Varian Fry

VARIAN FRY

The forgotten hero who displayed extraordinary courage . . .

SUSAN M. LAPHAM

HISTORY OF THE HOLOCAUST

SPRING SEMESTER 2006

MARCH 23, 2006

Germany invaded Poland in 1939. When that occurred, France and England declared war on Germany. The fighting reached the borders of France in May 1940 when the German's attacked France out of the blue. Within weeks, the Germans had occupied Paris and the government surrendered. France was divided into two zones. The Germans took over the northern portion and the entire Atlantic coast. The French government kept control of the southern portion and Vichy.

Thousands of people fled southward. People thought that because France had always been considered liberal it would still be that way. They were sadly mistaken for the French and Germans had signed something called an armistice. Within that armistice, there was a pact called Article 19. This article stated that the French government in Vichy was required to surrender any German individual that the Nazis demanded. In English, that meant that any refugees fleeing from a country that Germany had control of (Czechoslovakia, Poland, and Austria)would be caught, returned to Germany, and most likely be sent to a concentration camp.

By this time, the news had reached the United States. New Yorkers were concerned over the fate of these people. A group called the Emergency Rescue Committee met in New York and raised money to help those caught in France. The money would help the people who were referred to as the Nazi's most wanted refugees. With the help of the Americans familiar with the current events in Germany and the Germans who were now in America, a list replicating those people in the gravest danger was put together.

Working desperately to get the United States to open their doors to these people the committee approached First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt for help. Unfortunately, the country was just emerging from an economic depression and strict limits on the number of refugees allowed in the country were set in place. Instead, President Roosevelt authorized a limited number of Visas to be passed out to the refugees in the hopes that a few lives could be saved.

Varian Fry, an American editor and writer who was a member of this committee, volunteered to go and bring back as many refugees as he could. He had no experience in relief work but those who did have experience never volunteered. He was 32 years old when he traveled to France on August 3, 1940, as the representative of the American Rescue Committee. With $3,000.00 in his pocket as well as the list depicting the names of 200 people in the most danger, he set out to accomplish what he volunteered to do. His purpose, for one month, was to distribute money, messages, and counsel to the people he met with.

When Varian arrived in France, he realized that the task at hand was a lot bigger than he had envisioned. He contacted people he knew and hired young Americans who were living in France at the time of the German invasion. The French regulations made it impossible to legally allow these refuges to travel back to the United States. Consequently, he established secret escape routes.

When Varian's hotel room could no longer hold any more refugees, he and his staff rented office space and a villa to live in. They established a rescue organization called Centre Americain de Secours (American Relief Center). This center served as the cover for their activities. During the day, they gave money to the refugees, helped find them places to stay, and contacted other relief organizations looking