The Police kept Fry’s committee under surveillance, tapping its phones, subjecting members of its staff to arrest, searching its offices for illegal gold reserves, false papers or clandestine radios. Fry points out though that it was difficult to generalise about the attitude of the Police to his committee because although the local Police Chief, the naval officer Maurice Anne-Marie de Rodellec du Porzic, was a determined enemy of the committee a number of Marseille police officers showed much more sympathy. In his dealings with French authorities Fry was unable to count on the support of the American Consul who put pressure on him to leave France and ended up conficating his passport. His poor relationship with the consul may be explained by America’s fear of upsetting relations with its Vichy ally or its concern about accepting large numbers of, potentially politically active, refugees into the country or simply the fact that Fry was outspoken in his dealings with the consulate, challenging local consuls and openly criticising their slow and bureaucratic methods.

In spite of all the difficulties Fry managed to be of enormous help to refugees. He offered them hope whether this be by getting large numbers out of France by fair means or foul or simply with his encouraging words ‘I’ll see you soon in New York’. Practical help came in the form of organising their travel arrangements, getting them freed from camps, finding them dentists or even in snippets of information offered such as satisfying Marc Chagall’s query as to whether there were cows in America. Fry was able to obtain false papers and give small weekly allowances of money to those not interned or food parcels to those who were. He offered advice, even to those who would not listen, he made some aware of ways of avoiding police checks in Marseille station or showed them a map of the Franco-Spanish border, giving them indications, from his rapidly developing experience, as to the dangers of the journey. He sent news of arrests to the New York Times offices in Vichy.
If Fry was able to achieve so much it was largely due to his resourcefulness, determination and courage. To begin with he was able to take advantage of the prevalent confusion. Afterwards more ruse was needed. He had to find ways of hiding the illicit activities going on in his offices. Firstly he struck upon the idea of recruiting professional refugee workers who would have no inkling of the covert operations for which they would serve as a legal cover. Then, since he was afraid of his committee being seen helping only foreigners and Jews, he added the mission of helping intellectuals from Alsace-Lorraine to its functions. Finally he set up a patronage committee including such figures as André Gide and Henri Matisse but also some well respected figures who were acceptable even in Vichy France. He took advantage of help wherever he could find it. Representatives of other relief organisations offered support. So too did the British embassy in Madrid which gave large financial contributions in return for Fry agreeing to become a British agent: henceforth Fry had to add British servicemen to his list. Other consulates in Marseille donated passports under false names. Finally Fry benefitted from some help from unlikely sources. Some local gangsters were recruited to the cause but they were not always reliable. Despite the hostility of the American consulate Fry was at least able to rely on one member of its staff, Harry Bingham. Likewise in the police Fry had his active helpers.
Nevertheless in the Autumn of 1941 Fry was expelled from France. The offices in Marseille continued until June 1942 when they were closed by the police but even after that date its staff continued to distribute funds to those in need. Fry returned to America where he continued trying to help those trapped in Europe. The Washington Post  reported on a news conference he held in November 1941 in which he attacked American immigration policy as ‘stupid’. In December 1942, he wrote a piece in the New Republic entitled ‘the massacre of Jews in Europe’ in which he attempted to inform public and state alike of reports he had received about the fate of Jews in occupied Europe.

Fry was an increasingly isolated and bitter figure who had considerable difficulty coming back to terms with the American way of life. It was only much later that he received any recognition for his work when he became one of the few Americans to be nominated Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur by de Gaulle and the only American to be declared a ‘righteous among the nations’ by Israel. He died in 1967. In recent years interest in Fry has re-emerged. He is mentioned in the memoirs of many of those he saved, has been the subject of documentaries and scholarly accounts and a web-page is devoted to him .

This beautifully written text is a revised reissue of a publication of 1945 which has been out of print for a number of years. The strong criticisms of American immigration policy present in the text he wrote in 1942 were toned down in the 1945 publication but reappear here in this edition which includes both the forewords Fry wrote for it as well as a tribute from Warren Christopher and an afterword written by curators of the US Holocaust Memorial Museum. The text is highly readable and intelligent, extremely moving but, surprisingly given the harrowing nature of much of its content, sometimes very humorous. It would not look out of place on the reading list of any course dealing with the holocaust and given that it provides some excellent insights into wartime France it should be recommended reading for anyone interested in Vichy. Since it also contains information about a number of important cultural figures, both French and foreign, it will also be of interest concerned with cultural history. Any university library would be sadly impoverished without it.
 

Simon KITSON, University of Birmingham.